Hey everyone! Are you looking for ideas for a little change of scenery on your road trips? How about something new when you travel to a new destination? Or maybe just a fun date night in the city? Plan a fun photo scavenger hunt for your family or friends. A scavenger hunt for travel is one of the awesome activities for vacation.
Have a little extra time in your itinerary? Scavenger hunt ideas are plentiful; the game is easy to plan and can be adapted to a variety of options:
- Adult scavenger hunt
- Scavenger hunt for Travel
- City scavenger hunt
- Road trip scavenger hunt
- Scavenger hunt for families
- Photo scavenger hunt
- Scavenger hunt for kids
- Beach scavenger hunt
What is a Photo Scavenger Hunt?
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A photo scavenger hunt begins at a travel destination where the players search for objects in a specific location. The idea is to create a list of things that participants need to find and then photograph. The most fun option is creating teams to compete against each other.
Starting Your Photo Scavenger Hunt
The options for planning a scavenger hunt for travel, road trips, or just for a fun afternoon as a family around town are unlimited. If you are driving, this game requires licensed drivers, participants, and cars.
You could obviously scale down your scavenger hunt and enjoy the game while walking around a neighborhood, with younger children, at the beach, or as you drive through the countryside.
Photo Scavenger Hunt Rules: #1 Follow ALL traffic and safe driving rules.
During Covid, when everyone was staying home but looking for things to safely do to get out of the house, my girls compiled a scavenger hunt list and created a game that our family could easily do from our car.
The goal was to take a picture of items on the travel scavenger hunt printable list as we found them. Thus, the photo scavenger hunt was born!
Our girls drove in one car (they were licensed drivers!) and my husband and I climbed into another car. We did make a ground rule that we couldn’t mark any of the items from the scavenger hunt list off until we left our neighborhood.
I managed the list as Chris drove, and we both looked for items along the way. It helps to scan ahead on the list to get an idea of things you should be looking for in case you happen to come across photo scavenger hunt items along the way.
It is fun to compete with your family and friends whether they live close to you or across the country.
You don’t even have to start at the same time! This is one of the activities for vacation that can be a timed game. The goals is to have teams find as many of the items on the travel scavenger hunt printable as you can within the time frame.
Once the time is up, count up your points, share your score, and then find a fun way to celebrate the winning team.
If you do want to have two teams starting at the same time, you can set the photo scavenger hunt rules to end the game when all items on the list have been found.
As mentioned above, if you have a little extra time in your travel itinerary, plan a scavenger hunt for road trips, the beach, a botanical garden, or for a group of adults. It is a fun, cost-effective and easy way to explore a city and have some fun.
Keep reading to download your FREE travel scavenger hunt printable!
Photo Scavenger Hunt Rules
- #1 Follow ALL traffic and driving rules. No speeding.
- Designate a boundary for your game. It could be within the limits of a town or small towns that are close together, a neighborhood, a botanical garden, or section of a city.
- Drive (or walk) within the area and take pictures with your cell phone of as many scavenger hunt items as you can find in the set time.
- All scavenger hunt items should be found outside your own group and vehicle. Items on the list are chosen with the idea that you should not have to interact with others.
- Fifty items are available with various point values. Mark scavenger hunt items off your list in any order you wish.
- Set a time limit. Highest points wins!
- Create a #hashtag and post your total score and favorite pictures on Instagram.
50 Clues for Your Photo Scavenger Hunt
15 Easy Photo Scavenger Hunt Items
Easy 1 Point Clues
- Family or group selfie of those in your vehicle or group
- People NOT social distancing
- Red truck
- Police car
- Dog walker
- Drive-thru
- Trampoline
- United States flag
- Church
- Road on a hill
- Mall
- Movie theater
- House under construction
- Car dealership
- High school
15 Medium Photo Scavenger Hunt Ideas
Medium Difficulty 3 Point Clues
- Swing set with a slide
- Empty parking lot with over 20 parking spots
- Gravel road
- Boat out of water
- People holding hands
- Someone wearing a face mask
- Bus
- State flag
- Home improvement project
- Large mud puddle
- Delivery truck
- Chick-fil-A billboard
- No U-TURN sign
- People poorly dressed for the weather
- Garden gnome
15 Difficult Photo Scavenger Hunt Ideas
Difficult 5 Point Clues
- Bird nest in a tree
- Factory
- Clean car next to a dirty car
- Water tower
- Somebody you know
- College or University
- Absurdly large driveway
- Abandoned grocery cart
- Plant nursery
- Wheelchair
- Dispensary
- Roundabout sign
- Road construction or funny road sign
- Sign mentioning toilet paper
- Quarry
5 Challenging Photo Scavenger Hunt Ideas
Challenging 10 Point Clues
- Airplane on the ground
- House with 3 or more paint colors
- Weathervane on the top of a house or barn
- Flying helicopter or drone
- Someone with a musical instrument
Download the FREE photo scavenger hunt printable and get set for a lot of fun.
Additional Activities for Vacation
You may be looking for more fun games as you travel. Here are a few ideas:
- License plate game
- Travel-size games: Yahtzee, Sorry, Trivial Pursuit
- Travel apps: Word Bubble, Crossword Puzzle, Search and Find
- Card games
- I Spy
- Alphabet game from road signs
- Name the artist-The first person to name the artist or group when a song comes on the radio gets a point.
- 20 Questions
- Car color search
Road trips can sometimes be long and boring. Mix things up with by tossing a few games in for your next excursion. Adventurous activities for vacation add a lot of fun and interest and help to create lasting travel memories.
Equipment for a Photo Scavenger Hunt
Whether you choose to take a simple point and shoot camera, a DSLR, or your phone to take pictures on your scavenger hunt, be prepared in advance.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is an adult scavenger hunt?
A adult scavenger hunt is an adventure game for adults where they follow clues or find objects in a variety of locations. These games can be collaborative or competitive.
What is the difference between a scavenger hunt and a treasure hunt?
A treasure hunt often has only one item to find (usually a prize or reward) after you decipher a series of clues. A scavenger hunt involves finding multiple items on a list. Both hunts can involve teams, a time limit, and a reward.
Do scavenger hunts have prizes?
They sure can. Obviously you don’t HAVE to offer a prize, but a prize often garners more interest and effort to find all of the items in a photo scavenger hunt.
What are good prize ideas for your next adult scavenger hunt?
Sweet treat
Gift certificate
Trophy
House plant
Lunchtime delivery
Cash
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Final Thoughts on 50 Clues for a Photo Scavenger Hunt: Road Trips, Travel and Adventures
A photo scavenger hunt is a fun way to challenge your family or friends for an afternoon of fun. Looking for a great Friday night date activity? Something to do to get out of the house? This scavenger hunt is the perfect activity.
If you are traveling, planning a scavenger hunt for road trips and new destinations is not only fun but also helps you to discover a new place. Scavenger hunts help family and friends bond with each other, build critical thinking skills, teach social interaction skills and could potentially double as a fun form of exercise if you are walking or running during the scavenger hunt.
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Kline fam high score 158!
Lorenz family – 152
what a lovely idea! We have cold wet weather at the moment – but this is now on my list of things to do when the sunshine is again.
Hope the rains ends soon!
This is such a fun idea for a COVID-safe activity! I love scavenger hunts 🙂
Perfect to challenge your favorite neighbors too!
Let us know how you did!
This is such a cute idea! What a fun family day.
What a fun thing to do so much better than feeling hemmed in at home. I guess you can adapt the idea too to suit your own locale.
Exactly. It works anywhere and you can compete against family or friends who live elsewhere.
What a fun idea! We could do this on long stretches of driving on road trips! 🙂
Exactly! You could modify the list to what you might see along the way.
What a fun scavenger hunt. Will look into doing this later in the year!
We need to do it again for our family. It was a lot of fun.
Love this! Printed copies for a family road trip.
I love that you printed copies. Let me know how it went.
What a fun idea, loving the point system too!
This is a great idea and something we have never thought of. Going to print this and give to my sister for my nieces to try!
How fun! This is such a great idea for long road trips . I’ll have to take some of these tips for our next trip !
What an excellent idea! It works while travelling or at home and keeps active minds amused. Such an adaptable activity. Thanks for sharing!
A photo scavenger hunt sounds like a fun activity. It would certainly be something we could do with our adult kids. Especially with a fun celebration at the end. Good idea to set a boundary. Some great lists to get us started.
I’ve actually never thought about doing this during a road trip to make things more exciting, but will definitely keep it in mind for the future!
I’ve never done one of these but it sounds so fun!!
Well, this sounds like fun! We’ll have t o give it a try!
I went on a lot of family road trips as a kid… this would have made them a lot more fun!
It was fun to read about a photo scavenger hunt. I have never done that but it is something we might try. I love all the different ideas you shared to make an interesting list.
Such a clever idea to keep kids (esp teens with their own phones) engaged and even learning while traveling.. I also kinda like the idea of giving the scavenger hunt list wrapped up and asking the kids to guess WHERE the trip will be… I’d use your list for inspiration and tweak it for the specific place we’re going…
What a fun idea! I love scavenger hunts!
Love it. I’ve never had the opportunity to take part in a photo scavenger hunt, but it looks like a lot of fun. Thanks for sharing!