If you’re looking for scavenger hunt ideas, you’ve come to the right place! This is the ultimate list of scavenger hunts with everything from photo scavenger hunts to scavenger hunts for kids! And even some of the best scavenger hunts for adults! So many amazing scavenger hunts in one place!
My family is a huge fan of scavenger hunts! We’ve been doing them since I was a kid and still do them almost every single holiday! From treasure hunt follow a clue style scavenger hunts to find everything on a list type of scavenger hunt, we love all scavenger hunt ideas!
Rather than just make scavenger hunts for my family to use, I’ve shared all of our scavenger hunts here with you! It’s every type of treasure hunt, scavenger hunt, riddles, and more that you could ever need!
I’ve divided this post into two types of scavenger hunts – clue based ones where you’re looking for something (aka treasure hunts) and find everything on the hunt type scavenger hunts!
Plus tons of information and tips for hosting your very own scavenger hunt at home!
Clue Based Scavenger Hunt Ideas
These scavenger hunts are ones where you print out a set of clues, kind of like a treasure hunt, and follow the clues to find a surprise at the end. I’ve included a video on this page that shows an example of this type of scavenger hunt!
Each of these scavenger hunts has a set of free printable scavenger hunt clues you can use to do your very own scavenger hunt! Just click on the link below to get directly to that scavenger hunt!
I love rhyming so these are my personal favorite type of scavenger hunts to create, probably why we’ve created so many of them!
Holiday Scavenger Hunts
These scavenger hunt ideas are specific to a particular holiday or occasion. If there’s one you don’t see here, feel free to leave a comment on this post and I’ll add it to my ever growing list of scavenger hunts to make!
- Super Bowl scavenger hunt – this fun quarterback sneak scavenger hunt will have kids trying to find clues the quarterback left behind!
- Valentine’s Day Scavenger Hunt – lots of fun Valentine’s Day themed clues that lead up to a Valentine’s Day surprise!
- St. Patrick’s Day Scavenger Hunt – that sneaky leprechaun left behind a magical surprise at the end of this fun hunt!
- Easter scavenger hunt – the perfect Easter hunt to use for Easter baskets and more!
- Easter egg hunt clues (pretty much a scavenger hunt!) – tons of clues for an outdoor Easter scavenger hunt!
- Easter scavenger hunt for teens – a non-traditional Easter scavenger hunt with harder clues for teens!
- Graduation scavenger hunt – this fun graduation themed scavenger hunt is perfect for sending someone on a hunt to find their graduation gift!
- 4th of July Scavenger Hunt – fun patriotic clues that lead up to a red, white, and blue surprise!
- Halloween Scavenger Hunt – the ultimate Halloween scavenger hunt with creepy, crawly, and altogether Halloweenish clues!
- Thanksgiving Scavenger Hunt – where’d that turkey trot off to? Find out in this fun Thanksgiving themed hunt!
- Christmas Scavenger Hunt – Christmas is the most popular time of year for scavenger hunts and this post has three different ones to choose from!
- Christ-centered Christmas hunt – if you want to focus more on the Christ part of Christmas, this one uses scriptures as clues!
- New Years Eve scavenger hunt – one of the best Noon Year’s Eve activities for kids!
Non-Holiday Scavenger Hunts
These treasure hunt ideas are more generic themed scavenger hunts that we’ve done with our family! They’re perfect for doing all year long, not just for specific holidays!
- Back to School Scavenger Hunt – a great way to celebrate back to school with kids!
- Dr. Seuss scavenger hunt – a scavenger hunt inspired by the master of rhymes!
- Birthday scavenger hunt (2 versions) – one of the most fun ways to give someone their birthday gifts!
- Harry Potter scavenger hunt – if you’re a Harry Potter fan, this one’s for you with clues inspired by the books and movies!
- Star Wars scavenger hunt – whether you’re on the light or dark side, you’ll appreciate this fun scavenger hunt that uses lines from the classic films!
- Dinosaur scavenger hunt – another popular one for birthday parties, this scavenger hunt is full of dinosaur inspired clues!
Find Everything Scavenger Hunt Ideas
These scavenger hunts are ones where you have to find everything on a scavenger hunt list. These can be really fun for kids, adults, and everyone in between! There’s an example of my Halloween scavenger hunt to show you what I’m talking about below.
Holiday Scavenger Hunts
In these holiday hunts, you’ll be searching for holiday themed items rather than holiday themed clues!
- Lucky Leprechaun Scavenger Hunt – search for all sorts of things related to a leprechaun!
- Easter bunny hunt – see how many different Easter bunnies you can find to win a prize!
- Easter egg scavenger hunt – forget the normal Easter egg hunts and try this one where you have to find certain types of eggs instead!
- Red White and Blue Scavenger Hunt – all things red, white, and blue – perfect for 4th of July or Memorial Day!
- Halloween decorations hunt – head around your neighborhood to see which spooky decorations you can find!
- Halloween text scavenger hunt – a fun idea where you split into groups and give each other the clues!
- Turkey hunt – how many turkeys can you find and who can find them the fastest??
- Christmas Lights Scavenger Hunt – one of our favorite Christmas activities, driving around seeing which Christmas decorations you can find!
- Reindeer hunt – hunt for all of Santa’s reindeer in this fun Christmas game!
Other Themed Scavenger Hunts for Kids
These other scavenger hunts make great indoor activities for kids as well as fun group activities for teens, adults, and of course kids!
You could always just buy one of these family scavenger hunt games that come with tons of things to find in your home too. We have one and it’s a total blast! And the Olaf version is one of our favorite board games for kids!
- Alphabet scavenger hunt (two versions) – who can find things for letters A-Z the fastest? A fun activity for everyone but especially for kids working on letters!
- Animal Scavenger Hunt – how many of the animals can you find? Perfect for an animal day at home or a visit to the zoo!
- Beach scavenger hunt – take this to the beach and let kids work on this while you’re working on your tan!
- Camping Scavenger Hunt – great for summer camp, a family campout, or even just as a fun indoor campout idea!
- Disney scavenger hunt – find these fun things at home all inspired by Disney movies, perfect way to get ready for a trip to Disney!
- Disney World Scavenger Hunt – can you find all of these snacks at Disney World?
- Fall scavenger hunt – a hunt for all things fall PLUS a photo scavenger hunt version too!
- Grocery store scavenger hunt – do this with your family either for fun or as a service project, finding a list of things in the grocery store!
- Indoor scavenger hunt – a fun indoor scavenger hunt looking for all sorts of silly things!
- Nature scavenger hunt – how many of these things can you find on a nature walk?
- Neighborhood scavenger hunt – see who can find these things around your neighborhood the fastest!
- Outdoor scavenger hunt – another great reason to get outdoors, see how many of these fun outdoor things you can find!
- Picnic Scavenger hunt – going on a picnic? See if you can find all of these picnic themed things!
- Roadtrip Scavenger Hunt – never be bored in the car again! These printable cards are a fun variation on a scavenger hunt that kids LOVE!
- Spring scavenger hunt – a fun hunt to do to celebrate the beginning of spring!
- Summer scavenger hunt – when it’s hot outside, let kids go crazy with this fun summer themed hunt!
- Winter scavenger hunt – a fun game for a cold day that’s too cold to go outside!
- Virtual scavenger hunt (3 versions) – fun scavenger hunts to do with friends, family, or co-workers over zoom, skype, or something else!
Adult Scavenger Hunt Ideas
These ones are made just for the adults! I didn’t include a section of these under the treasure hunt style scavenger hunts because honestly any of those could be for kids or adults. These ones however are designated for adult party games and may have adult themes!
You could totally do any of the ones above with adults as well but know ones under this section are specifically for adults, not kids.
- Anniversary scavenger hunt – a fun way to gift anniversary hunts!
- Group text scavenger hunt – a fun variation of a scavenger hunt between groups of adults!
- Bachelorette Scavenger Hunt – how many of these things can you complete at a bachelorette party??
- Find someone who scavenger hunt – how much do you know about people?
Scavenger Hunt Prizes
One of the best parts about a scavenger hunt is the prizes at the end – whether that’s after following clues or finding all the items! Here are some of my best suggestions for scavenger hunt prize ideas!
Scavenger Hunt Prizes for Clue Based Hunts
Since everyone will be going together on this hunt at the same time, I recommend doing something smaller that works for the entire group!
Or if you’re just doing it for one individual, you can totally get something bigger like we did for my son’s birthday scavenger hunt. Or something like an Easter basket shown in the photo below.
- Hatchimals (can buy in a multi-pack and give one per kid)
- Dinosaur eggs
- These mini treasure chests filled with treats
- Sticker books
- Surprise packs of whatever your kids are into
- Shaped Crayons + Coloring Books
- Themed cookies or other treats
Scavenger Hunt Prizes for Find All The Things
For these hunts, either one team or one individual will win so you can go for bigger and better prizes.
These types of scavengers hunts typically work better for teens and adults than the other kind, so these prizes are a bit more expensive and worth hunting for!
- Movie Tickets
- Themed Bath Bombs (or other bath/spa stuff)
- Gift card of any kind
- Gourmet candy
- Custom Trophy to Match the Theme
How to Organize a Scavenger Hunt
It’s so easy! If you want to do a scavenger hunt for just one person – just do what I talked about, print out the clues or cards and set it up!
If you want to do it for a party like I did at my football party for kids, the only change is really to have enough prizes at the end of everyone!
If you’re doing a find these things version for a group, simply print out enough cards for the group. Split into teams of 2-3, give each team a card, and send them off with any instructions they need for the specific scavenger hunt.
Make sure to have an end time for the activity in case everyone hasn’t been able to find everything on the list!
Scavenger Hunt Tips
If you’re doing one of the find all of the things scavenger hunts, laminate the hunt cards and have people cross them off with dry erase markers! Then you can just reuse them again and again! Kids won’t remember if you do something once a year!
If you’re doing a bigger scavenger hunt with prizes, you can require people to take photos of the items they find for proof! If you’re doing it with small prizes where everyone wins, no need!
Smaller groups work better so that everyone can see the list and participate in finding the items! If you have twenty kids all trying to look at one card, it can be a bit of a mess.
Take turns reading and finding clues in a clue-based scavenger hunt. When we do scavenger hunts for my boys, we switch off being the one to find, or at least pick up, the clue!
Don’t think scavenger hunts are just for kids. You’ll be surprised how much fun both teens and adults will have with some of these, especially if prizes are involved!