Families and couples looking for something different to do on a UK city break can now swap the usual sightseeing list for a self-guided treasure hunt with Mystery Guides.
Each adventure comes as a 40 to 44 page full-colour guidebook, combining a walking tour, an outdoor escape room and a fictional mystery story. Players follow a route of around two miles through a city, solving puzzles built around real landmarks, buildings and overlooked local history along the way.
There’s no tour guide, no group of strangers to keep pace with, and no need to book ahead or arrive at a set time. Once players have their guide, they simply head to the starting point and begin whenever suits them, leaving room for coffee stops, lunch, shopping or an interesting diversion along the route.
A Different Way to Explore, Near or Far
The adventures work just as well for locals as for visitors. Since clues are built around permanent historic features, a Mystery Guide can turn even a familiar city into somewhere worth looking at again, drawing attention to plaques, statues and details that are easy to walk past without noticing.
Mystery Guides is currently available in a growing list of UK destinations, including London, York, Edinburgh, Manchester, Bath, Brighton, Liverpool, Oxford, Cambridge, Cardiff, Glasgow, Newcastle, Birmingham, Bristol, Windsor, Lincoln and Hull. Each city has its own story, from The Mystery of the Gunpowder Snitch in York to The Mystery of the Great Coin Robbery in London and The Mystery of Robin Hood’s Secret Stash in Nottingham.
An adventure typically takes around three hours, including a drinks stop, though there’s nothing stopping players from turning it into a full day out. No additional attraction tickets are needed, as the routes don’t require entry to paid locations.
The adventures are designed primarily for adults, though families can take part together, with children aged around eight and above able to help navigate and solve clues. Mystery Guides recommends one guide between every two or three players.
Founder Jack Wells, who studied history, launched Mystery Guides from his spare room in 2019, researching local history and mapping routes to build the first adventure from scratch. The company continues to combine historical research with puzzle writing to turn real streets into playable mysteries.
Mystery Guides adventures are priced at £19.99 and come with a gift sleeve as standard, making them suitable for birthdays, Christmas or as an experience gift. A physical gift card is also available for anyone who’d rather let the recipient pick their own city. Guides are available from MysteryGuides.co.uk.
