What is the Barcelona outdoor escape game?
The Barcelona outdoor escape game is an escape room turned inside out: the puzzles sit in the open air at the landmarks of the old town and the waterfront, and your phone is the only equipment you need besides sharp eyes. Count on about 2 hours, with 51 minutes of walking over 4.1 km across 10 stops, beginning on any day you like.
Puzzles are waiting at the Palau de la Música Catalana, Barcelona Cathedral, the Liceu opera house, Gaudí's Palau Güell, the Columbus Monument, the Rambla de Mar, Lichtenstein's El Cap de Barcelona, Santa Maria del Mar and the Picasso Museum. Nothing connects them into a narrative, each one is self-contained, and three levels of hints stand ready. Mosaic, wrought iron and carved stone are everywhere in the old town, so there is no shortage of detail to read.
- Durationabout 2 hours
- Walkingabout 51 min · 4.1 km
- Stops10
- LanguagesEnglish, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, Portuguese
What you do on the escape game
Solve
A single puzzle at each landmark, opened with a careful look and a clear head. No prior knowledge needed.
Look closer
The clues sit in mosaic tiles, ironwork, sculpted figures and the signs above the doorways.
Walk
Google Maps covers the distances: 51 minutes of walking in total, over roughly 4.1 km.
Take your time
No countdown is running. Call a hint when a puzzle sticks, stop for a coffee and resume later or on another day.
See the route and attractions →
How it works
- Book online Choose the number of players. Your booking reference arrives by email straight away.
- Get the app Download the World City Trail app from the App Store or Google Play and enter your booking reference.
- Play when you like Start whenever you are ready, walk at your own pace and pause any time. No guide, no fixed schedule.
Who it suits
Friends on a day out
Everyone gets to argue a theory at the next landmark, and nobody needs to know Barcelona in advance.
Couples
A shared puzzle from the Gothic Quarter down to the harbour, at whatever speed suits you.
Team building
Teams of up to 5 play on their own phones, which keeps a company outing easy to run.
Good to know
- Bring a charged smartphone with mobile data; a power bank helps.
- Best started in daylight, so you can see the details the puzzles ask about.
- No entry tickets needed: everything happens outside the buildings. Going inside is optional and paid separately.
- Family friendly; children must be accompanied by an adult.
- Not suitable for wheelchair users and difficult with strollers.
- Teams of up to 5 work best; bigger groups split into several teams, one ticket per player.
- Every purchase helps support stray cats and dogs in Greece.
Puzzle route: from Plaça de Catalunya to the Picasso Museum
10 stops · about 51 min walking · start: Plaça de Catalunya · finish: Picasso Museum (Museu Picasso)
Plaça de Catalunya sets the game going, and the old town follows at once with the Palau de la Música Catalana and Barcelona Cathedral. From the Liceu the route runs down La Rambla past Palau Güell to the Columbus Monument, crosses the Rambla de Mar, meets El Cap de Barcelona on the waterfront and turns into La Ribera for Santa Maria del Mar and the last puzzle at the Picasso Museum. Daylight suits the game, as each answer is taken from the building in front of you, and the weather decides the pace. Google Maps covers the walking, the app lets you rearrange the stops, and no entry ticket is needed.
Open the route map ↗
1Plaça de CatalunyaStart
Barcelona's central square links the old town, via La Rambla and Portal de l'Àngel, with the Eixample grid of the 19th-century city extension. It took its present form in the late 1920s, before the 1929 International Exhibition, and on one side stands Josep Maria Subirachs's monument to Catalan president Francesc Macià, installed in 1991.
2Palau de la Música Catalana
Lluís Domènech i Montaner built this concert hall in 1905–1908 for the Orfeó Català choral society, and it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Look up at the corner of the building, where a sculpture group by Miquel Blay stands for Catalan song.
3Barcelona Cathedral
The Cathedral of the Holy Cross and Saint Eulalia was begun in 1298 on the site of earlier churches, but its neo-Gothic main façade was only completed in the early 20th century. Thirteen white geese live in the cloister, a number linked to the belief that Eulalia, the city's co-patron saint, was 13 when she was martyred.
4Gran Teatre del Liceu
Barcelona's opera house opened on La Rambla in 1847. It was rebuilt after fires in 1861 and 1994 and reopened in 1999, and in 1893 an anarchist threw bombs into the stalls on the opening night of the season.
5Palau Güell
Antoni Gaudí built this town palace in 1886–1890 for his patron Eusebi Güell, and it is part of the UNESCO World Heritage listing of Gaudí's works. Look at the two wrought-iron gates shaped as parabolic arches, wide enough for horse-drawn carriages, and at the mosaic-covered chimneys on the roof.
6Columbus Monument (Mirador de Colom)
The Columbus Monument at the bottom of La Rambla is 60 metres tall and was completed for the 1888 Universal Exhibition, after a competition won by Gaietà Buïgas. Columbus stands on top with his right arm stretched out towards the sea, and a lift inside the column goes up to a viewing platform.
7Rambla de Mar
This wooden walkway, designed by the architects Helio Piñón and Albert Viaplana, continues La Rambla across the water of Port Vell to the Moll d'Espanya. It began operating in 1994, when the old harbour was being turned into a public waterfront.
Read the full story →
8El Cap de Barcelona (Barcelona Head)
The American pop artist Roy Lichtenstein created this giant head for the 1992 Olympic Games, and it stands on the waterfront near the old port. It is made of concrete and glazed ceramic tiles, with the comic-strip dots and bold outlines typical of his work.
9Basilica of Santa Maria del Mar
Santa Maria del Mar in the La Ribera district was built between 1329 and 1383 and is one of the finest examples of Catalan Gothic. Inside, slender octagonal columns hold up a wide, open nave. According to local tradition, the harbour porters, the bastaixos, carried its stones on their backs from Montjuïc.
10Picasso Museum (Museu Picasso)Finish
The Picasso Museum opened in 1963 on Carrer de Montcada and now occupies five adjoining medieval palaces. Its collection is especially strong on Picasso's early years, and it holds his complete Las Meninas series from 1957.
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France –
Collected on GetYourGuide
Serge– Switzerland –
Collected on GetYourGuide
Die Übersetzung ins Deutsche ist zum Teil sehr schlecht formuliert. Zum Teil sind die Fragen zu ungenau formuliert… vorallem die letzten 3 Fragen.
Angelena– Singapore –
Collected on GetYourGuide
1. The concept was great but some of the instructions were not clear. 2. Increase the difficulty of the puzzles.
Mexico –
Collected on GetYourGuide
bien