San Diego Scavenger Hunt: A Fun Way To Explore Downtown

You might not think random letters etched into a bathroom’s exterior would have anything to do with the statue of a recipe three blocks over, but the San Diego Scavenger Hunt & Urban Adventure Quest proves that even the most random things can connect.

What to expect from the San Diego Scavenger Hunt Downtown

The Urban Adventure Quest takes you on a San Diego scavenger hunt reminiscent of The Amazing Race throughout the city. It’s just as exhilarating without the cash prize at the end, but if you play against your friends, you might get away with bragging rights instead. Each game has a time limit and you receive your scores at the end, so time management matters just as much as getting the answers correctly. It is a fantastic way to explore downtown San Diego, whether you are a visitor or a local.

Although the company has hunts in cities throughout the country, its Downtown San Diego journey has plenty of memories to create and head-scratchers to figure out. It lets you “salute our nation’s naval power” as you “breathe in the great sea air and discover one of the best things you can do in San Diego.” It’s also a great option for anyone in your family, so long as they’re able to walk.

You begin at the Waterfront Memorials on Harbor Drive and start the game through the website. You’ll have to dedicate someone to operate the phone for the riddles and clues. Remember to sign in through the account you used to book your ticket. Everyone can follow along on their own phones for the questions, but only the main answer holder can input any of your answers.

Scavenger Hunt Tips

My first tip before you even start is to read the clue the whole way through before you guess anything. We started solving the first one sentence-by-sentence, only to discover it came in three parts. Once we’d found our mistake, we had to use one of our guesses and start over.

My next tip for this adventure is not to underestimate the difficulty of some of the questions and challenges. It’ll help if your team has a brain whiz on it, so I recommend you comprise it of an even mixture of locals and people good at puzzles.

As you get going, you’ll rely on each other’s logic to help you sort out the clues, which can be anything from wordplay to scrambles to downright “what are they talking about?” questions. Over the 3.5 hours of game time, you and your team will navigate through 23 challenges (and two bonuses!) that cover around 2.5 miles of area Downtown. 

Scavenger Hunt Rules

When it comes to submitting your answers, remember that you only get four tries. Be mindful to hit submit when you mean to, and only input your answers once. While you’re at it, don’t exit out of the window completely before you finish a challenge.

You might not need all four of your attempts, but it’s better to save yourself from accidentally using a guess when you don’t need to. You never know when it’ll save you, and you never know which challenge will leave you totally stumped. Remember the first clue we didn’t read all the way through? Our first attempt wasn’t the only one we got wrong.

Outside of that, you can come up with the answers however you wish. As long as you’re safe (i.e., don’t run into oncoming traffic and pay attention to your surroundings), there aren’t any hard or fast rules when it comes to solving the puzzles. You can Google whatever you want, reference your maps for possible answers, or ask random people if they can help you out. While we’d love to provide you with a full list of answers to the challenges here, we won’t spoil the fun for you. But we encourage you to beat our 2.5-hour completion time. Let us know in the comments if you did!!!

Downtown San Diego Scavenger Hunt

This route showcases various highlights of downtown San Diego. You start at the Waterfront and then make your way to Little Italy. The smells from nearby restaurants may tempt you, but remember this is a timed game. Take note of anywhere you might want to return and come back to once your scavenger hunt ends.

Along the way, you’ll see iconic landmarks like the Maritime Museum, the USS Midway, and the Bob Hope Memorial. There’s a lot of naval history throughout the challenges. The more you know about your wars and the military roots in San Diego, the easier some of these challenges will be.

By the time we finished our scavenger hunt, we were ready for a beer and a break. The game had us doing anything from counting tiles on fountains to making out words from nothing as we ran around the city. Even though there weren’t any cash prizes, the passersby who watched us struggle probably thought we were going for a million dollars at any given moment. 

Ready to book your ticket?

Balboa Park Scavenger Hunt

Don’t want to hang out Downtown but still want to do the scavenger hunt? Great! Check out their Balboa Park offering to see if it’s a better fit for you. It’ll showcase The Old Globe Theatre, the Veterans Museum, and the Spreckels Organ, among others. This one is shorter, with only 15 challenges, and maybe a bit more accessible than Downtown, with easier parking. Although I have yet to try this one out myself just yet, stay tuned for when I do!

If you are looking for a fun way to explore San Diego, then add this San Diego Scavenger Hunt to your list of things to do in San Diego!

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