Columns, Liver Birds and a Chinese arch: Liverpool as a riddle trail
The Liverpool scavenger hunt is a self-guided city game you play on your phone: you walk from landmark to landmark, solve a riddle at each one by looking closely at what is in front of you, and unlock the stories and legends behind it. From William Brown Street to St James' Mount the game covers 4.4 km and 10 stops, about 58 minutes of it on your feet, and with riddles, Beatles tales and harbour stories added the whole thing comes to around 3 hours from the moment you begin.
Highlights include St George's Hall, the Cavern Club on Mathew Street, the Liver Birds on the Three Graces, the Beatles statue at Pier Head, the Royal Albert Dock, the Chinese arch of Chinatown and Liverpool Cathedral. The city centre is compact, so on foot you link Victorian grandeur, Beatles history and the docks of what was once one of the world's great ports.
- Durationabout 3 hours
- Walkingabout 58 min · 4.4 km
- Stops10
- LanguagesEnglish, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Dutch
A game from William Brown Street down to the Mersey and up to the cathedral
Clues carved in stone and cast in bronze
At each of the 10 stops one riddle hides in plain sight: on the Corinthian columns of St George's Hall, on the clock towers of the Royal Liver Building, on the arch at the entrance to Chinatown. A sharp look and some logic crack it, and you do not need to know a single Beatles lyric.
Liver Birds, a cellar club and a fireproof dock
Every answer opens a story: the legend that Liverpool would cease to exist if the Liver Birds flew away, the cellar on Mathew Street where Brian Epstein first saw the Beatles in 1961, and Jesse Hartley's Royal Albert Dock, built without structural timber so that it could not burn. Switch on the audio narration if you would rather hear the tales with the Mersey in view.
4.4 km from the museums to the waterfront and back up
About 58 minutes of walking takes you from the classical buildings of William Brown Street down to Pier Head, along the docks and then inland through Chinatown to St James' Mount. Google Maps shows the way, and the last stretch climbs gently towards the cathedral.
Fish and chips by the docks? Fine
The game never counts the minutes, so stop for lunch at the Royal Albert Dock, watch a Mersey Ferry leave Pier Head, and carry on later or another day. Your hotel near the waterfront can also be your starting point if you set it in the app.
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.
Beatles fans, families and teams on Merseyside
Music fans with one day in the city
The Cavern Club, the bronze Beatles striding along the river and the waterfront that shaped the band's port city all lie on one 4.4 km route. The riddles add the stories that a quick photo stop would miss.
Young players and the city's stone lions
Children enjoy the stone lions outside St George's Hall, the two Liver Birds said to keep the city alive and the red telephone box inside the cathedral, designed by the same architect as the building. One adult plays in each team, and lunch at the docks splits the 4.4 km nicely in two.
Stag weekends, colleagues and student groups
Teams of up to 5 players, every member on their own phone, can leave World Museum at short intervals and meet again at the cathedral. The streets, the waterfront and the docks are public, so the tickets are the only thing to book.
Good to know
- Bring a charged smartphone with mobile data; a power bank helps.
- 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.
The route: from World Museum via the Cavern Club and Pier Head to Liverpool Cathedral
10 stops · about 58 min walking · start: World Museum · finish: Liverpool Cathedral
The hunt starts at World Museum on William Brown Street, passes St George's Hall and Radio City Tower and heads down Mathew Street to the Cavern Club. At the waterfront you visit the Three Graces and Pier Head, then walk along the Royal Albert Dock to Tate Liverpool. From there you go inland to the Nordic Church and through Chinatown, and finish at Liverpool Cathedral on St James' Mount. Staying near the Albert Dock or arriving at Lime Street, you can pick a different opening stop in the app and let it rearrange the rest, and since the clues are all on columns, clock towers and gateways, there is not a single turnstile to pass on the way.
Open the route map ↗
1World MuseumStart
World Museum stands on William Brown Street, named after the merchant who paid for the museum and library building that opened here in 1860. Its collections range from natural history and ancient Egypt to space, and it sits beside the Walker Art Gallery and the Central Library in a row of grand classical buildings.
2St George's Hall
St George's Hall was designed by Harvey Lonsdale Elmes, who won the competition in his twenties, and completed by Charles Cockerell after his early death. Opened in 1854, it combined a concert hall and law courts behind rows of huge Corinthian columns, and stone lions guard the plateau on its Lime Street side.
3Radio City Tower (St John's Beacon)
Also known as St John's Beacon, this concrete tower rises about 138 metres above the city centre and opened in 1969. It was built as a ventilation shaft for the shopping centre below, with a revolving restaurant at the top, and today it houses the studios of the Radio City station.
Read the full story →
4The Cavern Club
The Cavern Club opened on Mathew Street in 1957 as a jazz club in a cellar, and the Beatles played here nearly 300 times between 1961 and 1963. Brian Epstein first saw them on this stage in November 1961. The original cellar was filled in during the 1970s, and today's club was rebuilt in the 1980s on much of the original site.
5The Three Graces
The Three Graces are the waterfront trio of the Royal Liver Building, the Cunard Building and the Port of Liverpool Building, completed between 1907 and 1917. Look up at the two Liver Birds on the clock towers of the Royal Liver Building: legend says that if they ever flew away, the city would cease to exist.
Read the full story →
6Pier Head
Pier Head is Liverpool's waterfront promenade on the River Mersey, where the Mersey Ferries leave for Birkenhead and Wallasey. Here you find the bronze statue of the four Beatles striding along the river, unveiled in 2015, the modern Museum of Liverpool and memorials to the city's seafarers.
7Tate Liverpool and the Royal Albert Dock
Tate Liverpool opened in 1988 in a converted warehouse of the Royal Albert Dock, as the first Tate gallery outside London. The dock itself was designed by Jesse Hartley and opened in 1846, and it was the first structure in Britain built only of cast iron, brick and stone, without structural timber, so that it could not burn.
8Nordic Church (Gustav Adolf's Church)
Gustav Adolf's Church, today the Nordic Church and Cultural Centre, opened in 1884 for the Scandinavian sailors and emigrants who passed through the port of Liverpool. It was an early work of the architect William Douglas Caröe, and its stepped brick gables give it a distinctly Scandinavian look.
9Chinatown
Liverpool's Chinatown is home to one of the oldest Chinese communities in Europe, which grew from seafarers who came with the shipping lines in the 19th century. Its entrance on Nelson Street is marked by a Chinese arch, made in Shanghai and put up in 2000, one of the largest of its kind outside China.
10Liverpool CathedralFinish
Liverpool's Anglican Cathedral, the largest cathedral in Britain, was designed by Giles Gilbert Scott, who won the competition in 1903 aged just 22. Building began in 1904 and was only completed in 1978, long after Scott's death in 1960. Scott also designed the red telephone box, and one of them stands inside the cathedral.
Only logged in customers who have purchased this product may leave a review.
Alison– Malta –
Collected on GetYourGuide
Susan– Netherlands –
Collected on GetYourGuide
Leuke wandeltocht door Liverpool langs de belangrijkste bezienswaardigheden. Erg leuk dat er ook uitleg bij de verschillende punten gegeven wordt voor meer context en leuke feitjes. De route was wel best lang. Vooral Chinatown en de grote kathedraal liggen wat verder uit het centrum (meer dan 1 km lopen) Het begin was wel moeizaam aangezien de eerste opdracht met de teksten op de tegels totaal niet logisch was. Zelfs toen we bij trial and error het juiste woord hadden, dan nog konden we niet terug redeneren waarom dat het antwoord zou moeten zijn… Dat was jammer. Andere opdrachten en vragen waren veel beter begrijpbaar en goed te doen, vaak aan de simpele kant waardoor we snel door konden.
Mark– United Kingdom –
Collected on GetYourGuide
I really enjoyed it. Some of the puzzles were really simple and one of them I overthought so my fault. Locations are just an approximation. You need to find the exact place yourself. Would do another? Yes. Would I recommend this one? Yes
Julie– United Kingdom –
Collected on GetYourGuide
Great way to see the city- first clue was a pig though!!!
United Kingdom –
Collected on GetYourGuide
Trickier than we thought it would be!
Netherlands –
Collected on GetYourGuide
De opdrachten waren erg wisselend in moeilijkheidsgraad. De eerste opdracht begrepen we niet. Ook de opdracht met wat ontbreekt er was lastig, omdat we wel zagen wat er ontbrak maar toen moest er een cijfer ingevuld worden.
Australia –
Collected on GetYourGuide
We got to see places we wouldn’t normally visit and had fun as a family solving the clues.
Greece –
Collected on GetYourGuide
It was excellent!! I would definitely play it again in another city!!!
United Kingdom –
Collected on GetYourGuide
Great way to see Liverpool!
Switzerland –
Collected on GetYourGuide
Schöne, interessante Art, die Stadt kennenzulernen. Übersetzungen nicht immer ganz verständlich.
jophn45 –
cool way to explroe the city !
korendo23 –
Challenging game, you have to be willing to solve any kind of riddle! The difficulty was mixed , easy and hard riddles, generally of a good balance