Treasure Trails, Northampton Review

Reviewed by Janine Rumble

If you are looking for a fun way to discover more about your home town/city or somewhere you are visiting, then I can highly recommend getting yourself a Treasure Trail. It is a cross between a scavenger hunt, and a getting to explore the local area/historical walking tour and is perfect for all ages. Where you can ‘turn a regular day out into a full-blown adventure!’

A Treasure Trail enables you to ‘explore hidden gems and crack the clues along the route to unlock incredible stories from the past and solve the mystery at the end. Whether you’re 6, 106 or anywhere in between, our trail adventures will send you home with a massive smile on your face after you’ve had the best day ever!’

Along with friends, I went on a treasure trail around my home town of Northampton. It was a great way to spend a Sunday and took roughly 3 hours, although it depends on how fast you walk around and spend in each area. We took it at a gentle stroll which was lovely.

Treasure Trails sent me a Treasure Trails pack, a small booklet that came full of clues and directions to follow and the all-important code to crack. The booklet sets out the reason for the trail, which appeals to younger children, but did make us smile. It was that local businessman had a device that would release billions of gigantic stinging ants into the Market Square and we had to solve the clues to disable the dastardly device. To complete the mission, each answer to a clue must be written into the mission answer grid, then cross off the green shaded letters and numbers in the combination box before finding the solution code to complete the mission. In our case, we could not solve all of the clues, although there is the opportunity to text HQ to get the answer, but when we tried this, it wanted to charge us (this is mentioned in the booklet), so we decided not to go for it.

The booklet contains information on where to park, where to start and where is suitable for a picnic and the all-important toilet stops. The clues are both written and photo clues and the directions were easy to follow and we made our way around the town and found out all about the history of the town, which was fascinating. I discovered places that I did not know existed and historical facts that I did not know, despite having lived here for over 35 years.

This Treasure Trail was £9.99 and despite not having been able to complete the trail by finding all of the clues, we all had a great day out.

If you do manage to complete the trail and submit the answer onto the Treasure Trails website, you stand a chance of winning £100 in their monthly draws and goodies for the youngsters who have taken part.

Treasure Trails can be found all over the country and they also do Hen Party Trails, where they ‘create fun, personalised, Treasure Trails for a hen weekend with a difference, including photos and stories of the bride-to-be.’ They also do Stag parties, Birthday parties, school projects, bespoke trail writing, team building and fundraising. Information for all of these and to buy a trail for an area you wish to visit can be found on their website www.treasuretrails.co.uk and they also have a Facebook page you can check out.

There are hundreds of towns and cities around the UK where you can take part in a Treasure Trail. There is lots of information on their website that you can look at before you choose your destination. Once you have chosen, you have the chance to either print out your trail pack at home, printed by Treasure Trails and posted to you within 3-5 working days or you can have your pack personalised with your own photographs. The website also gives useful information about the type of trail it is, how long it is anticipated to take and whether it is accessible to wheelchairs and pushchairs, most trails are and if not, an alternative route is provided.

I have really enjoyed looking at the website for all of the places where I can do a trail, there are so many that it will be difficult to choose. But I think it is a wonderful way to discover an area with a self-guided tour. For £9.99 it is a cheap way to spend a few hours and learn a lot at the same time.

There are a number of different themed trails, the one we did in Northampton was a Spy Mission themed trail and there is also a treasure hunt themed trail, a murder mystery themed trail amongst others.

We all thoroughly enjoyed the Treasure Trail and we would all highly recommend the buying of and taking part in a Treasure Trail either for yourself to discover your local area or an area when you are on holiday or it would also be a brilliant gift for all occasions.

Rating: We give Treasure Trails 5/5 stars

RRP: £9.99

This product can be purchased from the Treasure Trails website here.