Hobbies And Interests
Set Boundaries
Simply starting a scavenger hunt for a list of items without any ground rules is a mistake. To keep your game on a level playing field, do not allow the teams to venture outside a given area to find their loot. Set strict boundaries for finding the items. This will need to be on the honor system, but you should make the rules anyway. Most likely you'll want to restrict hunting to your area of the city or, if you live in a smaller community, inside city limits or the county line. This gives all teams an equal opportunity to find the listed items in the same area.
Photo Hunt
Some items may be hard to find, but nearly impossible to bring back. In the age of digital photography, the solution is easy. Make your scavenger hunt a photo hunt. Teams each take along one digital camera and snap photos of the items listed. An out-of-state car license plate, for example, is something you don't want participants bringing back, but they could take a photo to show they found one. You may even require that one of the team members appear in every photo to make the photos more fun.
Be Creative
Making the list for your scavenger hunt is half the fun for the person running it. Get creative when making the list and don't limit the items to easy to find or boring items like "a leaf." Instead, try to think of things that will really take some effort to obtain. Include a family recipe from a local resident, an autograph from three strangers whose names start with "J" on a napkin with a logo from a restaurant and a receipt from any store that totals $1.71 dated for the night of the hunt. The possibilities are endless, and using these types of creative ideas will make the game much more challenging.
Alternative Hunts
Make your scavenger hunt a little different by trying with an alternative method of play. Do an alphabet hunt that requires an item starting with each letter of the alphabet. A recording hunt would replace the camera idea with a voice recorder, and participants would record a list of sounds such as a train blowing its horn or fire engine sirens. You could also create a scavenger hunt in which the only object is to look for aluminum cans by the side of the road.