What is the Freiburg outdoor escape game?
The Freiburg outdoor escape game is an escape room taken out into the old town: you carry your smartphone from one landmark to the next, and each of the 10 stops hides a puzzle that you solve by reading the surroundings and reasoning it through. Allow about 2 hours, with 25 minutes of walking over 2 km, and choose any day that suits your group.
Puzzles sit at stops such as the Minster, the two medieval gates Martinstor and Schwabentor, the Historic Merchants' Hall and the Markthalle. Each puzzle stands alone, so you never need a storyline to reach the next one. Three levels of hints are available if a puzzle stumps you. The compact old town suits this format, because the stops sit a short walk apart and the clues lie in façades and on squares.
- Durationabout 2 hours
- Walkingabout 25 min · 2 km
- Stops10
- LanguagesEnglish, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Dutch
What you do on the escape game
Solve
Work out the puzzle at each stop by watching the place closely and thinking it through logically. No prior knowledge of Freiburg is needed.
Scan the surroundings
The clues are in the details around each landmark, such as façades, statues and the layout of the square.
Walk
Follow Google Maps between stops: about 25 minutes on foot over roughly 2 km.
Take your time
There is no countdown. Use a hint when you need one, take a coffee break, and carry on 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
Every puzzle gives the group something to argue about at the next landmark, and nobody has to know the city beforehand.
Couples
A shared challenge that keeps you talking as you stroll between the Minster and the gates, with no clock running.
Team building
Teams of up to 5 play on their own phones, which makes it a simple option for colleagues.
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 Platz der Alten Synagoge to the New Town Hall
10 stops · about 25 min walking · start: Platz der Alten Synagoge · finish: Coats of arms of the twin towns
The first puzzle waits at the Platz der Alten Synagoge beside the university, and the last one at the coats of arms of the twin towns near the New Town Hall. In between come Martinstor, Schwabentor, the Historic Merchants' Hall, the Minster, the Markthalle and the Bertoldsbrunnen. Start in daylight if you can, because rain or wind slow every stop. Google Maps guides you between puzzles, the app lets you change the order, and no entry tickets are needed.
Open the route map ↗
1Platz der Alten SynagogeStart
This square between the university and the city theatre is named after Freiburg's synagogue, which stood here until it was destroyed in the November pogrom of 1938. Since the square was redesigned in 2017, a shallow water basin traces the outline of the vanished building as a memorial.
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2University of Freiburg
The Albert-Ludwigs-Universität was founded in 1457 by Archduke Albert VI of Austria and is one of the oldest universities in Germany. Its Art Nouveau main lecture building bears the inscription 'Die Wahrheit wird euch frei machen', the truth shall make you free. The philosophers Edmund Husserl and Martin Heidegger both taught here.
3Martinstor (Martin's Gate)
Martin's Gate is one of the two medieval city gates still standing in Freiburg, first built in the 13th century. Around 1900 it was raised considerably and given its tall roof. Today the main shopping street, Kaiser-Joseph-Straße, runs right through its archway.
4Schwabentor
The Swabian Gate, Freiburg's second surviving medieval gate, guarded the road east towards Swabia, which gave it its name. Like Martin's Gate, it was made taller in the early 20th century. According to legend, a rich Swabian wanted to buy Freiburg with barrels of gold, but his wife had secretly filled them with sand.
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5Historic Merchants' Hall
The red Historic Merchants' Hall on the south side of Münsterplatz was built in the early 16th century as the city's customs and trading house. Statues of four Habsburg rulers, including Emperor Maximilian I and Charles V, stand on its façade, and two corner oriels with colourful glazed-tile roofs frame the arcades.
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6Freiburg Minster
Freiburg Minster was begun around 1200 in Romanesque style and completed over more than three centuries in Gothic style. Its 116-metre tower with an openwork stone spire was finished in the 14th century, and the historian Jacob Burckhardt is said to have called it the most beautiful tower in Christendom. It survived the bombing of 1944 largely intact.
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7Markthalle
The Markthalle is a covered food hall in the old town, a short walk from Martin's Gate. Its counters serve food from many countries side by side, and students and locals come here for a quick lunch or a coffee.
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8Bertoldsbrunnen
This fountain marks the crossing of the old town's two main streets, where today the tram lines meet. It honours the dukes of Zähringen, who founded Freiburg in 1120, with a statue of Duke Berthold. The original fountain was destroyed in the Second World War and later replaced.
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9Neues Rathaus
The New Town Hall was created in the early 20th century by linking two older Renaissance houses, and it stands next to the red Old Town Hall on Rathausplatz. In the square is a statue of the monk Berthold Schwarz, who according to legend invented gunpowder in Freiburg.
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10Coats of arms of the twin townsFinish
The coats of arms of Freiburg's twin towns are shown here as a mosaic of international friendship. The oldest partnership, with Besançon in France, dates from 1959, and others link Freiburg with cities such as Innsbruck, Padua, Guildford, Madison and Granada. Pebble mosaics in the pavements are a long Freiburg tradition.
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Pascal– Germany –
Collected on GetYourGuide
Es hat sehr viel Spa? gemacht, man sieht allerlei Orte und lernt viele interessante Geschichten und Hintergr?nde zu Geb?uden, Personen und der Stadt. Manche R?tsel jedoch unl?sbar (beispielsweise irgendwelche exotischen Tiere im Doppeladler zu erkennen, die nicht da waren.. da h?tten Hinweise geholfen) Eine vorlesefunktion w?re nat?rlich das i-t?pfelchen gewesen, damit beid den Blick vom Handy hoch bekommen.
Saskia– Germany –
Collected on GetYourGuide
War eine tolle kleine Runde bei der man viel gelernt hat. Die R?tsel haben auch den Kindern Spa? gemacht.
Katharina– Germany –
Collected on GetYourGuide
Die Infos zur Geschichte waren cool. Die R?tsel etwas irritierend. Man wusste oft nicht, was die Frage ist und musste den “Hinweis”- Button dr?cken, um ?berhaupt die Frage zu erhalten. Damit hat man Siegpunkte verloren, aber das war uns nicht so wichtig. Au?erdem w?re es gut gewesen, darauf hinzuweisen, dass man die R?tsel besser bei Tageslicht macht. Im Winter ist es fr?h dunkel und wir haben uns da schwer getan.
Martin– Switzerland –
Collected on GetYourGuide
Uns hat es sehr gut gefallen. War sehr informativ, kurz gehalten. Interessant, das einzige war beim Start war es nicht ganz klar wie beginnen mit App oder ohne aber hat dann gleich geklappt. D k?nnte man im Mail klarer beschreiben. [z.B. zum Starten hier dr?cken] aber ist wirklich zum Weiterempfehlen.
Germany –
Collected on GetYourGuide
Man kommt an den wichtigsten Sehensw?rdigkeiten vorbei und erf?hrt auch viel. Kein Zeitlimit, so dass wir nach der H?lfte auf den Schlossberg konnten und danach einfach weitermachen konnten. Aber es ist kein Escape Room und die R?tsel haben auch nix damit gemeinsam. Es werden zwischendurch kurz andere Texte angezeigt, die nix damit zu tun haben. Und einmal wurde unser L?sungswort nicht akzeptierr, obwohl es richtig war (nachher so angezeigt, wie wir es eingegeben hatten) Daher nur durchschnittlich.