The £19.99 Mystery Guides turn UK cities into real-life treasure hunts, inspired by true stories from history
What do you buy for someone who has everything? Where do you take someone on a first date when dinner and drinks feels a little predictable? And what do you do when you want a day out that is genuinely different?
Mystery Guides has an unusual answer: a mystery to solve, with real treasure hidden somewhere along the route.
The award-winning guides transform cities across the UK into outdoor adventures combining puzzles, local history and treasure hunting. Each £19.99 guide takes players on an approximately two-mile route, where they decipher clues, investigate landmarks and work together to crack the case.
But unlike a conventional walking tour, there is an actual prize hidden somewhere in the city for players to find. The stories are inspired by real events from history, with fictional mysteries built around genuine locations, landmarks and historical details.
Forget Dinner and Drinks: Try a Mystery Date
First dates can be surprisingly predictable. A drink in a pub. Dinner. Perhaps a walk afterwards. Mystery Guides gives couples something to actually do together, with clues to debate, puzzles to crack and plenty of opportunities for one person to insist they have worked everything out.
The route can be combined with coffee, lunch, drinks or dinner, turning the experience into a full date day. There is also no booking or fixed start time, so couples can fit it around the rest of their plans.
The £20 Gift for Someone Who Is Impossible to Buy For
At £19.99, the guides also offer an answer to the perennial question: what do you buy for someone who is impossible to buy for? Rather than another item that ends up on a shelf, the recipient gets an experience they can share with friends, family or a partner.
Each guide comes with a gift sleeve, while a physical gift card is also available for anyone who would prefer to let the recipient choose their location. They are suitable for birthdays, Christmas, anniversaries and experience gifting.
Real Treasure Hidden in the City
The treasure is more than a storytelling device. It is actually hidden. Players follow the trail, decipher the clues and use the information they uncover to work out where they need to go. The challenge is to solve the case and locate the hidden prize.
The experience combines elements of a treasure hunt and outdoor escape room, but the city itself provides the setting.
Instead of simply following a route between the usual tourist attractions, players are encouraged to examine buildings, monuments, plaques and details they might normally walk straight past.
History Becomes Part of the Game
Each adventure has its own story, with historical research forming the basis of the experience.
In York, The Mystery of the Gunpowder Snitch takes players around locations including the Shambles, York Minster and the City Walls.
London adventures include The Mystery of the Great Coin Robbery and The Mystery of the Holy Grail, while in Southampton players can investigate The Mystery of Titanic’s Missing Millions. Nottingham has its own adventure with The Mystery of Robin Hood’s Secret Stash.
The stories may be fictional mysteries, but their historical inspiration and locations are genuine, giving players an opportunity to discover something about the places they are exploring along the way.
An Escape Room Without Four Walls
The concept takes some of the familiar elements of an escape room outdoors.
There is no locked room, no fixed timetable and no group to keep pace with. Players can start whenever they want and take breaks for food, drinks, shopping or sightseeing.
Each adventure typically takes around three hours, although there is no requirement to complete it within a particular timeframe. Additional hints are included for anyone who gets stuck, while QR-linked photographs can help if a feature is temporarily inaccessible or obscured. There are also no additional attraction tickets required along the routes.
From a Spare Room to Almost One Million Sales
Mystery Guides was founded by Jack Wells in 2019, when he began developing the concept from his spare room.
With a background in history, Wells combined research, route planning, puzzle writing and storytelling to create an experience that could be played outdoors, using real locations as part of the game.
What began as a single adventure has grown into a collection covering destinations across the UK.
Today, Mystery Guides offers adventures all across the UK including London, York, Edinburgh, Manchester, Bath, Brighton, Liverpool, Oxford, Cambridge, Cardiff, Glasgow, Newcastle, Birmingham, Bristol, Windsor, Lincoln, Southampton, Hull among others, with more locations being added.
With sales now approaching one million guides, the company has grown from a small start-up into an established experience and gifting brand.
Mystery Guides cost £19.99 and are available from MysteryGuides.co.uk
Each guide contains 40 full-colour pages and comes with a gift sleeve as standard. A physical gift card is also available, allowing recipients to choose their preferred location.
