Immersive Treasure Hunt Adventure - City of London's Secrets

Fantastic fun with teenage family, seeing parts of London you would normally not see.

It was a very enjoyable thing to do with teenagers and fantastic seeing parts of London you would otherwise not get to see. You can go at your own pace and find great places to stop for food and drink along the way, some of the cues take a bit of working out, but it’s a real fun thing to do.

Team Challenge Around London

Company challenge with 6 teams ploughing through London trying to answer clues. It was interesting to see some parts of London that are hidden away. Some of us did find the clues hard and others breezed it. Only recommendation is to have at least 4 people in your team. We also did this as part of our step challenge for the month so when we all did approx 18k in step that was very welcome too for our step results for the month.

Fun

A great way to see the city , learn history and do it at your own pace...built in breaks if you want them..clues were fun and made you think...but not so hard you wanted to give up or get frustrated. Several options in London to choose from based on your interests...their description is spot on in both timing and what to expect

Amaturistic planning

A lot of the streets were closed for planned construction, which the hunt should really account for. This really made the tour a bad experience.

Cracking starving.

Such a well conceived treasure hunt, one of the best I have done. It kept us busy for nearly three hours. The stops en route were perfect and it was great strolling around a part of the city I thought I knew well but learning new features and facts. I'll definitely use these oriole again.

A Fun Way to See the Sights!

A great way to see the city , learn history and do it at your own pace...built in breaks if you want them..clues were fun and made you think...but not so hard you wanted to give up or get frustrated. Several options in London to choose from based on your interests...their description is spot on in both timing and what to expect

Challenging experience

Great experience. I was expecting something easy but it was challenging! Very happy about that :) Took more than 2.5 hours to complete

Fun and awesome

Amazing time and fun hunting! Perfect clues and lots of interesting locations! Great experience if you dont like regular old boring tours!

A great outdoor day out!

We decided to try out CityDays (formerly The Secret City) after being left with a day in London to explore. Other Tripadvisor reviews and the price convinced us to give it a go and we weren’t left disappointed! We chose ‘The City’ as we thought this adventure would be the best place to start to explore London. It was easy to set up and we both received the instructions to our phones via WhatsApp with no issues. The trail clues were, for us, the perfect level of difficulty. Any easier and there would have been no sense of achievement and the entire experience would have been over very quickly; equally any harder and I think we might have had to use more of our HINT or LOST options! The clever stops at pubs and galleries were very welcome and it was smart that stopping at these places didn’t affect your overall time - you simply message when you’re ready to move on and the timer starts again. It took us 3 hours to complete the entire trail - we didn’t rush and took photos along the way. I can confidently recommend this service to everyone and we’ll certainly be getting lost in another city soon!

Dry and takes longer than advertised.

We were not able to complete in the time advertised. The facts given were written in a very dry manner and not especially interesting. We enjoyed it but I would not return to CityDays.

Great fun!

Excellent trail. Great way to see and learn about the city. Good fun working as a team to solve the clues!

Best treasure hunt ever

Great way to explore the unknown London. So many hidden gems, well worth it. So many secret gardens, ruins, tranquil place to enjoy.

Good fun but really difficult.

The quiz was really hard we did not finish it as my phone battery died. So good tip take a battery pack. Some hints were helpful. Would do it again with more than two people!

Great way to spend an afternoon!

Really good fun to be shared with friends and enjoyed the facts presented upon completing each stage!

Great for study abroad students

The Secret City has been a great activity for me to run for our students who come to study abroad in London. It's a great way to get them out and about their new city and learn some history while also seeing the sights! The team at TSC is excellent, very responsive and great customer service! I will definitely book again in the future and encourage our students to try their other London and UK locations.

Great way to see the City!

A group of us participated in the The Secret City Treasure Hunt & had a really great time. Everyone felt that it was a brilliant, fun & entertaining way to see parts of the City that we never knew existed. I would definitely do this again in another part of London & certainly recommend it to anyone who is interested in seeing the hidden bits of our great City!

Beautiful places to see, but rather simple clues.

Firstly, I love some of the secret locations we get to discover along the way, they're definitely memorable and I'll revisit them again. However, I have taken part in at least 3 other treasure hunts around London and this one, I thought was slightly more mediocre. I think there has to be a balance between being super cryptic, that you can't get anywhere (this has happened to me before) and then being too straightforward and feeling as if someone has swallowed a thesaurus. Another thing I'd like to mention, is the lack of prize/reward at the end. Previously, we've been giving a bottle of mead and bars of chocolate as a gesture... But for this one, we received a congratulations txt which felt slightly empty, like my hands. Overall, it is a lovely experience but I do feel I could have been challenged a bit more. Perhaps there could be ratings of difficulty for each setting and the consumer can review which level they might like to try.

Absolutely Fantastic

A brilliant, fun and interesting way to spend time with friends exploring a part of the city finding wonderful places you never knew existed and learning fascinating bits of history. A great time.

Fabulous way to explore

This was the second Secret City I completed with my son. I go to London reasonably regularly to see my him and his partner. Over time we have done the museums and traditional sites so was looking for something else. I came across these walks and we started with The Squares one and loved it so much that we booked this one too. The clues are not to difficult but make us think and the routes have taken us to areas we wouldn't have found or explored before. My son said it has taught him to look up as he is so often head down on his way to somewhere. My partner and I had a weekend in Edinburgh and did the walk there, which was fabulous and I have the Greenwich walk booked for my next trip to London. I can see that we will just keep booking, walking and learning. Fabulous way to spend the days and always lovely places to stop and get refreshments on the way. 5 stars!

Interesting and fun exploration around The City in London

A great experience! Really enjoyed exploring London and seeing all these new places we never knew existed even though we've lived in London 30years+!! It was a good level of challenge and we enjoyed being outside getting a bit of exercise after lots of eating 😁 We chose The City as we didnt want to go anywhere too busy and it was perfect. Thanks for creating such a fun experience. We will do it again when my family and I meet up again! 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

A really different day out, spotting things we'd never noticed!

*Positives* - The City Treasure Hunt was really good fun - it was great to try something a little different, and helped give our regular London meet-up day a structure. We were a team of 3 and, despite 2 of us now being Londoners (one of whom works in the City!) we walked streets we'd never walked, spotted features we'd never noticed, and stopped to look at things in more detail than we ever might have done otherwise. It genuinely gave us a renewed appreciation for our capital city, particularly for the number of green spaces there are! We happened to arrive at the Guildhall Museum and Galleries in time for a free 50 minute tour which was fascinating - again, we never knew it was there. *Feedback* - The clues are quite easy and family-friendly, we wondered if it might be worth offering 2 difficulty levels? Also, it may not work over message, but we'd have loved to read a historical/cultural 'tit-bit' for each location/feature we were invited to discover.

A great day out

Great socially distanced experience for all. Makes you really take notice of some of the things that make London special you would normally walk right past. Highly recommend for families/friends/couples.

Great walk around the city

We had a great time on the Treasure hunt. The clues were usually quite clear as long as you took a moment to read them properly before setting off. There are so many little places tucked away that even as londoners we had never seen before. We'll be going back for a better look in the future. (You get so involved with getting to the next clue, you don't always take in all of the information). All in all it was a really good experience which I would definitely recommend to friends. The suggested time of 4 hrs is about right but consider that you are walking all of the time. This could be problematic for those less mobile.

A great way to see the city

We had a great few hours on this trail, and it was perfect for our 9 year old who enjoyed solving the clues too. The messages were sent immediately via WhatsApp and everything worked really well. We know London really well but it took us to loads of places we’ve never really seen/noticed before. Next time we might try a more challenging one!

Great afternoon's fun!

We had a great afternoon strolling through the City of London, an area which we would not usually visit. Such a cool way to explore and it successfully held the interest of our two teenage boys! Would highly recommend 👌

scavenger hunt

the secret city team were excellent. We were unfortunately forced to cancel our booking less than week before. They were very helpful and provided a full refund. Hopefullt will get to rebook soon!

Fabulous way to spend time together

Thoroughly enjoyed the walking Treasure Hunt, the clues were well thought out and are suitably challenging for different age groups. We were a group of 10 ladies away for the weekend, our ages ranged from 22 to 70! Loved the fact it took us to places we didn't know existed. We saw a different side of London instead of the usual attractions. Enjoyed the fact that it allowed you to stop half way round for refreshments and that we ended up at a pub! Well worth the money a very big thank you to The Secret City we look forward to doing your other treasure hunts. Would highly recommend this to other and in fact have done....if the weather is good it makes for a lovely 3 hour leisurely stroll.

Excellent afternoon in London

Brilliant way to entertain the whole family! We wanted to spend some time outdoors (off the sofa!) and this was excellent. The clues were logical and the route was well done, showing us parts of the City that we pass by on a daily basis. Good fun.

Find places you didn't know existed

So, having worked in the City of London, I was intrigued as to where the trail would take us, and boy was I surprised. Starting at Cheapside, we went through parts of the city I never knew existed, hidden little parks and squares, and places I've walked past and never noticed. The route is well thought out, with easy to follow clues at just the right level of difficulty. We completed as two families with teenage children and everyone enjoyed the day. It's nice that you take things at your own pace, stop when you want and aren't carrying paper, maps, clues etc around with you - everything is done through WhatsApp, Telegram or text messages (we opted for WhatsApp) so all you need is a phone. We'll definitely being doing the other London Trail, and look forward to doing others as and when they come out. This was much cheaper than an escape room, still provided a fair challenge, was less than half of the price for a family and lasted nearly 4 times as long (OK, so we weren't the fastest) !

A great way to discover the City!

The perfect way to discover the City and it's hidden gems. The course is challenging but well thought through. We discovered facts and sights that in my year of living here I have not yet seen! An absolutely fantastic way to spend your day and well worth the fee!

Great Fun, See new parts of the City

What a great day! We wanted to get out with our teenage son, get some fresh air and see some sites. We got all this and more from the treasure hunt. Saw some fantastic sites, solved the clues and it kept our son interested and out of the house!! Will definitely be doing more of these, what a brilliant way to spend time with my family in our great city!

The Secret City London

We have been to London a few times now over the years but doing the "Treasure Hunt" opened up so many interesting things to see that you would never have noticed or never come across. Excellent fun day out for all ages. Highly recommend .

Fantastic Fun Day Out

This is an absolutely fantastic way of spending a fun morning or afternoon around London and doing something you wouldn't normally do. I found this by chance and was so glad I did. It was a last minute booking for a day out with a teenager and i thought it would be a fantastic way of also seeing The City on a Sunday when it's quieter. I wasn't sure if i booked it on the website i could do it on the same day - but you can!!! There's a number on the website so you can Whatsapp someone which i did, just to make sure. Tom replied and he was brilliant - Organisers were brilliant - responding to my messages straightaway and keeping in touch to make sure we were okay while we were on the hunt too. It's really fun, the clues are brilliant, it makes you really think about everything you can see and pass while you walk.x I'm definitely going to do this again, but probably one of the other hunts. I only have one piece of advice though - there are two options of how to receive the clues - you can download an app called Telegram or receive text messages. I would say do it via text. I did the App but it drained my battery. However using the app it means you can add the other groups members so you can all get the clues. But i think if you do it by text only one of you gets the messages. And if you get stuck you can text back and ask for a clue. This is a really well thought out activity and obviously quite unique as well - thoroughly enjoyed it and would definitely recommend it.

Fun way to see the City of London

Five of us did the City of London trail as a bit of fun and see some places we hadn’t seen before at the same time. Despite us getting the first clue wrong (too eager and didn’t read properly) the clues are relatively easy. Highly recommend

So fun! Solve clues to explore

LOVED THIS! Similar to escape rooms but outdoors. We saw loads of places we wouldn’t have seen without doing the treasure trail. So many interesting spots and snickets to see by solving clues! Can’t wait to try out the others - Thanks!

Great way to see a hidden parts of a city

I’ve been living in London for about a year and this is a great way to find places off the beaten track. Played with two friends and got lost a couple of time but that’s half the fun. Would do it again! Really hope they make one for Bristol and hopefully there will be more routes round London too! Highly recommend especially if you’re secretly competitive.

Sjov og legende måde at se York på

Rigtig sjov og spændende måde at blive ledt gennem York på. Du skal opklare en mordgåde og skal i den forbindelse svare på 19 spørgsmål. Vi brugte 3 timer med et kort pitstop. Har I mere tid kan I indlægge både spisepause og en kaffepause undervejs. Det er tænkt ind i konceptet. Er en skøn måde at få teenagere aktiveret på ✌️