Exmouth Treasure Trail Review

Reviewed by Melody Floyde

Today we have had a brilliant afternoon doing our very first Detective Themed Treasure Trail around Exmouth in Devon!

As a family with two young boys aged 6 and 10, I am always looking for different inexpensive activities to keep us all entertained especially during school holidays and weekends. I particularly favour activities that are outside, so we can enjoy some fresh air and exercise which is often met with a distinct lack of enthusiasm from the boys, who would much rather be glued to their screens!

However, the Treasure Trail was a revelation, when I told the boys (and my partner) that we were going to Exmouth to be detectives to solve a murder they were very excited and couldn’t wait to get going.

Treasure Trails are the brainchild of the founder, Steve Ridd, who wrote his first Treasure Trail for a charity event in his home town of Truro in Cornwall back in 2005. This then expanded to 50 trails around Cornwall and today there are over 1,000 different trails to choose from across the UK written by a team of franchisees. In fact, over 1,000,000 people have already completed treasure trails to date. This makes me wonder how we have missed out on these as, until we were asked if we would like to review a Treasure Trail, I’m ashamed to say that I didn’t even know they existed.

The first challenge was to choose which of the amazing selection of Trails we would try. I plumped for Exmouth as, whilst we have visited Exmouth many times over the years, we don’t know a lot about it and I really liked the idea of doing a murder mystery trail there. (I may also have been slightly influenced by the prospect of a celebratory ice cream on the beach at the end of the trail!)

Once selected, you have the choice of receiving the Treasure Trail by email, so that you can print it yourself, or for an extra £1.49 postage you can receive a printed copy, which I opted for. The Treasure Trail arrived a few days later just in time for the weekend. On opening the envelope I have to admit to feeling a little underwhelmed by the contents (the treasure trail booklet in a cardboard wallet) and wondered how the cost was justified, but on delving further into the booklet I realised how much work had obviously been put into designing the trail and the extras such as the option to text for help if you get stuck on a clue mid-way around the trail (we didn’t need to use this) and the option to submit your answer on the website to potentially win £100 as well as a downloadable certificate of completion and some additional resources for the children.

And so, we set off on our Sunday afternoon adventure to discover who had killed the local fisherman Olly Oyster and their weapon of choice. We parked the car (scoring a free parking space was a bonus) and set off to follow the directions and solve the 20 clues around Exmouth. The trail took us along the seafront, into some of the parks in Exmouth (we discovered a new play park which we will definitely visit again), through a church yard, through the town centre and along the estuary and back through the Marina to return to our starting point on the sea front. We successfully solved all of the clues, some of which were very sneaky, and we did need to double back on one occasion as we somehow managed to completely miss two of them.

Overall the trail took us about 1.5 hours but could easily have taken longer if you were going at a more relaxed pace and decided to stop for refreshments or to have a picnic along the way. We walked just over three miles in total and amazingly neither of the boys complained once about being tired (which usually happens approximately 50 metres after we set off!) nor did they argue with each other (another rare occurrence!). They both really enjoyed predicting who was going to be the killer from the ever-decreasing list of suspects (neither was right!) and the great thing was that the trail really did keep us guessing until the final clue so there was no possibility of cheating. We also discovered lots about the history of Exmouth along the way which was brilliant. I couldn’t believe how many things in plain sight we had just walked past previously and not taken the time to read. Another thing to note is that the route was very accessible and could easily be undertaken by wheelchair users or with a pram. There was one point where we had to climb some steps, but there were alternate directions to avoid those.

Overall, we all loved doing the Treasure Trail. The £9.99 cost is very reasonable for a afternoon’s activity for the whole family which kept us all engaged. I am definitely going to be buying more Treasure Trails and have already noticed there’s one for the town we are due to stay at in Cornwall next year. They would also make fantastic gifts for anyone who enjoys getting out and about and learning about local history. It’s definitely full marks from us!

Rating: 5/5

RRP: £9.99 (+£1.49 postage for a printed copy)

This product can be purchased from Treasure Trails here.