Adventure Calls With GoQuest Adventures

When adventure calls, you have to accept! GoQuest Adventures has officially landed in Nottingham, and the team at Visit Notts were invited to spend an afternoon solving puzzles, decoding riddles and hunting for clues. Part treasure hunt, part scavenger hunt, the aim of the quest is to get as many points as possible by correctly completing tasks and answering questions in the fastest time possible. The more questions you get correct, the more points you get. Simple, right?

You download the app and undertake a self-led quest through Nottingham City Centre, stopping at iconic locations like the Lace Market quarter, Old Market Square and Nottingham Castle. The app give you questions and tasks while providing some fun info and facts about Nottingham's history. They suggest it will take 2-3 hours to complete with a team of 5 people.

One team member is the 'Quest Master' – the one responsible for inputting your answers. But you can link devices using a simple code, allowing each team member to read the prompt on their own smartphone. This is a particularly useful feature when it comes to re-reading some riddles!

Keep reading to find out what you can expect and how to get 20% off your first Quest!

Our quest & what to expect

Step one? Name the team! We went with Visit Notts Outlaws, in an effort to channel Robin Hood. You are prompted to take a group picture, which then appears on the leader board at the end of your quest. In fact, at a few points in the quest, you are prompted to take a picture as part of the prompt or activity. We found that this adds a fun multi-media element to the quest, and allows it to be more immersive. It also helps to bond your team together ahead of the adventure.

Step two is to start the quest! We headed to Old Market Square and found the Left Lion (an iconic meeting place) and pressed ‘start’. The timer begins. And once it starts, it cannot be stopped or paused.

A couple questions down, and we were already on the move. We counted landmarks, made notes and compelted riddles to find the next location, earning points along the way. You can also expect to unscramble anagrams, basic arithmetic and even do a crossword or two!

You can skip questions, get a hint and even access the map – but it will all cost you some points. Every few questions, you get a ‘Bonus Question’ – a chance to build up some more crucial points and regain any you lost to a hint.

Step three is to finish the adventure at Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem and find out your final score! A refreshing drink was also in store for us, at this historic pub.

Our score? Well, it turns out that what we had gained in speed (being the fastest team on the leader board at time of writing), we lost in points, putting us fifth on the Nottingham leader board. Think you can beat us? Try it yourself and let us know how you did!

For those new to the area

I’ll hold my hands up and admit it. I’m not from Nottingham and I’m likely to stare at someone blankly if they were to ask me where they could find King Street. However, I’ve spent enough time in the city working and visiting on occasion to be able to find myself around. It’s this level of relative comfort and familiarity that causes me to rush through the City from my tram stop into the office without taking a second moment to look and take in my surroundings.

GoQuest is the latest string to the City’s bow, and is a fun excuse to get out and explore elements of the City that we quite often take for granted. With clever little puzzles that require you to engage your brain and bring your attention to some of Nottingham’s quirky sites and trivia, it’s an amazing way to spend a few hours with friends. There’s a good level of challenge to the puzzles, too, which mean the session stays fresh and keeps you on your toes. It also means that the official tourism board’s team of Nottingham experts didn’t even manage to finish in the top 3 on the leader board!

If you and a group of friends are looking for something to do over the next couple of months this summer, be sure to give GoQuest a try. You’ll not regret taking some time to explore parts of the city you usually whiz past. Oh and it finishes near the Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem so there’s a decent pint waiting for you at the end of it should you wish!

Our final thoughts

The GoQuest Adventure experience is a fun way to explore the city centre and find about stories hidden in its colourful streets and historical buildings. It’s a perfect way to spend an afternoon with your friends and family and learn about Nottingham and its heritage while you stop by some of our fantastic landmarks and visitor attractions.

You don’t have to be a Nottingham expert to play, as the questions in the game are designed to test your observation skills and detective work. The answers are already there, just waiting for you to discover them! Don’t forget to wear comfortable attire and take some water, a pen and some paper, and you’re all set to enjoy the wonderful world of GoQuest Adventures.

You could happily play the game across a couple of days, but you cannot pause or stop the timer. The game is an entirely an outdoor activity, so if you need to abandon it one day (albeit for comfort, time or the weather), it is very easy to pick up another time. Your time at the end will just appear as the total time, inclusive of your time away.

It is the perfect activity for locals and tourists alike, so we recommend that everyone gives it a go this summer. And you can enjoy 20% off your first Quest by using the code PLAYTODAY.

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This blog was written by Katherine Taylor, Marketing Executive at Visit Nottinghamshire, with contributions from Kinga Kapias and Jack Woolley.