As I was researching things to do for Christina’s birthday activity I came across Hidden City, a quasi treasure hunt across London. I thought this would be a fun way to spend the day so recruited a couple of treasure hunters, including the birthday girl, and signed us up for the Cryptic Covent Caper hunt which described itself as ‘a moderately cryptic challenge to test your skills around Covent Garden and the West End. Ten clues ending at a friendly pub.’ Based on this description, and at a medium level of difficulty it sounded ideal!
The way hidden city works is that you pick your hunt, sign up and give them a primary phone number to contact. You then have 29 days in which you can start your hunt. Once you text ‘start’ to the number they give you they text you the first clue. Once you have solved the clues you text them the answer and they send the next clue. Simple! BUT be warned if you get a clue wrong you get a 10 minute forfeit. The idea is to finish the hunt in the shortest time. They even direct you to a lunch spot and give you a one hour break to eat. They truly have thought of everything!
During the hunt we got fairly competitive, keeping a keen eye on the on-line leader board which shows you the finishing times of all the other groups of people doing your route on the same day.
I couldn't possibly tell you more about the clues or specific locations we visited as that would ruin the fun when you sign up to it yourselves but I can tell you that the hunt took us on a wonderful route from Southbank, around the West End and Covent Garden.
It was a beautiful autumn day so we got to see London at its best…
…and see some tourist spots along the way!
The trail, as promised, ended at a lovely pub (again you’ll have
to find out which one for yourselves) and, feeling quite tired by this point, we
treated ourselves to a well earned drink! We checked the leader board and unfortunately were no where near the top as we were foiled by a couple of clues!
The way hidden city works is that you pick your hunt, sign up and give them a primary phone number to contact. You then have 29 days in which you can start your hunt. Once you text ‘start’ to the number they give you they text you the first clue. Once you have solved the clues you text them the answer and they send the next clue. Simple! BUT be warned if you get a clue wrong you get a 10 minute forfeit. The idea is to finish the hunt in the shortest time. They even direct you to a lunch spot and give you a one hour break to eat. They truly have thought of everything!
So, armed with our phone and thinking caps, we set off from the BFI on Southbank.
During the hunt we got fairly competitive, keeping a keen eye on the on-line leader board which shows you the finishing times of all the other groups of people doing your route on the same day.
It was a beautiful autumn day so we got to see London at its best…
This particular hunt was perfect for medium term Londoners like us. If you are new to
London I would definitely recommend taking an A-Z.
At £16 per team this is a bargain day out and a lot of fun!
