Looking for an awesome party idea that will get your guests active, help break the ice between new and old friends and just really make sure that everyone has a blast? These mystery scavenger hunt ideas should do the trick! You can do it as a stand-alone event or as a shorter party game, make it as simple or as grand as you want. It requires a little planning in advance, but even that part is fun!
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Mystery Scavenger Hunt Ideas
Neighborhood Scavenger Hunt
If you happen to live in a neighborhood where you know a lot of people, consider hosting a neighborhood scavenger hunt. This involves having your friends knock on neighbor’s doors to get the things on the list. Remember, items can be as simple as a bottle of water, the front page of the newspaper, a safety pin or a nickel. Your list doesn’t have to be complicated at all.
Road Trip Scavenger Hunt
Road trip scavenger hunts are a great way to pass the time, especially on long trips. A fun example of this is a license plate scavenger hunt. Award a prize to the first person who sees a license plate from each of the 50 states.
If that is a bit too easy for your squad, how about a more challenging road trip mystery scavenger hunt idea? Before you head out, make a list of things you might expect to see along the way, both in the car and out. Examples include a pine-scented air freshener in a public restroom, a car broken down on the side of the highway, kids fighting in the back of a family car.
Indoor Scavenger Hunt
An indoor scavenger hunt is a great option for a rainy day. Again, you can make it as complicated or as simple as you want. Just declare certain rooms off limits right away (you may not want guests tromping through your messy bedroom!). This is a perfect mystery scavenger hunt idea if you’re just doing it as a quick party game to pass a little time between the main events.
Scavenger Hunt Lists
Googling the term “scavenger hunt lists” will bring up tons of ideas and actual lists that you can print out and distribute to participants. This is particularly helpful if you’ve never hosted a scavenger hunt before and don’t really know what to add to the list of objects to find.
With this information at your disposal, it’s a great time to start planning a scavenger hunt of your own. Whether it’s for a birthday celebration or just something fun to do, you really can’t go wrong with this type of event.
Scavenger hunts are always a lot of fun. I can remember doing a lot of indoor scavenger hunts in the winter months when I was little. It always kept me occupied and I was never bored.
Oh gosh, kids LOVE scavenger hunts! I just incorporated a “word scavenger hunt” in my reading interventions and they are EATING it up! 🙂
We always used to do road trip scavenger hunts! We did license plates from different states, and license plates from different counties in our state.
We’ve done scavenger hunts on holidays for the kids to find their presents, and had so much fun. I can’t wait to plan some more.
I love the idea of a neighborhood scavenger hunt! The school I used to work at setup a classroom scavenger hunt where the kids had to go around the school to get their items.
A Scavenger hunt sounds like so much fun! I would love to plan one for my family once the weather warms up a bit.
A scavenger hunt sounds like so much fun! I would love to plan one for my family once the weather warms up a bit
This looks like fun! We used to do scavenger hunts across the town as teens.
Oh these ideas are so cool! I am going to remember some of them for my sons birthday!
These are such fun ideas for play dates -especially to keep the kids from uttering the “I’m so bored phrase”-nothing boring about a great indoor scavenger hunt!
bookmarked this article for future reference! this is very interesting!
Great ideas! My kids love scavenger hunt. We’ll try these ideas this weekend!
I think this activity can be very fun.
Scavenger hunts can open doorways to new friendships, as well as build on existing ones.
My cousins and I used to do scavenger hunts when we’d all spend weekends at our grandparents’ place. This post brings back a lot of nice childhood memories. 🙂
I love scavenger hunts. My kids are so competitive it actually gets really fun and funny. We will have to try these!
We love scavenger hunts, this would be such a fun idea to do with the family! I love that you shared this because I do believe getting out and having fun like this together as a family matters!
This is a great idea for my nephews, they get so bored when they’re inside too long or even for long car rides. I might even do the road trip one with my husband since our kids are too little lol!
I haven’t joined a scavenger hunt in a long time and my kids have never experienced it! I think it would be nice to prepare one for them. These are cool ideas!
I am pinning this post, need ideas for the tween/teen years that we have just entered.
We have four birthdays coming up in March and my oldest son’s wife has four in her family (same month). Maybe one big scavenger hunt would be a great way to celebrate.
I am in love with these mystery scavenger hunt ideas that could help make a party more vibrating with so much of fun all around. The indoor hunt during rainy or winter season could be very much interesting and kids would love it too!
Scavenger hunts are always fun! I think these are awesome ideas! It would be nice to try these with the kids!