What is the Oxford outdoor escape game?
The Oxford outdoor escape game is a puzzle trail through the city that you follow on your phone: at each of the 10 sites a riddle waits, and you crack it by observing your surroundings and reasoning it out. Allow roughly 2 hours, with 42 minutes of walking over 3.0 km, and start on a day that works for you.
Oxford gives this format plenty to work with: a Norman castle mound, an 1774 covered market, a museum building from 1683 and the courtyards of the colleges all sit within one walk of each other. Each puzzle stands alone with no storyline, and up to three hint levels are available if a riddle stumps you.
- Durationabout 2 hours
- Walkingabout 42 min · 3 km
- Stops10
- LanguagesEnglish, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Dutch
What you do on the escape game
Reason it out
Work out each puzzle from the stonework, signs and details around you. You need no prior knowledge of Oxford.
Scan for detail
Carved heads, doorways and shopfronts can hold the clue, so pay attention to the small things.
Walk
Google Maps links the sites together: about 42 minutes on foot over roughly 3 km.
No time pressure
No timer runs. Ask for a hint when you are stuck, take a seat on a bench 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 on a day out
Each site throws a new question at the group, and nobody needs to know Oxford's history before setting off.
Couples
Puzzling your way through the colleges together makes an unhurried outing, with no clock in the background.
Team building
Teams of up to 5 play on their own phones, so colleagues can split up the riddles or stay together.
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 Oxford Castle to Christ Church Meadow
10 stops · about 42 min walking · start: Oxford Castle and Prison · finish: Christ Church Meadow
Leaving the castle and prison behind, you pick up the Covered Market, then the Ashmolean and the History of Science Museum, before the University of Oxford and the Bodleian Library come into view. You continue to the Radcliffe Camera, The Story Museum and Christ Church, and end in Christ Church Meadow. Daylight suits the start, since rain or wind slow play outdoors. Google Maps guides you between sites, the app lets you change the order, and entry tickets are not needed.
Open the route map ↗
1Oxford Castle and PrisonStart
Robert D'Oyly built a castle here in 1071 for William the Conqueror, and its mound and St George's Tower still stand. In 1142 Empress Matilda is said to have escaped the besieged castle across the frozen river, dressed in white against the snow. The site was used as a prison until 1996.
2Covered Market
The Covered Market opened in 1774, when the city moved untidy street stalls off the main streets into one building between High Street and Market Street. Its long, roofed avenues are still lined with small independent traders, from butchers and bakers to cafés.
3Ashmolean Museum
Founded in 1683 around the collection that Elias Ashmole gave to the university, the Ashmolean is often called Britain's first public museum. Its present neoclassical building on Beaumont Street, designed by Charles Robert Cockerell, opened in 1845. The collections range from ancient Egyptian objects to European paintings.
4History of Science Museum
This building on Broad Street was completed in 1683 for the original Ashmolean Museum and is considered the oldest surviving purpose-built museum building in the world. Today it displays scientific instruments such as astrolabes and early clocks, as well as a blackboard used by Albert Einstein in a lecture in 1931.
5University of Oxford
Teaching took place in Oxford by 1096, which makes it the oldest university in the English-speaking world. On Broad Street stands the Sheldonian Theatre, designed by Christopher Wren and completed in 1669, where degree ceremonies are held. Look for the large carved stone heads on the pillars in front of it.
Read the full story →
6Bodleian Library
Sir Thomas Bodley refounded the university library, which reopened in 1602 and still bears his name. The Old Schools Quadrangle is entered beneath the Tower of the Five Orders, which shows the five classical types of column stacked one above the other. Since an agreement of 1610, the library has collected books published in England.
7Radcliffe Camera
Paid for by a bequest from the royal physician John Radcliffe, this round, domed library was designed by James Gibbs and completed in 1749. It stands in the middle of Radcliffe Square, surrounded by colleges and the University Church, and today serves as a reading room of the Bodleian Library.
Read the full story →
8The Story Museum
The Story Museum on Pembroke Street is devoted to stories and storytelling for children and families. It suits Oxford well, a city linked with authors such as Lewis Carroll, Tolkien and Philip Pullman, whose books were written or set here.
9Christ Church
Cardinal Wolsey founded this college in 1525, and Henry VIII refounded it in 1546 as Christ Church, with its chapel serving as Oxford's cathedral. Christopher Wren designed Tom Tower above the main gate, and its bell, Great Tom, rings 101 times every evening. Lewis Carroll taught mathematics here.
Read the full story →
10Christ Church MeadowFinish
This wide stretch of open meadow belongs to Christ Church and lies between the Thames and the river Cherwell. Its paths offer views back to the towers of Christ Church and Merton College, and cattle often graze in the fields, a rural scene a few minutes from the city centre.
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Fiona– United Kingdom –
Collected on GetYourGuide
Really enjoyed the tour, lots of information and most of the clues were challenging but do-able. Great app with easy interaction with maps. Highly recommend!