A cityHUNT scavenger hunt turns an ordinary outing into an interactive team adventure.
We customize each experience around the group’s location, objectives, and preferences. The format combines a mobile app with face-to-face collaboration, giving coworkers opportunities to communicate, think creatively, and discover new things about one another.
So, how do scavenger hunts work at cityHUNT, and what makes its approach different from a traditional treasure hunt? Here’s how the experience comes together.
How Do Scavenger Hunts Work at cityHUNT?
Every cityHUNT experience starts with a conversation about the event. An Adventure Consultant discusses the client’s objectives, group size, preferred location, and budget, then presents suitable options.
Once the client confirms the experience, an Adventure Producer takes over the planning process. They discuss the group’s preferences, establish the event details, and develop challenges suited to the location and participants.
The process generally follows five stages:
- Discovery: The client discusses the event requirements with an Adventure Consultant.
- Proposal: cityHUNT presents options that can be refined to suit the group’s needs.
- Planning: An Adventure Producer coordinates the location, schedule, challenges, and other arrangements.
- Preparation: Participants receive the necessary instructions. Self-run events use a game code, while staffed events include on-site support.
- Event day: Teams launch the game, complete challenges, submit photos and videos, and compete for points.
Most experiences last between 1.5 and 3 hours, although the duration can be customized.
During the game, teams receive more challenges than they can reasonably complete within the available time. Each task carries a different point value, so participants must decide which activities to prioritize and how to use their time effectively.
This combination of problem-solving, strategy, and friendly competition makes a team-building scavenger hunt suitable for groups with different interests and abilities.
Why cityHUNT Replaced Physical Scavenging with Photo and Video Challenges
Traditional scavenger hunts often involve finding and collecting physical objects. That sounds simple until multiple teams start searching through the same public spaces.
According to cityHUNT founder Ben Hoffman, physical scavenging created problems early in the company’s development.
Participants sometimes took objects that weren’t supposed to be collected, moved items from their intended locations, or deliberately hid things to sabotage competing teams.
In a busy city, keeping track of physical objects is difficult. With several teams competing simultaneously, the format becomes even harder to manage.
cityHUNT gradually replaced physical scavenging with photo and video proof. The company initially used Polaroid cameras, moved to digital cameras as technology developed, and eventually incorporated submissions into its mobile app.
This change made challenges easier to manage while giving participants more creative freedom.
A photo scavenger hunt might ask teams to recreate a scene, pose with a landmark, interact with their surroundings, or capture a particular moment. Video challenges can involve short performances, demonstrations, and collaborative activities.
Instead of collecting objects, teams submit visual evidence that they’ve completed their tasks. The photos and videos also become memorable keepsakes from the event.
Scavenger Hunt vs. Treasure Hunt: Why the Format Matters
The terms scavenger hunt and treasure hunt are sometimes used interchangeably, but the games can work quite differently.
Traditional treasure hunts
A conventional treasure hunt follows a sequence of clues. Participants solve one clue, travel to the next location, and continue until they reach the final destination or discover the hidden treasure.
This works well for smaller recreational activities. However, it can create problems when several teams compete simultaneously.
If everyone follows the same sequence, the first team to solve a clue may lead the way for everyone else. Other participants can end up following the group ahead rather than solving problems independently.
cityHUNT’s scavenger hunt format
cityHUNT takes a different approach. Teams receive more challenges than they can complete within the time limit, with each activity carrying its own point value.
Participants must decide which tasks are worth attempting. One team might prioritize several shorter activities, while another chooses a more demanding challenge with a higher potential score.
This creates a strategic element that goes beyond reaching the next checkpoint first. Teams must evaluate their options, communicate, divide responsibilities, and adjust their plans as the game progresses.
For corporate team building, this format creates more opportunities for independent decision-making and genuine collaboration.
Clues Built for Every Kind of Thinker
A successful scavenger hunt for adults needs more than a collection of difficult puzzles. It should give people with different personalities and strengths opportunities to contribute.
Ben explains that cityHUNT deliberately incorporates challenges for different thinking styles, including math-oriented participants, puzzle enthusiasts, extroverts, and people who prefer observation and problem-solving.
Puzzles, Math, and Location-Based Clues
Some challenges involve calculations, interpreting clues, solving puzzles, or identifying details in the surrounding environment.
A location-based activity might require participants to explore a landmark, recognize an architectural feature, or discover something interesting about a neighborhood.
These challenges appeal to people who enjoy logical reasoning and observation, while encouraging teams to explore places they might otherwise overlook.
Performance Challenges and Team Tasks
Other activities involve creativity, interaction, and performance.
Teams might recreate a scene, perform a short activity, approach someone for assistance, or produce a funny photo or video. These challenges give outgoing participants opportunities to take the lead.
Collaborative tasks require a different approach. Participants must exchange ideas, coordinate their efforts, and contribute to a shared result.
The variety is intentional. Different challenges allow people to demonstrate strengths that might not be obvious during ordinary workplace activities.
Company-Themed Clues Are Optional
Some organizations want challenges that reflect their company culture, products, history, or internal traditions. Others prefer activities that have nothing to do with work.
Ben notes that some companies are increasingly wary of activities that feel too obviously corporate or forced.
cityHUNT accommodates both preferences. Company-specific clues can be incorporated when requested, but customization doesn’t have to revolve around the organization. Teams can simply enjoy exploring, competing, and working together.
One Phone Per Team: How the cityHUNT App Keeps People Connected
The cityHUNT app delivers challenges, records completed tasks, and tracks team progress. It also handles photo and video submissions and supports the leaderboard.
However, one detail of the company’s technology philosophy stands out: only one person per team needs to use a phone.
Ben’s reasoning is straightforward. The goal is to get participants interacting with one another, not spending the event looking at individual screens.
The designated phone user manages instructions and submissions, while everyone else concentrates on solving challenges, discussing answers, and deciding what to attempt next.
The app supports the experience through:
- Challenge instructions and progress tracking.
- Photo and video submissions.
- Point scoring and team leaderboards.
- Time management and challenge selection.
Features such as augmented reality can also add interactive elements to selected experiences.
The technology organizes the game, but the emphasis remains on face-to-face communication and teamwork.
Meet Your Adventure Producer
The Adventure Producer plays an important role in turning an event proposal into a customized experience.
After the initial arrangements, the producer connects with the client to understand the group’s objectives, preferred activities, location, and any special requirements.
Their knowledge of the selected area helps shape the route and challenges. For example, a group looking for an outdoor city scavenger hunt might prefer public landmarks and interactive activities, while another might need an indoor experience within a conference center.
The producer also coordinates practical details, including timing, starting points, ending locations, and venue arrangements.
Clients have flexibility when choosing where their event finishes. They can request a particular restaurant, hotel, office, or other destination instead of accepting a predetermined ending point.
This can make it easier to incorporate a scavenger hunt into a larger corporate outing, conference, or company celebration.
Where a cityHUNT Scavenger Hunt Can Happen
A cityHUNT experience doesn’t have to follow a standard downtown route. The company can build activities around different environments, depending on the group’s objectives and the location’s possibilities.
City Neighborhoods and Your Choice of Ending Location
A city scavenger hunt can take participants through recognizable neighborhoods, historic districts, public spaces, and local landmarks.
Teams might solve location-based puzzles, complete photo challenges, or interact with their surroundings.
Clients can also select their preferred ending location. This is useful when the hunt forms part of a larger event and participants need to finish somewhere specific for lunch, dinner, or another activity.
Museums, Zoos, Markets, and Train Stations
Public attractions and indoor venues offer other possibilities.
Ben has described experiences in museums, zoos, parks, markets, train stations, and large conference facilities.
Examples include Reading Terminal Market in Philadelphia, Chelsea Market in New York, Ponce City Market in Atlanta, Grand Central Terminal, and the Gaylord conference centers.
These environments offer opportunities for observation-based activities and location-specific clues.
A zoo scavenger hunt, for example, could encourage teams to explore exhibits and identify details, while a museum-based experience could incorporate displays and architectural features.
Indoor Scavenger Hunts for Bad Weather
Weather can make an outdoor route uncomfortable or impractical. Rain, extreme heat, or cold may require a last-minute change of plans.
cityHUNT can adapt an indoor scavenger hunt around a suitable building, conference center, resort, or hotel.
Ben recalls an occasion when bad weather forced the team to move an entire experience into a hotel lobby. The team developed a new hunt within that space, allowing participants to continue with the event.
How cityHUNT Makes Hunts Accessible
Event planning needs to account for participants who may not be able to follow the standard route.
cityHUNT can adjust the physical area covered by a hunt or offer a virtual team member arrangement for someone who cannot attend in person.
Condensed Routes for Limited Mobility
When mobility is a concern, the team can design a smaller, more concentrated route.
Instead of covering a large area, participants visit nearby locations, with opportunities to stop at restaurants, cafés, or bars along the way.
A typical hunt might involve approximately one mile of walking over two hours, although the route can be adjusted to suit the group’s requirements.
Virtual Team Members
Participants who cannot be physically present may also be able to join through a virtual team member arrangement.
A remote participant connects with their team online, submits answers, and completes selected challenges from their own location.
Ben describes this person as functioning like a team’s secret headquarters. While the rest of the group explores the physical environment, the remote participant can contribute ideas and help solve challenges.
This arrangement gives geographically separated coworkers and employees unable to attend in person an opportunity to participate.
Real Events, Real Curveballs
Even carefully planned events can encounter unexpected problems. Transportation delays, weather changes, and vendor issues can disrupt an event schedule.
cityHUNT has experienced situations where the team needed to rethink an event while participants were already waiting.
The Two-Hour Bus Delay
On one occasion, a charter bus carrying event participants arrived two hours late.
Rather than leaving the group with nothing to do, cityHUNT developed activities participants could complete on the bus using the app.
The team then had to rebuild the original on-location game in real time because participants had already completed much of the planned content during the journey.
The experience required quick decisions and considerable flexibility. It also highlighted an important planning consideration: charter buses need suitable, legal passenger drop-off locations. Overlooking transportation arrangements can create significant delays.
The Last-Minute Vendor Rescue
Another situation involved a company that had booked a scavenger hunt with a less expensive competitor.
Unfortunately, the vendor stopped responding before the event. With the scheduled date approaching, the client contacted cityHUNT, which managed to organize the experience at short notice.
Ben is candid that last-minute rescues aren’t always possible. His broader point is that clear communication and reliable event planning matter, particularly when choosing a provider.
What Teams Take Away From a cityHUNT
Points, puzzles, photos, and friendly competition provide the structure of the experience. The lasting value often comes from seeing coworkers interact in ways that ordinary workplace routines rarely allow.
Ben particularly enjoys hearing from participants who discover unexpected qualities in colleagues they’ve worked alongside for years.
One comment captures the experience: “I didn’t know how amazing Bob from Accounting was until today.”
Someone who rarely speaks during meetings might solve a difficult puzzle. A colleague from another department might develop an inventive solution to a performance challenge. Another participant might bring the group together when a task requires coordination.
These experiences encourage communication, help coworkers recognize one another’s strengths, and create shared memories that participants can revisit through their event photos and videos.
Plan Your Team-Building Scavenger Hunt with cityHUNT
A successful team-building scavenger hunt needs thoughtful planning, engaging challenges, suitable locations, and a format that gives everyone opportunities to participate.
cityHUNT combines customized game design, app-supported activities, and dedicated event planning to bring these elements together.
Whether your group prefers an outdoor city adventure, an indoor scavenger hunt, or an experience built around a particular venue, the company can develop an event around your requirements.
The first step is a conversation about your group, preferred location, and what you want participants to take away from the experience.
Ready to plan your next corporate scavenger hunt? Contact cityHUNT to discuss your event and explore the possibilities for your team.
