Get Ready for Our Boston Scavenger Hunts
Whether you call Boston home or plan to visit, you’ll see an exciting new side of the city on our city scavenger hunts in Boston. You might solve a museum murder, discover hidden details along the Freedom Trail, or get up close and personal with sharks and octopi.
Intrigued? Here are hidden details and major highlights from five of our most popular city scavenger hunts in Boston.
Hole-y Moley
Join one of our Cambridge scavenger hunts for whirlwind tours of Cambridge and Harvard. As you investigate “fowl” play in Radcliffe Yard and pursue a poetic blacksmith, you’ll visit the famed Christ Church. Built in 1759, it’s the oldest church building in Cambridge. It also still wears a wound of war: Just inside the church, eagle eyes will spot a bullet hole (musket-ball hole?) left over from the days of the American Revolution.
Speaking of wartime leftovers, the pavement outside Harvard dormitories used to be riddled with dents and cracks from cannonballs. In 1776, the Continental Army occupied those dorms and then left some munitions behind. Returning students heated cannonballs in the fireplace to warm their dorm rooms, then chucked the cooled cannonballs out the windows in the morning. Look out below!
Yarrrr You Kidd-ing Me?
One of the most famous pirates in history did time in one stop on our Freedom Trail scavenger hunts. In 1699, the infamous Scottish buccaneer William Kidd trusted the wrong man and ended up imprisoned in the almost-as-infamous Boston Gaol. Built in 1635, it served as the town and county jailhouse for nearly 200 years—and horrendous conditions earned it such poor reviews as “hell upon earth.”
In 1700, Kidd was sent to London for trial, and in 1701 he was hanged. Legend has it that his body was returned to Boston and buried in King’s Chapel Burying Ground. But if you want to know more about that famous place’s restless dead, including the inspiration for a certain Scarlet Letter, you’ll have to go hunting with us!
Tanks for the Memories
Our New England Aquarium scavenger hunts offer unique aquatic adventure, but you can’t get around the highlight of the place: its four-story ocean tank. This immense, coral-filled attraction holds 200,000 gallons of water and teems with 1,000 animals, including turtles, eels, barracudas, and reef fishes. But did you know? The ocean tank is so big, it was constructed first and then the rest of the museum was built around it.
Petrified Pooch
Should you venture forth on a Back Bay scavenger hunt, you will inevitably explore Commonwealth Avenue, the tree-lined heart of the neighborhood. Successful hunters will find a very good detail indeed: a dog who took the command to “stay” rather literally. Modeled after a real-life Labrador retriever, the quirky canine is something of a local celebrity. But what remains forever just out of reach? Join us to find out.
Mad Science
Whether you love science or can’t tell a beaker from a burrito, you’ll find exajoules of excitement on our Museum of Science, Boston scavenger hunts. From dino droppings to mind-boggling illusions, this museum has something for everyone. And among all the science and history and weird experiments hides one tiny glass elephant. Why is it there? No one knows! Where is it lurking? Savvy scavenger hunters will search high and low for this mysterious pachyderm…
Find More Fun
Learn more about all our Boston scavenger hunts. Private groups can enjoy any hunt just about anytime, and select hunts are available to the public on weekends. Contact us to learn more and join the hunt.