Last year, for Christmas, we got a voucher for a scavenger hunt adventure. It took us an entire year and an expiration date looming over our heads to finally get a chance to use it. The time we finally got all of us together with a couple of hours free to use it, was on Christmas Day this year (actually about 7:30-9:30pm). That’s what happens when you have four adults living in three households and two cities with five jobs and lots of other commitments and responsibilities between us to have to work around our various schedules. Something to consider when giving the gift of an experience that has an expiration date, just saying.

I’m not worried about posting this scan of the voucher here because it has already been used and is about to expire anyway. This is what we were given, so first, we had to do some digging to figure out how to redeem it. I have seen tons of ads for the company on Facebook over the last few months. All their ads and website seem more concerned with selling their scavenger hunts than actually redeeming the voucher after someone presents it to you. To be fair, that IS their business, but they didn’t make it easy to use the voucher, in my opinion. It isn’t as intuitive as they seem to think, but we muddled through and made it happen thanks to our twenty-something kids. We all had to download the Let’s Roam App (this could have been a problem if we had limited data or space for additional apps on our phones). We also had to make sure our phones were fully charged before we started or bring battery packs with us (we did some of both). The screen is on constantly unless you turn it off to save battery.

I was disappointed that there are only 2 choices for hunts in our city (Indianapolis). I have to say that after living here all my life I had never walked around the areas the hunt had us exploring, so that was pretty cool. It was cold and I’m not supposed to be walking that much in my walking boot, but I did it anyway. The ads I saw online with sales for the holiday were priced at about $11 per person. The hunt we chose was rated as hard, 1.7 miles, focused on history and 1.5 hours long. Given all that, I suppose this is a fair price for entertainment, but not exactly cheap. The teacher in me thinks that fourth graders studying Indiana History would love this interactive activity. The cheapskate in me thinks next time we could save money with fewer tickets and sharing the phones because two would have been plenty.

Basically, after everyone gets into the hunt and on the team, they have to choose which role they want to take in the adventure. I chose to be the photographer. These screenshots were all taken after the fact because it was too cold to worry about that while we were doing the hunt.

I have to say the app is very slick looking and worked well on our various phones, so no problems there.

These are the photos we took on my phone during the hunt. Many were taken to fulfill specific tasks that were asked of us during the game. (Fast food, blackbird, foreign currency, black and white dog, etc.)

We chose a very peaceful time to do this hunt. There was almost nobody out in downtown on Christmas night, so we had the run of the area without worrying about other people wondering what we were doing. There was almost no traffic, and the weather, though cold at about 40 degrees F, was tolerable with our winter coats and gloves on (Texting Gloves for the win!)

Would we do it again? Probably, if all of us were healthy and not gimpy like I was. We would likely choose to do it on the spur of the moment instead of racing the calendar trying to fit it into our already tight schedules so as not to waste the money that was spent on the gift. Now that we’ve done it once, it wouldn’t be nearly as intimidating. That is why I wanted to post screenshots and such for you here. If you need help, give me a holler, I can try to walk you through it.

I’d like to see more tours offered in a city the size of Indianapolis. I would like to see more handicap-friendly options too. I would seriously consider using this as a way to see a new city on a vacation or weekend getaway. It would also be nice to see driving tours too, and maybe they do have them, but just not here.

Have you ever tried something like this? Tell us about it in the comments. I’d love to get other recommendations on sightseeing in your own city.