What is the Philadelphia outdoor escape game?
The Philadelphia outdoor escape game is an escape room taken out into Center City: you play on your smartphone, and at each of the 10 stops a puzzle waits that you crack by studying your surroundings and thinking it through logically. In about 2 hours you walk 4.3 km, roughly 63 minutes of it on the move, starting whenever you like.
Each puzzle is tied to a landmark such as Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell or the Betsy Ross House, and stands on its own, so no storyline links the stops. Stuck? Nobody has to abandon a puzzle, since up to three levels of hints can be unlocked. The historic district is compact, so the game feels like one long walk from colonial Philadelphia to the modern city.
- Durationabout 2 hours
- Walkingabout 63 min · 4.3 km
- Stops10
- LanguagesEnglish, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese
What you do on the escape game
Solve
Crack the puzzle at every stop by observing the surroundings and reasoning it out. No prior knowledge of Philadelphia is needed.
Look closer
The clues sit in facades, inscriptions and the layout of the squares you pass through.
Walk
Follow Google Maps from stop to stop: about 63 minutes of walking across roughly 4.3 km.
Take your time
There is no countdown. Use hints when you need them, pause for a coffee and come back 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 on a day out
Every puzzle gives the group something to debate at the next landmark, and nobody has to know the city beforehand.
Couples
A shared challenge that keeps you talking as you move between landmarks, with no clock ticking in the background.
Team building
Teams of up to 5 play on their own phones, which makes it a practical choice 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 the Academy of Natural Sciences to Elfreth's Alley
10 stops · about 63 min walking · start: Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University · finish: Elfreth's Alley Museum
The first puzzle waits at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University on Logan Square and the last at Elfreth's Alley Museum, with eight stops in between: JFK Plaza (LOVE Park), Philadelphia City Hall, the Chinatown Friendship Arch, Franklin Square, the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, the Museum of the American Revolution and the Betsy Ross House. Daylight makes the best start, because the puzzles are solved outdoors and rain or wind slow everything down. Google Maps guides you between stops, the app lets you reorder them, and the puzzles need no entry tickets.
Open the route map ↗
1Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel UniversityStart
Founded in 1812, the Academy is one of the oldest natural science institutions in the Americas and stands on Logan Square along the Benjamin Franklin Parkway. In 1868 it mounted Hadrosaurus foulkii, the first dinosaur skeleton ever put on public display. It has been part of Drexel University since 2011.
2LOVE Park (JFK Plaza)
This plaza opposite City Hall, officially named after President Kennedy, is known to everyone as LOVE Park. Robert Indiana's red LOVE sculpture, with its tilted letter O, first came here for the 1976 Bicentennial and was later bought for the city. Behind it a large fountain marks the start of the Benjamin Franklin Parkway.
3Philadelphia City Hall
Built between 1871 and 1901 to designs by John McArthur Jr., City Hall is crowned by a 37-foot bronze statue of William Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania, by Alexander Milne Calder. For decades an unwritten agreement kept every building in the city lower than Penn's hat, until One Liberty Place rose higher in 1987.
4Chinatown Friendship Arch
This richly painted Chinese gate on 10th Street was dedicated in 1984 to mark the friendship between Philadelphia and its sister city Tianjin. Artisans from China built it, and Tianjin supplied its ornamental tiles. The large Chinese characters across the top read Philadelphia Chinatown.
5Franklin Square
Franklin Square is one of the five public squares in William Penn's 1682 plan for Philadelphia, and it was named after Benjamin Franklin in 1825. Its centrepiece is a fountain from 1838 that runs again since the square was renovated in the 2000s. Today it is a family park with a carousel and mini golf.
6Liberty Bell
The bell was cast in London in 1752 for the Pennsylvania State House, cracked when it was first rung and was recast in Philadelphia by Pass and Stow. Its inscription from the Book of Leviticus calls for liberty to be proclaimed throughout all the land, and in the 1830s abolitionists made it their symbol and gave it its name. Look for the old spelling Pensylvania.
Read the full story →
7Independence Hall
Built between 1732 and 1753 as the Pennsylvania State House, this brick building is where the Declaration of Independence was adopted in 1776 and the United States Constitution was drafted in 1787. It has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1979. Look up at the white steeple, where the Liberty Bell once hung.
8Museum of the American Revolution
Opened in 2017 at the corner of Third and Chestnut Streets, this museum tells the story of the American Revolution through objects, paintings and full-size scenes. Its best-known treasure is the tent George Washington used as his headquarters during much of the war.
9Betsy Ross House
This small brick house on Arch Street, built around 1740, is where the upholsterer Betsy Ross is said to have lived and worked. According to a family story first made public by her grandson in 1870, she sewed the first Stars and Stripes in 1776, but no document from the time confirms it.
10Elfreth's Alley MuseumFinish
Elfreth's Alley dates from the early 1700s and is one of the oldest continuously inhabited residential streets in the United States. Its brick houses were built mostly by craftsmen and tradesmen between 1728 and 1836, and the street is named after the blacksmith Jeremiah Elfreth. The museum occupies two of the houses, numbers 124 and 126.
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