Have you ever wanted to complete a tour of the historical buildings around Bristol harbourside but your schedule hasn’t aligned with the available tours?
Let's Roam has come up with a solution - Bristol Scavenger Hunt: A Bridge Through Time. The scavenger hunt explores the harbour and surrounding streets in search of iconic buildings and tranquil parks over the course of a 2.48km route.
Up to four characters can be played on a single device, and they recommend buying a ticket for anyone in the team over the age of five so that everyone can have an interactive role. It can be played as a team or single-player.
Tickets usually cost £23.47 per player or £144.52 per player for a Family/Friends Annual Pass, which is valid for a year for up to six players and includes a free premium gift card and wrapper, printable character cut-outs and unlimited scavenger hunts.
The game takes approximately 90 minutes to complete and can be started and paused at any time to suit your schedule.
Players can choose between four different characters which give players different interactive questions, photo challenges, and activities that are sent to each specific player. This includes the “youngster” character which has questions designed for kids.
We decided to see whether the game was worth the investment on a Wednesday morning as a single-player. After choosing our character, we were encouraged to take a team photo which we would have the option to receive as “a free epic postcard” at the end of the hunt.
The scavenger hunt starts by M Shed, close to where “the Italian John Cabot left Europe in search of North America in 1497”.
Unlike other scavenger hunt games I had played, A Bridge Through Time had multiple site challenges active on each individual site.
As for the M-shed challenges, it included a counting question, a photo challenge and a rearranging letters question. As each challenge was completed as well as the site, the app gave additional trivia about the area.
The next stop is nine minutes away: Queen Square which was completed in 1727 and whose surrounding buildings became "home to a who’s-who list of prominent politicians, merchants and sea captains”.
The challenges focus on a multiple-choice question and a photograph challenge. Did you know, for example, that whilst the square is named in honour of Queen Anne, the statue in the centre features King William III?
Two minutes away, the game continued at the Granary which was designed by local architect William Venn Gough and built as a storehouse in 1869, before continuing at the Bristol Old Vic which is a further two minutes away.
The photograph challenge was a bit confusing as it asked for a photo of Millennium Square (one of the later stops) which was eight minutes away.
The game continued at City Hall on College Green with some trivia about the statue before continuing at Bristol Cathedral where I had trouble finding the rose window for a counting question and took a wild guess.
The scavenger hunt continued at Millennium Square with questions about the Energy Tree and the statues which I had overlooked until the scavenger hunt despite passing through Millennium Square multiple times since living in Bristol.
The final stop was Banksy’s “You Don't Need Planning Permission” with multiple-choice and photograph challenges which felt a bit anticlimactic in comparison to the previous sites in the game.
Whilst it was an entertaining scavenger hunt tour, and I learnt new details about the area, the tickets felt overpriced compared to other similar scavenger hunt apps.
However, the tickets are more affordable during the sales where tickets can go as low as £10.56 per player and £65.03 per player for an annual pass.
Scroll through to see a gallery of photos from our morning spent on the Bristol Scavenger Hunt: A Bridge Through Time.
1. MShed
2. Harbour view
3. Mayflower
4. Pyronaut