What is the St. Gallen outdoor escape game?
The St. Gallen outdoor escape game is an escape room with the roof taken off: the puzzles are built into the city itself, and you crack them on your phone using logic and whatever you can see around you. Allow about 2 hours in total, of which only 26 minutes are walking, because the 10 stops are packed into 2.1 km of old town.
The puzzle locations run from the Stadtlounge, the red square laid out like an open-air living room, to the Broderbrunnen fountain, the Abbey of St Gall and St. Laurenzen Church. Each puzzle is independent, with up to three levels of hints behind it. St. Gallen rewards close observation: the old-town houses carry carved and painted oriel windows paid for by linen and embroidery merchants, and that is a lot of detail per street.
- Durationabout 2 hours
- Walkingabout 26 min · 2.1 km
- Stops10
- LanguagesEnglish, German, French, Italian, Spanish
What you do on the escape game
Solve
Read the place, then reason your way to the answer. Nothing you need to know in advance, nothing to look up.
Look closer
Oriel windows, bronze figures on a fountain, a coat of arms above a door: the small things carry the clues.
Walk
Google Maps takes you on, and the walking adds up to only 26 minutes over 2.1 km, so the stops come fast.
Take your time
No countdown runs. Use a hint, stop at a bakery on the Marktplatz and continue 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
A short route with plenty to solve, so the group spends its energy on the puzzles rather than on the walking.
Couples
Something to work out together between coffee stops, with the whole old town inside a few hundred metres.
Colleagues
Teams of up to 5 play on their own phones, which makes a company afternoon easy to organise.
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 railway station to St. Mangen Church
10 stops · about 26 min walking · start: St. Gallen Railway Station · finish: St. Mangen Church
The opening puzzle stands at St. Gallen Railway Station, in front of its long neo-baroque front, and the final one at St. Mangen Church. Between them the route takes in the Stadtlounge and the Broderbrunnen, the Textile Museum, the St. Gallus Fountain on Gallusplatz, the abbey district, the Ortsbürgergemeinde, St. Laurenzen Church and the Marktplatz with the statue of Vadian. Daylight makes the carved details easier to read, and because you are outdoors the weather sets the pace. The app lets you start elsewhere or reorder the puzzles, and none of them needs an entry ticket.
Open the route map ↗
1St. Gallen Railway StationStart
The main station building, designed by Alexander von Senger, was completed in 1913, when the city was at the height of its embroidery boom. Walk along its long neo-baroque facade, then look at the forecourt, where the narrow-gauge trains of the Appenzell railway leave right from the square.
2Red Square (Stadtlounge)
The Stadtlounge, known locally as the Red Square, is an open-air living room created by the artist Pipilotti Rist and the architect Carlos Martinez and opened in 2005. A red rubber-granulate surface covers the ground and the street furniture alike, and large oval lamps hang above it like floating clouds.
Read the full story →
3Broderbrunnen
This large, richly decorated fountain was unveiled in 1896 to celebrate the city's new drinking-water supply from Lake Constance. Take a close look at its bronze figures and the many places where the water spouts out, a proud display of what was then a modern feat of engineering.
4Textile Museum
The Textile Museum tells the story of the lace and embroidery that made the city famous: around 1900 embroidery was one of Switzerland's most important exports, and much of it came from the St Gallen region. Its collection of fabric samples and pattern books was started in the 19th century to inspire local designers.
5St. Gallus Fountain
This fountain on Gallusplatz honours Gallus, the Irish-born monk who according to tradition settled by the Steinach stream in 612 and gave the city its name. Legend says a bear brought him wood for his fire and was rewarded with bread, and a bear still appears in the city's coat of arms.
6Abbey of St Gall
The abbey was founded in 719 on the site of Gallus's hermitage and became one of the great centres of learning in medieval Europe. Its baroque cathedral with twin towers was built between 1755 and 1766, and the abbey district has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1983, together with its famous library.
7Ortsbürgergemeinde St.Gallen
The Ortsbürgergemeinde is the community of the city's old citizen families, whose roots go back to the self-governing merchant town that grew up beside the abbey. Look up at the old-town houses around you: St Gallen is known for its carved and painted oriel windows, many paid for by wealthy linen and embroidery merchants.
8St. Laurenzen Church
St Laurenzen is the city's main Protestant church: in the 1520s the reformer and mayor Joachim Vadian led the Reformation here, while the abbey next door remained Catholic. The church received its neo-Gothic look in a rebuilding of the 1850s, and its slender tower stands only a few steps from the cathedral.
Read the full story →
9Marktplatz
Marktplatz is the old town's busy main square, where market stalls and city buses meet. Here stands the bronze statue of Joachim von Watt, known as Vadian, humanist, doctor and mayor, unveiled in 1904, and next to the square, on the Bohl, rises the Waaghaus, the old weigh house of the 16th century.
10St. Mangen ChurchFinish
St Mangen is one of the oldest churches in the city, founded around 898 and dedicated to St Magnus. The hermit Wiborada lived walled up in a cell beside it until she was killed in a Hungarian raid in 926, and in 1047 she became the first woman canonised by a pope.
Only logged in customers who have purchased this product may leave a review.
Nicole Kenber -– Switzerland –
Collected on GetYourGuide
Es war sehr gut geguided mit der App und die Rätsel lösen machte auch Spass. Werde bestimmt wieder in einer anderen Stadt dies machen.
Switzerland –
Collected on GetYourGuide
Die Vorgeschlagene Route, die Rätsel und die Infos über die Stadt und die Sehenswürdigkeiten waren super. Das ganze Anmeldeprozedere war für uns zu wenig genau erklärt, sodass es einige Zeit dauerte, bis wir endlich wussten, wie wir starten konnten. Das Erlebnis war jedoch toll und empfehlenswert!