Pittsburgh Scavenger Hunt: AKA Savenger 2k19
Full disclosure: We called this hunt a SAVENGER hunt, because I like the word savage. That is all. If this inspires you to have a scavenger hunt, use the hashtag #savenger and tag me please! I want to see your adventures!
Pick your location.
This becomes the crux of your entire hunt. I selected downtown, but I’ve also done a scavenger hunt in my small neighborhood. I highly recommend selecting a place you know fairly well for several reasons. First of all, you need a meeting place to convene and reconvene after the hunt. A family member allowed me to use their apartment for the downtown hunt, and I used my house for my neighborhood hunt. If you don’t have a place where you’ve selected to do the hunt, I recommend renting a hotel or Airbnb. I do not recommend using a local business as a meeting place unless you are very close with the owners. Chances are, you’ll be visiting these places during the hunt, and you don’t want to inconvenience business too much by taking up space and being noisy. Downtown was absolutely perfect, because there was no shortage of bars, people, or landmarks. Pittsburgh is also perfect, because people are so friendly. With my move just a few months away, I felt that this was the best way to not only celebrate my birthday, but experience my hometown.
Invite people early.
For a scavenger hunt to be successful, I recommend having 5-6 people per team. Any less and it’s not quite as fun. However, any more, and it becomes difficult to keep track of people. Inviting people before you’ve even designed the hunt is a good idea. I set up the event on Facebook probably a month in advance of the hunt, so that my friends had plenty of notice!
Create a variety of task categories.
Some hunts focus only on pictures, while some are allll about the drinking, and others are filled with riddles. My hunt focused on all three. I think this is the most fun way to design your hunt. When a scavenger becomes all about the drinking, it feels more like a bar crawl or a “bucket list.” The word bar crawl makes my skin crawl. Sorry not sorry, but it sounds boring. As a result, you didn’t even have to drink to fully participate in the hunt. You could drink for bonus points, but the winning team probably drank the least out all other teams. I did not win. Don’t be like me.
Scout your location.
My mother has created both of my birthday scavenger hunts. If you are going to create it yourself, then you can’t participate, so make sure someone trustworthy & thorough is making the hunt. My mother spent three hours one day scouting out downtown before the hunt. This helped her come up with specific and unique trivia, let her know what kind of tasks would be possible, and she was also able to introduce herself to a few bartenders that had tasks or drinks they recommended putting on the list. Additionally, she was able to set the perimeter of the hunt. You will know what is available to people on the hunt as well as how much walking is truly possible by almost doing it yourself! (For reference, we had our hunt between Penn and Liberty and 6th and 10th street!) Also shoutout to my Mom!!!!
Don’t be afraid to be creative/bold!
We had to make a human pyramid, start the wave in bar, and perform a choreographed dance in public. Most teams were able to complete all three of these tasks without issues. I’m not encouraging you to be disruptive or do anything that is unsafe, but make sure the tasks are somewhat embarrassing and require people to put themselves out there! I even had to ask the bartender to write me hangover advice and for two strangers to write me a birthday card out of supplies they had found at the bar. This is what makes it fun!!
Set the rules!
I’m not a rule-lover whatsoever, but they are SOOOO necessary in a scavenger hunt, and can actually make it more fun. Our rules did three things: ensured our safety (use crosswalks when crossing the street), made cheating impossible (no splitting up, so there was no dividing and conquering the list), and made it more embarrassing (we had a poo emoji character that had to be in every single photo we took.)
These are only some of the photos from just 2 of the 4 teams we had! Visit this IGTV video to see more of our hunt! The video includes a cute puppy, an entire bar doing the wave, and a famous person writing me a birthday card. If you need any help/advice in planning your own hunt, please send me an email or comment below. I will try to get back super quickly! I want to help you guys have as much fun as I did! Don’t forget to tag me and add #savenger!
Happy savenging ;)