How to Plan a QR Code Scavenger Hunt

Start with who is playing and how much time you have, then work out the number of checkpoints. Some starting points:

• Young children: 30 to 45 minutes, short hops, picture clues, an adult with each team.
• Families and mixed ages: about an hour, no busy roads, toilets on the route.
• Adults and team events: 90 minutes to 2 hours, harder clues and a leaderboard.

Worked example

An adult team hunt with 12 checkpoints on a 2.5 km loop:

• Walking: at an easy 5 km/h (about 3 mph), 2.5 km takes 2.5 ÷ 5 = 0.5 hours, or 30 minutes.
• Checkpoints: about 5 minutes each to read the clue, find the spot and prove it: 12 × 5 = 60 minutes.
• Total: 30 + 60 = 90 minutes.
• Spacing: 2,500 m over 13 legs (out to checkpoint 1, between the 12, and back) is about 190 m, under 3 minutes on foot.

Add 10 minutes each for the briefing and the prizes. Groups with small children walk far more slowly, so cut checkpoints rather than stretching the time, and walk the route yourself with a stopwatch.

• Make it a loop that starts and ends at one base, where you keep prizes, water and first aid.
• Avoid crossing busy roads, and stay on public land unless you have the owner’s permission.
• Fix the order so you control the difficulty, and stagger start times by a few minutes so teams don’t move as one crowd.
• Put the hardest checkpoints in the middle, not at the end when people are tired.
• Walk the route at the time of day the hunt will run: gates get locked, shops close, low sun glares off signs.
• Plan a step-free alternative for wheelchairs and strollers.

A good clue points to one place only, can be solved by someone new to the area, and takes a minute or two, not twenty.

• Build a difficulty curve: two easy wins to get every team moving, the hardest clues in the middle, a satisfying finish.
• Point at things that don’t move, like statues, plaques and murals, not parked vans or seasonal displays.
• Test every clue on someone who has never been there.
• Write two or three hints per checkpoint, each more direct than the last. The last one should all but give the answer.
• If you keep score, make hints cost points, so asking for one is a real choice.

For example, clue: “Where the river is painted but never wet.” Hint 1: “It’s on a wall, not in a gallery.” Hint 2: “Follow the footpath downstream from the bridge.”

Mixing types works well: GPS in the park, a code word inside the museum, a photo at the mural, a staff code at the finish.

How accurate is phone GPS?

The U.S. government’s GPS.gov accuracy page says GPS-enabled smartphones are typically accurate to within a 4.9 m (16 ft) radius under open sky, and that accuracy worsens near buildings, bridges and trees; it also lists indoor use as a cause of poor positioning (as of October 2026). In practice:

• In an open park, a 30 to 50 m radius catches a team at the spot without letting them check in from the next street.
• Among tall buildings, readings can drift far enough to fail a team standing in the right place. Use a posted code or a photo there.
• Indoors, don’t use GPS at all.
• Tell players to allow location access, and give GPS checkpoints a code as a fallback.

• Reveal each clue only on arrival at the previous checkpoint. With every clue on one sheet, the fastest strategy is to split up and run.
• Enforce the order, so a team that stumbles on checkpoint 7 gets no credit before solving 6.
• At key checkpoints, ask for a photo as well as the code. A code word can be texted to a friend; a team photo at the spot can’t.
• Put posted codes where you have to be standing to read them, such as the back of a bench, not facing the road.
• Rank by checkpoints found first, then points, then time, so a fast team that skipped stops can’t win.

• Size for distance. A common rule of thumb is a scanning distance of about 10 times the code’s width, so a code scanned from 1 m should be at least 10 cm wide. The size guide has a table.
• Use error correction level H, which recovers about 30% of the code’s data, so a scratch or raindrop doesn’t stop it. See error correction levels.
• Laminate, or print on outdoor vinyl. A matte finish cuts glare, and UV-resistant ink or laminate stops fading on signs that stay up for weeks.
• Mount flat at about chest height, out of reflections, with the white margin around the code clear.
• Ask first. Get permission from the property owner or park authority, and use cable ties or removable tape, never screws or glue.
• Print a backup on every sign: the code word or short link in large text, the checkpoint number, and a phone number to call if it’s damaged.
• Carry a spare of every sign, and scan-test each one in place on two phones the morning of the hunt.

• Brief everyone for five minutes: the boundary, the finish time, how hints and scoring work, and a number to call.
• Check that each team has a charged phone with mobile data and location allowed.
• Review photo proofs as they arrive, not at the end, so teams aren’t left waiting.
• Set a hard finish time. Teams still out come back and are scored on what they found.
• Besides the winner, give prizes that don’t reward speed, such as best team photo or a draw among all finishers, so slower teams keep trying.
• Take every sign down the same day.

CirculateQR has two hunt formats, both page templates you open in the Studio (see the features page for other page types).

• Basic hunt: one QR code per checkpoint, each with a step number. Scans out of order are recorded as invalid.
• Adventure hunt: one QR code starts the hunt, with up to 30 checkpoints in a fixed order. A team sees each clue only after proving the checkpoint before it. Proof can be GPS (a radius of 10 to 2,000 m, 50 m by default; readings with accuracy worse than 500 m are rejected), a code word posted at the spot or given by staff, a photo, or the honor system. If a checkpoint has both GPS and a code word, either one proves the visit. Photos (JPEG, PNG or WebP, up to 10 MB) are reviewed by you by default, or accepted automatically; nothing checks what they show. Hints cost 25 points by default, a hunt allows up to 100 teams of up to 8 people by default, and the leaderboard ranks by checkpoints found, then score, then time.

1. Walk the route and note the latitude and longitude of each GPS checkpoint.
2. Open the adventure hunt template and add the checkpoints in order, each with a title, clue, hints and points.
3. Choose the proof for each: a GPS radius in open spaces, a code word indoors or among tall buildings, a photo where you want a record.
4. Print the start code large, and a sign for each code-word checkpoint with its number and your phone number.
5. Test the whole hunt on two phones, one with location turned off.
6. On the day, brief the teams, then watch the leaderboard and review photos from the code’s dashboard page.
7. Award the prizes and take every sign down.