Another adventure conquered! This time around, we were in Cambridge! Cambridge is a beautiful city, home to the prestigious University of Cambridge, dating back to 1209. This city boasts a captivating blend of ancient architectural buildings and vibrant cultural sites of many Bronze Age, Iron Age and Roman settlements.
If you are new to Go Quest Adventures, it is an interactive self-guided treasure hunt through your smartphone. Go Quest Adventures are now offering 27 popular secret city trails across the UK for you to choose from, and to name a few, they have Birmingham, York, Brighton, Edinburgh, Leeds, Oxford etc. Just last month, they added Stratford-upon-Avon to their ever-growing list.
The aim of the quest is to explore the hidden heritage and interesting facts in detail, solve puzzles, decode riddles and hunt for clues. For the points system, if you answer incorrectly or use a hint, 5 points are deducted. For each correct answer, you will score 30 points. Each challenge is 10 points and the bonus question is 15 points. You can skip a question or challenge at any time but no points will be awarded. Once you complete your quest, your score and timing will be revealed on the leaderboard. The timing does not affect your leaderboard position, as it is only used when there is a tie in points with the faster team getting a higher score on the leaderboard.
Before starting the Quest, make sure you have your devices fully charged and preferably bring a power bank. Wear comfortable shoes, appropriate outdoor clothing for the ever-changing British weather, paper & pen, drinks and food. We were unfortunately in the middle of Storm Bert. It was terribly windy and cold.
To save battery life, close down all other background apps as the questing does zap a lot of your battery life. Have your what3words app and Google Maps app in the background as you will use it quite often. The quest will take groups of all sizes roughly two to three hours to complete.
Once you have purchased the quest, you all (up to five players) will need to download the Go Quest Adventure app to your smartphone and create your profile to access your Quest. Choose one player to be the Quest Leader and to input the redemption code to access the Quest at the beginning of the game.
The Quest Leader will be given another code once inside the Quest to invite up to four team members to play along. Team members should click on ADD QUEST on their own device and then enter the code given by their Quest Leader. This will link the quest to the players and it allows team members to Read Only access to the Quest on their own mobile device. This is so useful feature when it comes to re-reading the questions on your own device, or where players wander off or when someone runs out of charge on their phone!
Once everything is set up, you are prompted to name your group and take a group picture, which will then appear on the leaderboard at the end of your quest. We named our team Mabelino as we had our Buddy Dog with us. Yes, all their quests are suitable for everyone, even for wheelchair users (they will provide an alternative route) and dogs.
When we reached the starting point (which is Great St Mary’s church), I, as the Quest Leader, pressed ‘start’ and the timer began. Once it starts, you have one opportunity to pause the game by tapping the ▷ symbol at the top of the screen and following the prompts. You can then tap the same location once you are ready to resume your Quest.
There are a total of 19 questions and with a few bonus questions. For each question, besides looking out for the landmarks, we had to solve a series of anagrams, arithmetic, riddles, spot the differences and complete the photo challenges.
There was a lot of scaffolding around the buildings and walking through the cobblestone streets with traffic can get quite chaotic! We constantly had to be on high alert, especially as we had our dog with us.
The trail visits the Cambridge University Colleges, River Cam and Corpus Clock. You learn all about Cambridge’s famous people and sundials dotted everywhere in the city centre. Check out my TikTok video to reveal some places.
Once your Quest is complete, you will find out your final score on the leaderboard. You will also receive an email containing a link to all your photo challenges to download.
As this is my second time doing the quest adventure, we learned to look around closely at all the landmarks and enjoy the scenery a bit more. But it was slightly spoilt by Storm Bert as my camera and phone were splashed with rainwater. Also, holding a cute dog does attract a lot of attention from passersby. Also, I learnt to screenshot the questions to remind me of the details. Once the Quest was complete, we were no longer able to access it again.
I would highly recommend Go Quest Adventures to anyone. It was a great way to explore the city in your own time. Give it a try yourself and let me know how you did!
If you are looking to book your Quest during the month of November, you can enjoy a 35% discount by using code BLACK30 upon checkout on the website. For more information on Go Quest Adventures, or to book your Quest today, visit https://goquestadventures.com/ and for updates follow @goquestadventures on Instagram or Facebook.
For bookings of more than three groups, (more than 15 people per group), get in touch with hello@goquestadventures.com for special group discount rates. They also offer individually tailored custom Quests for corporate team building, schools, universities and special events such as hen and stag dos.
Disclosure: We were provided a free quest to write about our experience, however, all thoughts and opinions remain our own.