Interactive Treasure Hunt Experience - Central London's Secrets

Fun day out to explore London (even if you think you know it inside out!)

Me and my best friend both were born & grew up in London and the Secret of the Squares treasure hunt gave us an opportunity to explore the city we knew so well in a different way and learn & see new things on the way! London almost felt like a different city during this hunt with how much more we were noticing around us and learning about what we were passing! It was so much fun, and the perfect level of difficulty for brain scratching & enjoyment! We highly recommend!

An afternoon of clues

We’ve had such a great time doing this treasure hunt! It took us an hour longer than suggested because we were off course on a few occasions! We’ve seen things we wouldn’t have seen unless we were looking for them…usually walk right by without looking. I’d definitely recommend it to anyone who wants to see more.

100% recommend doing this!!

This was a really lovely way to explore a city I thought I knew quite well! The treasure hunt makes you look around and really pay attention to details you'd otherwise miss, and it was a completely different way of wandering through London. It's a combination of thinking outside the box and spotting small details, so going with a few people probably works best because you can combine different ways of thinking. There were two of us, and the treasure hunt took us about 1h45 without rushing at any point. The break was planned for exactly the right time so we could re-energise for the second half. We're planning on doing a couple more of these because it's a great way to spend a couple of hours walking around and learning fun facts, and it's a fantastic alternative to classic guided city tours!

A fun way to explore London

The trip was challenging enough to be fun but not frustratingly difficult. It was fun to follow, and we found all sorts of interesting places I'd never known about before. I did this with my teenage son who loved it. My only suggestion for improvement would be a leaderboard so you could see where you ranked against others who had done it in the past.

Great tour

Really enjoyed this experience. Exploring a city I thought I knew, discovering new places and famous people past and present.

Great fun and unique sights

We had a blast trying to figure out clever clues that once you realised what they were pointing to, were an eclectic mix of interest and quirk. We often go into London for a day out and have never seen or noticed the places we discovered. It was a bit long for a ten year old with us but the 2 adults loved every minute! Lunch at the half way point was well worth it:-)

Great day out.

Fascinating journey through parts of London that you would never see if you stayed on the main roads. There are old narrow lanes, old pubs and lots of history to learn all easy to access and easy walking around to find the clues. Good value

Very enjoyable activity

Well worth doing, discover areas you wouldn't otherwise go to. Just remember that if your answers don't send straight away...wait! Getting a second person to send them gets them out of sync and can result in time penalties for wrong answers!

take your time :)

I did the search just by myself. And I have a split opinion about it. It was partly a lot of fun, but I found the "getting a 10-minute-penelty for asking for advice" very depressing. I felt put back into school although I just wanted to have fun! Maybe you could ask in advance if the group wants to participate in the race. And then stop sending those annoying text with "you can ask for help, BUT you will get a penalty!" Then also the focus would change from finding the right street to learning things about London ;) Last advice: If you do the tour in December, wear multiple pants, socks and jumpers, gloves, hat,..... I really needed the breaks, because it was quite chill and for the first 8 clues I took 4 hours :D

Great time was had by the whole group

Found places we did not know existed. Great locations for a rest / pint. The clues really made us look at our surroundings.

Lovely day out

We had a wonderful day exploring London, fantastic afternoon on the treasure hunt, can’t wait to do another!

How to learn about hidden gems in London and have fun doing it.

If you want a really fun and challenging way to see parts of the city of London that you never even knew existed, then this is the perfect activity for you and your group. While a little knowledge of London is definitely helpful, it is not necessarily required. I would recommend booking some scooters or bikes to get around. Most treks between clues aren't too long, but if it's warm out, there is quite a bit of walking on pavement, so a very good comfortable pair of shoes is an absolute must. My wife and I have been to London once before, and she has done many more tours than I have, but we were able to work our way through the clues and find the answers without too much trouble. If you're a fan of word puzzles or escape rooms, you will likely enjoy this little adventure. We took a good number of breaks, as our feet and knees were suffering from the walking, so a decent team, with good shoes and healthy knees and backs should be able to accomplish this within 2 - 3 hours, without issue, while still leaving time to look around a bit. If you want to be surprised by London, this is how to do it.

Good idea but we couldn’t finish it, need to manage customer expectations better

The concept behind this experience is interesting, however the execution details still need some refinement to manage expectations. I was very excited to do this with a friend and we enjoyed it at the beginning, besides having to wait 20min for support help (website says we should hear back in seconds) as we couldn’t get the clues in both devices. We still managed to get started by ourselves but soon realised the whole trail was going to take way longer than what we thought. We allocated 3.5h for this (again, following the website advice) but were only able to get through half of it in that time. The clues can be a bit difficult so we weren’t the quickest whilst we tried before asking for new clues, and as we had a dinner reservation afterwards it was soon obvious that we were not going to be able to complete it on time. Gutted we didn’t make it to seven dials and soho, as I feel that would’ve been the best part of the trail and the reason why I chose it in the first place… Overall a bit disappointed given I paid quite a lot of money for something that we couldn’t fully enjoy given support and time constraints, but did like the idea of it. It would’ve been worth the money if we would’ve been able to actually finish it, but for what we got I do regret spending the full £30 sadly. My advice would be to manage customer expectations better and recommend treating this as a whole day activity instead!

Great for student groups!

We organised this scavenger hunt for a group of visiting university students. It was a great way to get students to bond, demonstrate their strengths, and see new, hidden corners of the city.

Well designed and amusing

We very enjoyed this treasure hunt. Sometimes a bit confusing but overall very nice, amusing and well set up.

A perfect way to explore London

Me and my girlfriend were looking for a way to explore parts of London in a more exciting and playful way. As you progress through the story of the trail, you learn to check out every little detail of your surroundings in search for clues. The story was well written and the team of Secret City was more than supportive when we had some minor issues starting off. We recommend this trail to everyone who would like to explore the city in a different and exciting way. We’re sure to do one of the other Secret City trails when we’re in London again.

Bad weather couldn't spoil the fun!

5 teams of mixed ages (from 8 to mid-60s) took part leaving 10 mins apart so as to try to not stumble upon each other (i.e. not have the potentially faster teams hit the slower teams). We needn't have worried, the team finish times did not go down as we expected. Following clues around the West End, down pathways never previously ventured was so much fun. We had a brilliant time exploring and adding tech (WhatsApp messages) into the mix rather than paper gave the teenagers something a bit more fun to get into. No complaints from any of them which is amazing. Well done TheSecret.City!

Too hard and not fun

This was so tricky! We’ve done lots of treasure trails in the past, but this was like cracking the Di Vinci code - but harder. Clues was so obscure that we struggled and therefore didn’t find it that enjoyable. It was meant to be fun but didn’t feel that way.

Nice walk

Probably a good activity if you are new to London and are reasonably fit, we gave up mid way tbh purely as our feet couldn't take us further and the teenagers had enough. The clues are quite easy but you really don't need to purchase it for every person in your party unless each person wants the same clues to each phone which is a waste. We didn't feel we discovered anything new as we know London well. All in all, its a nice walk through the centre of London.

Great time, didn’t finish due to the heat

We had a lovely time doing this trail, we just picked the hottest day of the year and so got too hot and burnt to continue past halfway!

Excellent!

Really excellent trail round London - taught me so much about Piccadilly Circus, totally changed my view of how beautiful London is! And so much interesting history. Will definitely be returning.

Super fun experience

Fantastic experience and a great way to see the city, especially at the moment! We had a brilliant time exploring. Everything worked really well and when we had a question that needs resolving the team were brilliant, so quick to come back to us. Highly recommend this for locals and tourists alike!

Great Experience

great experience!!! even during covid restrictions able to have so much fun safely! learn so many hidden things about your own city! looking forward to book the next one already!!!

Great day out!

This was great day out for my friends birthday! We didn't know what to expect, bu none of us were left disappointed. It's something unique and interesting to do and makes you pay attention to things that you would be have been seemingly unaware of. It's a good time to do it now whilst the London streets are less rammed and the Christmas lights are on too!

Really entertaining

Really enjoyable experience and a great way to explore the hidden corners of London. Would recommend for something different to do!

Brilliant treasure hunt

This was a great experience that was fun to do. We also learnt a lot about this part of London and were able to take stock and look at things we often rush past and never truly see. Would highly recommend it. The suggested pub breaks were great as well!

Excellent way to discover hidden treasures in London!

Can’t recommend this enough! The clues were just right, challenging enough but not so tricky you couldn’t follow, just brilliant, can’t wait to do another one!

Very enjoyable and quite challenging!

We completed this experience as a family of four and really enjoyed the afternoons adventure. The clues made us think and we had to use our logic to work our way around the back streets of central London. In following the trail we really did find some secret places that we have never chanced upon before which made the experience a real treat. Will definitely book up another trail as found the whole process enjoyable. Also the team seem really friendly and responsive to any queries regarding booking the trail.

Great Fun

A brilliant way to spend an afternoon seeing London. Everyone could join in on all levels and ages. Teenagers loved it . We saw things in London we wouldn't have seen without the clues.The company are friendly and efficient to deal with. Definitely would recommend.

Quality time

Did the Picadilly London one with my husband and adult son. What a great way to spend a couple of hours coming across places we would have not known about. Had to say to a couple of friendly people who asked if we were lost but said we were doing a puzzle. Would recommend to others. Cheers

The London you'll miss

This is such a good way to explore London. We spent 4 hrs on this trail as we stopped for a drink on route and we absolutely loved it the whole experience. We know that part of London well but on this trail, we saw alleyways, details and building elements that we would have never seen. Just the right level of mental challenge to be fun! Thoroughly recommend it and I'm looking forward to the next.

Fun and challenging

Thoroughly enjoyed the Secret City Trail. It was detailed, intricate and well designed. We had fun seeing the hidden landmarks of London which you normally wouldn't notice. The clues were challenging but pitched at the right level of difficulty. Would definitely recommend.

A highly recommended day out

We thoroughly enjoyed our day out exploring places we didn't know existed. The cryptic clues added a fun challenge at just the right level of difficulty. Pub stops were a nice break too, it felt like we'd earned them! Can't wait to do more.

Excellent!

Chose this company as the hunts looked good. Liked the idea of a game with a flexible start time. They are setup to play using Telegram and without a UK phone number. I had an issue with the setup and they quickly sorted it out via FB messenger. The game itself is challenging but not too hard. We made it thru without a hint on under 3 hours and were decently challenged in a few clues. Works its way thru central London and makes you take note of things that may otherwise be missed. We followed our steps in reverse to enjoy after the game. Go for it!

Perfect way to see central London

Couldn’t recommend any more. It was my first hidden trail and loved it! A great way to see some hidden history (and hidden pubs). Took us 2.5 hours. Can’t wait to try the other trail!

Échec total

Ça n’a jamais marché. Nous n’avons jamais reçu le sms, l’assistance n’a pas fonctionné et le voyagiste ne nous a pas répondu du, nous avons attendu toute la journée.