Strasbourg scavenger hunt: Petite France, the cathedral and the Neustadt in one game
The Strasbourg scavenger hunt is a self-guided city game you play on your phone: you walk a 3.8 km route across the Grande Île and the Neustadt, solve a riddle at each of 10 landmarks and unlock the stories behind them. Give the game about 3 hours: the legs between stops add up to just 47 minutes on foot, and the rest is spent at the landmarks themselves, puzzling over façades, statues and towers.
Highlights include the Ponts Couverts in Petite France, St Thomas's Church, the cathedral with its 142-metre spire, Palais Rohan and Place Kléber, before the route crosses into the German-era Neustadt around Place de la République. The old centre sits on an island surrounded by water, so it is flat, compact and easy to explore on foot.
- Durationabout 3 hours
- Walkingabout 47 min · 3.8 km
- Stops10
- LanguagesEnglish, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, Chinese
Riddles on sandstone, timber and water
Clues in red sandstone
At every stop one riddle waits on the building in front of you: a carved figure on the cathedral's west front, the lettering under Gutenberg's statue, the Muses above the opera's columns. Looking and reasoning solve it, so nobody expects you to know Alsatian history.
Printers, marshals and a future queen
A solved riddle unlocks the stop's stories: Gutenberg's years in the city before his Bible, Mozart at the organ of St Thomas's, Marie Antoinette's first night on French soil in Palais Rohan, General Kléber lying beneath his own statue. The audio narration tells them while you keep looking up.
Flat streets and waterside paths
Google Maps takes you across 3.8 km of the Grande Île and the Neustadt, 47 minutes of walking in all. The old centre is an island in the Ill, so the route stays level and crosses the water more than once.
A tarte flambée between riddles
The game simply waits while you sit down to a tarte flambée or a slice of kougelhopf. Close the app, take the afternoon off and pick up the trail tomorrow at the stop where you left it.
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 the Strasbourg hunt suits
A city between two countries
Strasbourg passed between France and Germany more than once, and the route shows both sides: the medieval island and its French palaces, then the Neustadt laid out under German rule. On a short visit the riddles walk you through that story stop by stop.
Sleuths on Place Gutenberg
Children like the bronze Gutenberg, the general buried in the middle of Place Kléber and the towers of the Ponts Couverts that once guarded the river. They play with a grown-up as a teammate.
Teams, classes and colleagues
Groups split into teams of up to 5, every player with the game on their own phone, and set off from Petite France one after another. Place Kléber, halfway along the route, is a handy spot to check how the other teams are doing.
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: Petite France, the cathedral and Place Kléber, then into the Neustadt
10 stops · about 47 min walking · start: Ponts Couverts (Covered Bridges) · finish: St Paul's Church
The hunt starts at the Ponts Couverts in Petite France and passes St Thomas's Church and Place Gutenberg before crossing the Ill to the Alsatian Museum. Back on the Grande Île you reach the cathedral, Palais Rohan, Place Kléber and the opera house on Place Broglie, then continue into the Neustadt via Place de la République and finish at St Paul's Church. Every riddle can be cracked from the street, cathedral included, so the game asks for no entry tickets, and the app is just as happy to start you at Place Kléber or the opera and rearrange the stops from there.
Open the route map ↗
1Ponts Couverts (Covered Bridges)Start
These three bridges and four defensive towers were built from 1230 and opened in 1250 to guard the point where the Ill enters the city in four channels. They kept the name covered bridges even after their wooden roofs were removed in 1784, and just upstream the Vauban Dam took over their defensive role in 1690.
Read the full story →
2St Thomas's Church
St Thomas's Church was begun in 1196, completed in 1521 and has been Protestant since 1524. Inside is Jean-Baptiste Pigalle's tomb of Marshal Maurice de Saxe from 1777, and Mozart played its Silbermann organ of 1741 during his visit in 1778.
Read the full story →
3Place Gutenberg
The square is named after Johannes Gutenberg, who lived in Strasbourg in the 1430s and 1440s, before printing his famous Bible in Mainz. His bronze statue by David d'Angers has stood in the middle of the square since 1840.
4Alsatian Museum
The Musée Alsacien opened in 1907 in a group of Renaissance timber-framed houses on Quai Saint-Nicolas, on the bank of the Ill. Its rooms recreate traditional Alsatian interiors and show more than 5,000 objects of mostly rural daily life, including a collection on the life of Alsatian Jews.
5Strasbourg Cathedral (Notre-Dame)
The cathedral is built of red sandstone from the Vosges, and its single spire, finished in 1439, rises 142 metres: from 1647 to 1874 it made the cathedral the tallest building in the world. Look for the richly carved west front, linked to the master builder Erwin von Steinbach, and inside the astronomical clock built by Jean-Baptiste Schwilgué in 1837–1842.
6Palais Rohan
This palace was built in 1732–1742 to designs by Robert de Cotte for Cardinal Armand Gaston de Rohan, bishop of Strasbourg. Marie Antoinette spent her first night on French soil here in 1770, and today it houses the city's Fine Arts, Decorative Arts and Archaeological museums.
7Place Kléber
Strasbourg's central square is named after General Jean-Baptiste Kléber, born in the city in 1753, who is buried beneath his statue by Philippe Grass in the middle of the square. One side is lined by the long Aubette, built in 1765–1772 by the royal architect Jacques-François Blondel.
8Opéra national du Rhin (Strasbourg Opera House)
Strasbourg's opera house on Place Broglie is a neoclassical building by Jean-Nicolas Villot that opened in 1821. Heavily damaged by Prussian artillery during the siege of 1870, it reopened in 1873, and six sandstone statues of Muses by Landolin Ohmacht stand above the columns of its portico.
9Place de la République
Laid out from 1880 as the Kaiserplatz, the square is the centrepiece of the Neustadt, the district built under German rule, and is framed by the Palais du Rhin, the former imperial palace of 1884–1887. In the garden stands Léon-Ernest Drivier's war memorial of 1936: a mother holding her two dead sons, recalling Strasbourg's history between France and Germany.
10St Paul's ChurchFinish
This neo-Gothic church was built in 1892–1897 for the Lutheran soldiers of the German garrison, to designs by Louis Muller inspired by St Elizabeth's Church in Marburg. Its twin spires, 76 metres high, rise at the southern tip of an island in the Ill, and since 1919 it has been a Reformed church.
Only logged in customers who have purchased this product may leave a review.
Lindsey Roberts (verified owner) –
A great way to spend the day doing the Scavenger hunt stopping for a glass and then carrying on Excellent
Recep (verified owner) –
It was fun with my 8 years old daughter. The app helped us to discover the most important points of the whole city
Manuela (verified owner) –
Die wichtigsten Sehenswürdigkeiten in einem geordneten Ablauf erkundet. Sehr gute geschichtliche Hintergrundsinformationen.
South Africa –
Collected on GetYourGuide
Belgium –
Collected on GetYourGuide
Austria –
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Germany –
Collected on GetYourGuide
Der Rundgang war toll und man kam an interessanten Orten vorbei. Schade war, dass bei einigen Erklärungstexten manche Sätze mittendrin endeten und Informationen fehlten.
Paquita– France –
Collected on GetYourGuide
Activité idéale pour découvrir l’essentiel de Strasbourg. Prendre le temps, flâner, lire les post . Une belle découverte. Je recommande vivement
Germany –
Collected on GetYourGuide
Germany –
Collected on GetYourGuide
Italy –
Collected on GetYourGuide
Cora-Netherlands –
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