The hunt was good. Although at times was a bit too difficult to understand. But it away a great way to see different parts of London with a friend catching up
About Activity
What's Included
Includes
- Race the clock to beat other teams, or take as long as you like!
- A treasure hunt-style experience
Excludes
- Optional breaks in pubs/cafes
Departure & Return
Departure Point
- IMPORTANT: Please follow these instructions: 1 - Fill in the form 2 - Login 3 - Setup your team ready for your experience 4 - Receive welcome message to your phone For help, contact us
Return
- IMPORTANT: Please follow these instructions: 1 - Fill in the form 2 - Login 3 - Setup your team ready for your experience 4 - Receive welcome message to your phone For help, contact us
Itinerary
A cryptic trail through the central districts of London. Available to play at anytime without start time restrictions. Gather your team and get exploring; start in the bustling Piccadilly Circus and work your way East. Work together to solve the clues, unlock the path and discover hidden parts of London. Halfway you can enjoy an amazing tucked away tavern near Covent Garden (a former haunt of Dickens!). Warm up and get refreshed before you head back out to conquer your quest. Sneak onward through Seven Dials as you make your way to the heart of Soho. Complete the trail to uncover another top notch pub where you can kick back and relax. Distance: 4.5 km Difficulty: 3 / 5 Avg Duration: 2.5 - 3.5 hours Number of clues: 15 How it works: Each clue, sent to your mobile phone, leads you to a new location within walking distance. Solve the clue and search for the answer, reply with the correct answer to unlock the next step. Hints are available if you need a helping hand and you can also receive messages if you're lost. Have a competitive streak? Your progress is timed and ranked on our leader board, time to challenge your friends!
Language Offered
Additional Info
Cancellation Policy
Reviews
Excellent, we are 2 friends - know London well and wanted to do something a bit different. This is it. I found places I didn’t know existed and I thought I knew London well! We loved that everything came to both phones so we were both fully involved.
Fantastic time. Great fun. Wonderful way to get round and see sights of London and discover unknown facts
Great time, and lovely way to spend fun time with wider family. Saw parts of London that we had not visited recently, good clues. Only feedback may be to start teams off at different points
A wonderful way to encourage people to look below the busy surface of the city and dust off your Thinking Caps for a little while when on vacation. The clues were quite tricky and towards the end we had to switch to the easier versions because the persistent crowds in this area of busy London had exhausted us a bit. The “easier” clues still made us think quite a bit, so it would’ve still been a wonderful experience had we started on those! I think we would’ve enjoyed this more on a weekday afternoon and had we just slowed down and taken our time to enjoy the areas around the clues a bit more. But it was also a great introduction to the neighborhoods and gave us some good ideas of places that we came back to later in our trip to explore a bit further and enjoy at a more leisurely pace! Highly recommend.
This was such a good day out, we really enjoyed the clues, which were quite tricky at times! We found out loads of interesting info about London and saw some places we’d never have stumbled upon. Would highly recommend.
Great treasure hunt, really enjoyed looking for the answers to the clues. Saw some amazing places through alleys and yards that we'd never seen before. Unfortunately the Trafalgar Square one we were unable to answer as they are doing some building work there atm (but we did have a few wrong guesses at it!) Great way to explore London and learn lots of stuff. Recommended.
Dreadful experience. Took 3 hours to get the app working. Too few instructions, confusing clues, gave up and abandoned it.
We saw some beautiful parts of London we didn't even know existed. Our 11yr old was a bit bored but to be honest she's always "bored". It was beautifully organised.
I never got the link to start; customer service ignored my chats, email bounced back undeliverable, and phone call was not answered- there was a recording saying to email for assistance. If I could give zero stars I would.
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!
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.
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!
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.
Really enjoyed this experience. Exploring a city I thought I knew, discovering new places and famous people past and present.
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:-)
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
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!
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
Found places we did not know existed. Great locations for a rest / pint. The clues really made us look at our surroundings.
We had a wonderful day exploring London, fantastic afternoon on the treasure hunt, can’t wait to do another!
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.
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!
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.
We very enjoyed this treasure hunt. Sometimes a bit confusing but overall very nice, amusing and well set up.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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!
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.
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!!! 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!!!
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 enjoyable experience and a great way to explore the hidden corners of London. Would recommend for something different to do!
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!
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!
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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!
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!
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.
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