Dare to Dream
We run thousands of scavenger hunts around the country in world-famous traditional museums—the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Getty Center, for example—as well as in quirkier spots like Seattle’s Museum of Pop Culture and New York’s museum-in-an-aircraft-carrier, the Intrepid. But we’re always reaching for new and different spots to explore, including some truly unusual places. These five unique museums are some dream destinations to host scavenger hunts.
A Pawsome Place to Play
The American Kennel Club Museum of the Dog returned to New York City this year after 32 years in Missouri, and we love it to (kibble and) bits. The museum features likely the largest collection of dog-related art in the world. That including paintings, sculptures, and figurines by famous dog artists—which sadly are people who made art of dogs, not artists who are dogs. You’ll also find various interactive exhibits, including the Molly, a digital Labrador pup you can play with. Dog-lovers’ scavenger hunt, anyone? (Image courtesy of the Museum of the Dog)
Kind of a Tight Fit
If you’re looking for the polar opposite of the grand, spacious halls of your typical museum, you’ll find it in an alley in the Tribeca neighborhood of New York. That’s where one man has set up Mmuseumm, a museum with a diverse collection of very small objects and a couple of spare M’s in its name. The catch? The entire thing fits in an elevator! We’d have to be dreaming to think we could squeeze a scavenger hunt into a museum the size of a freight elevator…but at least you wouldn’t have to look too far to find stuff.
Wrap Your Noodle Around This One
Welcome to the CupNoodles Museum in Yokohama, Japan. It’s four stories of exhibits dedicated to the delicious sodium bomb that is a cup full of instant ramen. See a replica of the shack where instant noodles were invented! Make your own chicken ramen by hand! Eat a lot of noodles! On second thought, maybe we don’t want to run a scavenger hunt here. Maybe we’re just hungry…
Oh, Gross!
As popular as our murder mystery hunts are, it’s time to take things to the next level…at the Torture Museum! Visit lovely Amsterdam for its picturesque canals, herbal remedies, and dozens and dozens of horrifying torture devices from the Middle Ages. On this imaginary scavenger hunt, you’ll learn the fascinating facts and inventive uses behind such artifacts as the Skullcracker, the Judas Cradle, and the Sling, as well as plain old awful gravity. Fun for the whole family.
Forget the Bermuda Triangle
Far, far weirder is Spain’s Dalinian Triangle. Spanning the province of Catalonia are three sites dedicated to one of its most famous sons: Salvador Dalí. Making up the triangle are the Dalí Theatre-Museum in Figueres (that’s it above), Dalí’s house in the seaside town of Port Lligat, and the Castle of Púbol, which he bought for his wife. Any one of these spots would make for a dreamy scavenger hunt, especially considering the surreal subject material—but how about a multi-day scavenger hunt across the Spanish countryside? ¡Sí, por favor!