Last Updated on 23 March 2026 by Colette
This post features gifted experiences
Now that my kids are older, the days of farm visits and picnics in the park filling our school holidays feel naught but a distant memory and finding new ways to spend time together as a family (especially without spending an absolute fortune) can feel hard at times. Everyone has different priorities – they have their own social lives and work commitments that don’t involve me but this February half term, I was determined we’d get at least one proper family day in.
StreetHunt Games is an outdoor, self-guided mystery experience – part escape room, part detective mystery played out on the streets of Manchester, entirely via your phone!
There’s currently a choice of two games available –
- The Case of Colombia’s Finest – which starts at Great Northern Square and finishes close to Cathedral – recommended for age 13+ and said to be challenging.
- Will Breaker – Starts outside the Science and Industry Museum and finishes close to China Town – recommended for age 10+ and said to be accessible but rewarding.
I picked the trickier of the two games on the basis that all five of us were going to be working on it together. I think if it was just me and the girls, I’d have gone for the easier one. I must admit I also preferred the start and finish points of The Case of Colombia’s Finest – the locations were just a bit more convenient for us.
We booked the experience for Tuesday morning knowing that the forecast was cold and damp – which is basically par for the course in Manchester during February half term but it actually turned out to be quite a nice day. When I say nice, it was Baltic but dry and fairly bright. We had booked our start time for 10am but we ended up starting closer to 11am after an unplannned vet’s visit for Poppy and then struggling to find parking in our usual spots!
As part of the set up, each member of your team has access to the game on their phone so we could all read the clues and input information – you could work this competitively I guess but we were working very much collaboratively (some of us more than others!). Amy appreciated having the map on her phone and did a good job of guiding us to various locations whereas Dave and Ben were a bit more on it with the clues – though I definitely held my own and solved quite a few of them too! Chloe, well she came with us . . .
Having picked the more challenging of the two games, I must admit that at the point where we had to get a hint to solve the first clue, I honestly though I might have made a mistake but we got into the swing of it after that which I think was a mixture of the clues being a little more straight forward and us getting a feel for the game.
We solved all but two clues in the allotted time at which point we were offered the option to continue with the final clues or attempt to solve the puzzle. In all honesty we were freezing and ready for lunch so we chanced our arm on solving the crime without having to walk any further and, thanks to some good thinking from Ben and Dave, we cracked it.
We rewarded ourselves for our efforts with lunch in Yard & Coop who currently have a cracking £6 lunch menu and a “kids eat free” offer during the holidays! Let’s face it, pretty much every day out with teens needs to feature food somewhere.
Things you need to know before taking on your StreetHunt-
1. Make sure your phones are well charged (and take a power bank) – you will be using your phone constantly throughout the game.
2. Wear comfy shoes – you’re going to cover a lot of ground.
3. Make sure you’ve booked for a good day weather wise – it was freezing today which made it hard work but honestly if it had been raining we’d have given up.
4. You can pause your timer if you need a break – we probably should have done this more for toilet stops / grabbing drinks but we decided we weren’t overly bothered about the time limit and just wanted to complete the tasks.
5. You will almost certainly argue with each other.
6. The challenge does feel quite long – I think we’d all had enough by about half way but that might just have been that our tolerance was limited by the cold weather, a sulky teenager and hungry tummies.
7. You need to be both observant and able to think outside the box – the clues aren’t ridiculously hard but you do need to keep your eyes open.
8. Make sure you are in exactly the right spot – we slipped up on our location once which made it completely impossible to solve the clue. Luckily we checked the map and realised we needed to move down the road a bit!
9. Whilst the website says games should last between 1 and 2 hours, I would err on the side of this taking longer. We took two hours from start to almost finishing – albeit with a quick stop to grab drinks and go to the toilet.
10. From the pictures you’d think we’d spent two hours with our eyes glued to our screens but there’s plenty of walking between clues for chatting!
11. The price of £16.50 is per player rather than per game which I do think feels quite expensive compared to similar challenges we’ve done which are a one off cost per game making it more affordable for families.
It’s worth knowing that StreetHunt is also available in York and London – I think it’s a great way of exploring a new city or getting to see bits of a familiar city you might not otherwise visit!
Check out these handy links to plan your next adventure …
Check out these posts next:
What to do in Manchester with teens
Cool places to eat in the Northern Quarter
Manchester “Photo Challenge” ideas for teens
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