What is the Cologne outdoor escape game?
The Cologne outdoor escape game is an escape room taken outside: you play on your phone, and at each of 10 stops a puzzle is hidden in the surroundings, to be solved with observation and logic. Plan about 2 hours, with 28 minutes of walking over 2 km, and start on the day you choose.
Each puzzle belongs to a landmark such as Cologne Cathedral, the Historic Town Hall or Great Saint Martin Church, and stands on its own, so no storyline ties the stops together. Stuck? Up to three hint levels are there. The old town suits this format because it is compact and flat, and the landmarks sit close enough to feel like one walk.
- Durationabout 2 hours
- Walkingabout 28 min · 2 km
- Stops10
- LanguagesEnglish, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Dutch
What you do during the game
Reason
Work out each puzzle from what you see around the landmark. No prior knowledge of Cologne is needed.
Observe
Clues sit in the details of each place, from carvings on the façades to the shape of the squares.
Navigate
Google Maps guides you from stop to stop: about 28 minutes of walking across roughly 2 km.
Pause
No clock runs in the background. Take a coffee break or visit a museum, then carry on later or 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
The puzzles give everyone something to debate at the next stop, and nobody needs to know the city beforehand.
Couples
A shared challenge that keeps you talking as you move between landmarks, with no countdown.
Team building
Colleagues work through the puzzles together, with no guide to book.
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 Cologne Cathedral to the Chocolate Museum
10 stops · about 28 min walking · start: Cologne Cathedral · finish: Chocolate Museum
The first puzzle is at Cologne Cathedral and the last at the Chocolate Museum, with eight stops in between: the Heinzelmännchen Fountain, the Alter Markt, the Historic Town Hall, Tünnes and Schäl, Great Saint Martin Church, the Fischmarkt, the Heumarkt and the Cologne Rhine Gauge. Daylight makes the best start, since you solve outdoors and rain or wind slow things down. Google Maps handles the navigation, the app lets you change the order of the stops, and the puzzles need no entry tickets.
Open the route map ↗
1Cologne CathedralStart
Work on the cathedral began in 1248, stopped in the 16th century and was only completed in 1880, following the medieval plans. At about 157 metres it is the tallest twin-spired church in the world and a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1996, and it holds the golden Shrine of the Three Kings.
2Heinzelmännchen Fountain
This neo-Gothic fountain by Edmund Renard was built in 1899–1900 for the 100th birthday of the poet August Kopisch, who wrote the ballad of the Heinzelmännchen. According to the legend, these house spirits did the work of Cologne's craftsmen at night until a curious tailor's wife scattered peas on the stairs to catch them, and they left for good.
3Alter Markt (Old Market)
Recorded as Cologne's market as early as 922, the Alter Markt was also used for tournaments and executions in the Middle Ages. In the middle stands the Jan von Werth Fountain of 1884, and on house number 24 crouches the Kallendresser, a bronze figure with his trousers down made by Ewald Mataré in 1956.
4Historic Town Hall
Cologne's town hall is one of the oldest in Germany: a house of the citizens is recorded in the 12th century, and the Gothic core with the Hansasaal dates from around 1330. Its 61-metre tower of 1407–1414 carries more than a hundred stone figures, and below the clock the Platzjabbeck sticks out his tongue at every stroke of the hour.
5Tünnes and Schäl
This bronze pair near Great Saint Martin Church shows Tünnes and Schäl, two characters from Cologne's Hänneschen puppet theatre and the heroes of countless local jokes. Tünnes is the good-natured one with the big nose, Schäl the sly one, and rubbing Tünnes's nose is said to bring luck, which is why it shines.
6Great Saint Martin Church
With its square crossing tower and four corner turrets, this church is one of the twelve great Romanesque churches of Cologne, built mainly between 1150 and 1250. For centuries it was the church of a Benedictine abbey, and after heavy damage in the Second World War it was rebuilt over more than 40 years.
7Fischmarkt
The Fischmarkt takes its name from the fish, mostly herring, sold here from the Middle Ages, and the Stapelhaus recalls the staple right of 1259, under which Rhine cargoes had to be offered in Cologne for three days. Its narrow, colourful gabled houses below the tower of Great Saint Martin were largely rebuilt after the Second World War.
8Heumarkt
Named after the hay once traded here, the Heumarkt is one of the largest squares in Cologne's old town and was a busy market place in the Middle Ages. In the middle stands an equestrian statue of the Prussian king Friedrich Wilhelm III, and the Deutz Bridge across the Rhine starts right beside the square.
9Cologne Rhine Gauge (Pegelturm)
This small round tower on the Frankenwerft riverside promenade, near the Deutz Bridge, has measured the level of the Rhine since 1951. It shows the current water level, which matters in Cologne, where high water on the Rhine can flood the riverbank of the old town.
10Chocolate MuseumFinish
The Chocolate Museum opened in 1993 at the tip of the Rheinauhafen peninsula, in a glass and metal building that looks like a ship moored on the Rhine. It was founded by the Cologne chocolate manufacturer Hans Imhoff and tells the story of cocoa and chocolate, with a small working production line and a chocolate fountain.
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Karin– Germany –
Collected on GetYourGuide
Hat sehr viel Spaß gemacht, die Kölner Sehenswürdigkeiten auf diese Weise zu erreichen und zu erkunden 😉 Die Rätsel waren (bis auf das erste, das zum Reinkommen ins Spiel ned ganz so toll war) ned zu schwierig und durchaus alle lösbar. Wenn es in der App noch die Möglichkeit gegeben hätte, für nicht zugängliche Orte (zu unserer Zeit war eine Baustelle rund ums Rathaus) zumindest ein Bild zu bekommen, um damit auf die Lösung zu kommen, wären es volle 5 Sterne geworden 😉
Germany –
Collected on GetYourGuide
Navigation in der App wäre schön, damit man nicht immer zu Google maps switchen muss
julian –
Smart riddles of a mix difficulty. It was nice