Treasure Hunts – A Fun Day Out
If you’re looking for something really great to do, treasure hunts literally tick all the boxes:
Fun : Check
Educational : check
Outdoors : check
Scenic : check
Cheap & cheerful : check
How the Treasure Trails Company Started
What started out as one treasure hunt being written around the founder’s home town in Cornwall for a charity event, has become a nationwide business with well over 1,000,000 people within the UK having now done one of their trails. It’s not just treasure hunts either; you can solve a murder mystery, or even become a spy for the day.
Oxford City Centre Murder Mystery Trail
We chose to do the murder mystery trail around Oxford City Centre, and our paperwork told us that a highly respected academic had been murdered, found slumped in his laboratory just days before he was due to announce his miracle findings for reversing the ageing process. Oxford’s finest detectives were stumped, which meant that we had to help them work out who committed the crime and what the murder weapon was!
Challenge accepted.
We were given 21 clues in total, and each one would discount a suspect or a murder weapon (if we got it right of course). The clues led us around the city of Oxford on foot, gazing like lunatics at walls and random pieces of architecture until we could figure out the solutions.
The clues were a really good mix. Some of them were super easy, giving us a false sense of security, while others were quite challenging. My favourite (not) was one which led me stare at a bit of pavement for approximately 30 minutes! I did get a few strange looks from passers by, that’s for sure.
Along the way you also get little interesting facts thrown in. For example, I never knew that the Bridge of Sighs in Oxford was so similar to the famous bridge in Venice. If I’m really honest, I never knew the Bridge of Sighs actually existed until I did the trail. It’s beautiful.
The Bodleian Library is another fascinating point to stop. And did you know that to this day, upon joining the Oxford University, every member has to swear an oath stating that they wont light a fire inside the library!! Incredible.
And then there’s this:
Until 1996 Oxford Castle was used as a prison, but now you can actually choose to stay there as a hotel! Thats definitely one for the list.
So what else do you need to know?
How Do You Do a Trail?
All you need to do is pick your trail from the website, download your clue booklet for the minuscule price of £6.99 and off you go. And even if you’re rubbish at solving clues, there’s an SMS helpline if you get stuck.
It’s possibly the best £6.99 I’ve ever spent.
For more info, check out the Treasure Trails website.
For more ideas for fun things to do, check out my Stay page on the blog.
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