The next kid's birthday party or family celebration is coming up. Of course, you want to offer your loved ones something unforgettable, especially for the young guests. What can be more unforgettable and especially more personal than a scavenger hunt organized by yourself in your own backyard or garden lot?
With these 7 tips, your backyard scavenger hunt will be a success and make the entire day a (family) experience that everyone will talk about for years to come.
Take a look at your garden: How big is it? Is it winding or rather open? Are there garden sheds or trees that could be used as special stations? Are there any areas that should not be walked on (flower beds) or that could pose a danger (garden pond)?
Be clear: What age group do you want to serve? Are you developing your scavenger hunt for children (preschool / elementary school age / 5th-7th grade) or adults or both? Are there participants with physical or mental disabilities? Might it make sense to form multiple teams? 5 participants per team is a proven standard size.
Tip 1 and 2 finally lead us to tip 3: Twisted, unmowed gardens with a large area lend themselves to scavenger hunts with hiding places. For smaller gardens and few participants, it can make sense to offer only a few, clearly identifiable stations, with each station completing several tasks.
The older your participants are, the more complex you can make the scavenger hunt in the garden, for example with stations that build on each other: Only those who successfully complete puzzle A can find puzzle B, or the individual stations only lead to partial solutions that only add up to a big picture at the end.
For younger participants, you must personally accompany each station to provide assistance. Older participants can be left to their own devices with tricky puzzles. What has proven itself for all ages: Put the garden scavenger hunt under a theme! For a children's birthday party, a pirate scavenger hunt is a good idea, or a scavenger hunt based around a children's film that is currently in fashion. For a wedding anniversary, you can entertain the participants at each station with special features from the married life of the celebrated couple.
Make sure to alternate puzzle tasks with stations where participants can let off steam physically. This keeps attention span and motivation up until the last task - the highlight of your garden scavenger hunt!
If you have more than one team, a competition provides special fun. However, a competition for speed can only be implemented in large gardens. In smaller gardens, you can award performance points or even have two teams compete directly against each other. This makes the city rally in the garden particularly exciting for you, too - after all, you act as the referee!
The classic season for backyard scavenger hunts is from Easter Sunday through the start of the new school year. But why not have the participants wrapped up warmly and make the snowy garden uneasy? Keep in mind, however, that you don't want the duration to be too long. A maximum limit of two hours should not be exceeded. Since there's no guarantee of good weather, even in summer, set up your backyard city rally so that it can be cut short or canceled at any time without the game feeling unfinished. In any case, have an alternative game up your sleeve in case you need to move the event indoors.
If you're designing your backyard scavenger hunt for kids, prizes are the icing on the cake. But adults can also be motivated by prizes to plow through your garden. Make sure that each participant really does receive a small goodie and that the (perceived) value corresponds to the performance achieved. In this way, you give each participant a very personal sense of achievement and prevent the perception of unfair treatment.
You don't have to do everything yourself. Get help! In collecting ideas, developing puzzles and carrying them out on site. Feel free to ask a child to join you in giving the others a special experience. By doing so, you'll conjure up a sparkle in the child's eyes long before the actual treasure hunt in the garden.
The scavenger hunt in the garden is over. Now be sure to get opinions from the participants: What did they like, what not so much? The praise of the participants is your reward, don't miss it. And constructive comments will make it even better: It' s your next garden scavenger hunt!
Equipped with the above information, you have already taken a big step towards creating your scavenger hunt in the garden. However, you will have noticed that there are many things to consider and that developing your scavenger hunt takes a lot of time. There is also the question of whether the participants will like their scavenger hunt puzzles in the end. Therefore, it is worth considering whether you want to plan and organize the scavenger hunt yourself or whether you would prefer to use a tried and tested concept. In the following table, we compare the advantages and disadvantages of both options.
| Organize yourself Pros & cons self-organization |
Book tickets Pros & cons ticket booking |
| Very time consuming | Simple booking |
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| Paper only | Intuitive web application |
| Free of charge (except material costs) | Not free of charge |
| Customizable | Not customizable |
During a scavenger hunt in the garden, it is a good idea to include the native plants and animals: For example, you can ask to which tree species the tallest tree in the garden belongs. Scavenger hunt tasks in which the next clue is hidden in a knothole, for example, also go well with a scavenger hunt in the garden.
It is not so difficult to organize a scavenger hunt in the garden itself. First, think of a route. Then you should think of tasks and plan the sequence of events in detail. Also think about what winning prizes fit the scavenger hunt in the garden.
Scavenger Hunt
Treasure Hunt
Escape Game
