An immersive scavenger hunt in London?! Welcome to my HiddenCity ‘The Enchanted Mirror’ review!
I LOVE games. Board games, Brain puzzles and anything interactive are my jam! So when I KEPT getting ads for HiddenCity’s new scavenger hunt in London- ‘The Enchanted Mirror’ – popping up across my social media, I took it as a sign and signed R and I up before I could talk myself out of it. ( because who has spare money after Christmas?! Not me!)
What really stood out to me when looking into the experiences HiddenCity provide , was that not only do these experiences combine a competative game of clues with exploring London but they also hint at introducing you to new and unknown parts of the city. I am ALWAYS up for that!
Note* I’ve decided not to include too many of my images from the day here because I don’t want to give too much away and ruin the fun!
What to expect:
At 2.7 miles of trail, ‘medium’ clues and a Snow White theme ( no knowledge of the tale actually needed. Just a love for fairytales!) The Enchanted Mirror scavenger hunt in London was our experience of choice.
The concept is fairly simple. You get a ‘starting location’ and time window , you arrive at said location and the rest of the game is done via texts. When you arrive you send ‘start’. Instantly you’re thrown into a story and a character and off you go!
Throughout the experience breaks are provided and you are led into establishments where you may ( but don’t have to) get yourselves drink/food along the way. Plus, if you’re particularly competative then you’ll be happy to know that there IS a leaderboard on their website showing average time spent per clue, overall time taken etc. etc. ( And no i’m not going to tell you what R and I’s team name was because our result was NOT impressive! :P).
You can also choose to play against other groups of friends. This way you all start at the same time and see who finishes with the best time ( after penalties!). And don’t worry if you think this would be a day of stealing clue answers from the other teams because I can almost guarantee you that you’ll get split up along the way. However you’ll have the chance to re-connect at the various ‘break’ points ( depending on just HOW far behind some teams are ;P ).
Our Experience of The Enchanted Mirror :
Following a bit of a rocky start ,with an issue with the first clue ( don’t worry we’ve made Hidden City aware, so hopefully this doesn’t happen to anyone else in the future!), we were quickly thrown into competative mode and found ourselves wandering around semi-aimlessly, in search of clue answers.
Beware: there are a few times where you have to speak to staff within an establishment with a specific ‘worded’ sentence. But even this didn’t throw me off , as someone with social anxiety. If anything it just added to the fun- Like you are in on something that no other customer knows about.
Along the way you are taken down beautiful cobbled streets of London’s Mews, walking across garden areas and into otherwise-unknown establishments.
I’m happy to say as well that there is a pub out there now that has made new customers of R and I. After having the most delicious vegan nacho’s ever, we will DEFINITELY be returning! And that, I think, is one of the best parts of this experience.
Plus , through a fortuitous accident , a misreading of a clue even led us here to Orée for a pastry ;P. Okay, so it wasn’t good for our ‘time taken’ but worth it!
Overall Thoughts:
- At £19p/p, HiddenCity’s ‘The Enchanted Mirror’ scavenger hunt in London experience is well worth the hours of fun it provides. Taking between 3-4 hours on average, with mid-level clues it can be challenging but not too much. It takes you on a journey around London, seeking out fun locations. You can also be as competative, or not, as you like!
- I’d say it’s fairly accessible for people of all fitness levels, in case that is a worry. There is obviously quite a bit of walking with some staircases, but nothing too challenging.
- . Side note* = As the experience contains lots of walking between areas outside i’d try to plan it for a day when there’s nice weather! Rhys and I both ended the day on a complete high, really having enjoyed ourselves, even with the bitter weather outside but might not have been quite so optimistic if it were chucking it down with rain!
As well as The Enchanted Mirror , HiddenCity have various other experiences of this kind on their website ranging in difficulty. Head over to their website below and see what you like ( Alongside the scavenger hunts in London there are also other city options too!) . I know Rhys and I will definitely be doing another one. In fact, please make more Hidden City. Asap!
To book your places now then head on over to their website. According to their website, The Enchanted Mirror is only running until 3rd March so do it while you can!
https://www.inthehiddencity.com/london/the-enchanted-mirror
Till next time,
