Scavenger Hunt Themes

A theme decides what gets hidden and how the clues read, and each one here says how in a line.

Dinosaur DigBury toy bones or plastic eggs in a sandbox and hand out paintbrushes to uncover them.
Gallery HuntIn a museum: a painting with a dog, a statue with no arms, the oldest thing in the room.
Puzzle Piece TrailEach hiding place holds one piece of a jigsaw. The finished picture shows where the prize is.
Swap HuntEach team hides five things and writes the clues. Then the teams trade lists.
Road Trip HuntLicense plates, road signs and a red barn, all spotted from the car window.

Next step Find, photo and do tasks for adults Color, letter and shape hunts to print

How it works

These scavenger hunt themes each come with one line on how to run them, from Pirate Treasure to Hot and Cold. Press Pick 5 new themes, or choose who is playing and where in the menu first.

Read the full guide

Choose a theme, then get the list

Press Pick 5 new themes and Lock the one that fits. Some have a ready list on this site: the spy hunt, photo prompts, rhyming clues for a riddle trail, and color, letter and shape hunts for small children.

Filter by crowd and place

For children holds 42 scavenger hunt theme ideas, Parties 20, Outdoors 23, Indoors 25 and Teams and adults 19. A theme can sit in more than one.

Tips

A theme changes three things: what is hidden, how the clues are worded, and what the prize is. Change all three.
For mixed ages, pair each small child with an older one and pick a theme with no reading, such as Picture Clues.

Questions and answers

What are good themed scavenger hunt ideas for a birthday?

Ones that end at a prize: Pirate Treasure, Detective Case, Puzzle Piece Trail or Birthday Trail. Each is a chain of clues, so the last hiding place can hold the present or the cake.

Which themes work with no preparation?

Color Hunt, Alphabet Hunt, Texture Hunt, Ten to One and Hot and Cold need no clues written and nothing hidden in advance. Say the rule and start the clock.

Are there Christmas themed scavenger hunt ideas?

Holiday Clue Trail is the theme: hide each clue somewhere that belongs to the day. For ready-made rhymes, open the Christmas clue trail; each rhyme comes with its hiding place.

What is the difference between a list hunt and a clue hunt?

In a list hunt every team gets the same list and finds what it can before time runs out. In a clue hunt each clue leads to the next hiding place, in order, and the last one holds the prize.

All 50 themes

For children 42

Alphabet Hunt Find something that starts with each letter from A to Z. Allow three skips.
Beach Hunt A shell with a hole, a feather, a crab track: spotted, photographed and left on the sand.
Birthday Trail A string of clues through the house that ends at the present.
Bug Safari Spot, never catch. Count legs, look under one leaf and draw what you see.
Color Hunt Give each team one color. They find ten things of that color and lay them out in a row.
Detective Case Something has gone missing. Each clue is a piece of evidence that points to the next hiding place.
Dinosaur Dig Bury toy bones or plastic eggs in a sandbox and hand out paintbrushes to uncover them.
Egg Carton Hunt Twelve tiny finds, one for each cup of an egg carton.
Fairy Trail Tiny doors and tiny notes at the foot of trees, each pointing to the next.
Five Senses One thing to see, one to hear, one to smell, one to touch, and one to taste from the snack table.
Flashlight Hunt Play after sunset. Hide glow sticks or reflective tape and hand out flashlights.
Gallery Hunt In a museum: a painting with a dog, a statue with no arms, the oldest thing in the room.
Hero Training Every stop is a challenge, such as a jump, a balance or a carry, and finishing it earns the next clue.
Holiday Clue Trail Tie every hiding place to the day: eggs, stockings, pumpkins or a turkey platter.
Hot and Cold No list and no clues. The hider calls warmer or colder until the prize is found.
Hunt Bingo Put the finds on a five-by-five card. The first full row wins.
Kindness Hunt Every task is a good deed: hold a door, write a thank-you note, tidy one shelf.
Kitchen Hunt Find kitchen things by what they do: something that flips, something that measures, something that keeps food cold.
Library Hunt A book with a blue spine, an author with your initial, a map, a poem and a joke book.
Mirror Writing Clues are written backward and read in a mirror.
Nature Walk Leaves, seeds, tracks and birds, all looked at and left where they are.
Number Hunt Find the numbers 1 to 20, in order, on signs, clocks, pages and packets.
Opposites Find pairs: big and small, hard and soft, old and new, empty and full.
Pantry Labels Find words and numbers on packets: a best-before date, a word in another language, a recipe.
Passport Hunt Each stop is a country. Teams collect a stamp in a paper passport at every one.
Picture Clues No words at all. Each clue is a drawing or a close-up photo of the next hiding place.
Pirate Treasure Draw a map with an X, hide a box of chocolate coins, and word every clue in pirate talk.
Puzzle Piece Trail Each hiding place holds one piece of a jigsaw. The finished picture shows where the prize is.
Rainy Day Indoors A list made for one floor of the house, with a rule that nobody runs.
Rhyming Riddles Every clue is a two-line rhyme that points to a hiding place without naming it.
Road Trip Hunt License plates, road signs and a red barn, all spotted from the car window.
Secret Code Clues are written in a simple cipher, and the first stop hides the key.
Shape Hunt Circles, squares, triangles and stars, found in everyday things around the room.
Sidewalk Hunt House numbers, mailboxes and street signs, all spotted from the sidewalk.
Signs of the Season Things that show what time of year it is: a bud, a fallen leaf, frost on a window.
Snow Day Animal tracks, an icicle, a snow-covered sign and the deepest drift you can measure.
Space Mission Hide the planets around the yard in order from the Sun. The last stop is home.
Spy Mission Teams get code names, a sealed briefing and one message in code to crack.
Swap Hunt Each team hides five things and writes the clues. Then the teams trade lists.
Ten to One Ten spoons, nine socks, eight books, and on down to one teddy bear.
Texture Hunt Something rough, something smooth, something bumpy, something soft, something cold.
Zoo Hunt Animals by feature, not by name: something striped, something asleep, something with a long neck.

Parties 5

Family Album Hunt Find the photos: the oldest one, a wedding, a bad haircut, a pet nobody remembers.
Find the Person Every line is a person to find: someone who has run a race, someone with a twin, someone born in May.
Photo Hunt Nothing is collected. Every find is a photo, on one phone for each team.
Team Pose Hunt Every find is a photo of the whole team: all in the air, in height order, in one doorway.
Trivia Trail A question waits at every stop. A correct answer earns the next location.

Outdoors 2

Map and Compass Directions in paces and compass points. No clue names a place.
Sound Hunt Record ten sounds on a phone: a door creak, a bird, a bell, a zipper.

Indoors 1

Oldest Thing in the House Teams look for the oldest book, coin, photo and tool they can find, with the date to prove it.

How this list was compiled

Written for this site by its editors on 2026-09-30: 50 themes for a scavenger hunt, each with one line on how to run it. Nothing was copied from another list, and no film, show, book, game or brand is named. Every theme keeps to the rules of this site's hunts: own team only, buy nothing, take nothing, and living things are looked at and left alone. Licence: own work