GPS scavenger hunts

A GPS scavenger hunt with nothing to print
Each pin holds a card.

Pin every card to the map — drag it there, or stand on the spot. Players open the trail link, walk into a pin's circle and open its card: treasure to collect, a question to answer or, in RPG mode, a monster to duel. No container to hide, and no label to replace after rain.

Build a trail for free Write to us See what it costs

Free — your first 2 trails, 5 teams at a time, no card. GPS trails come with a paid plan.

Pins, not printed codes
No app, no sign-up
One phone per team
On any paid plan

Watch one built and played

A GPS trail written, locked, pinned and played to the boss. Every word is on screen.

1:31 · Nothing loads until you press play.

What the film shows, in words

0:00 A pin on a map at night, with a circle around it. Each pin holds a card. A team walks into the circle and the card rises: a Foot Soldier. In RPG mode, some of them fight back.
0:08 Host, paid plan. The circle becomes a window onto a town drawn line by line. The place sets the scene; you write the plot — by hand, or with your AI assistant.
0:19 Nine kinds of card click onto the dial: checkpoint, enemy, ally, collectable, question, dice roll, trap, event, merchant. Two to four team roles — The Gardener, The Insomniac, The Film Buff — each favour their own gear.
0:30 The boss, The Truck in the Triangle, is locked behind three cards: garden shears, a thermos of black coffee and a torn seed catalog. The hardware store sells weed killer for 30 coins.
0:41 The host picks GPS locations instead of QR codes, then drags each card onto the map or stands on the spot and pins it there. A pin dropped inside another card's circle is put back: pins stand at least one circle apart. No printer. No container.
0:52 Moving cards: on. The host gives the boss two more spots. Some cards move between spots you pick — and answer for.
0:59 On the team's phone — one phone per team, no app, no sign-up — the boss's circle waits outside the map, locked. The team walks into each key's circle and each key goes to the Pack. The lock opens, and the boss moves to another spot.
1:05 Walk into the circle. Open the card. Every enemy is a duel — a pointer, a gap, a tap. Five hits later the team has won 100 coins and 10 points.
1:19 Build a trail for free. Your own stories and GPS need a paid plan. Every stop needs internet; GPS also needs location access and the outdoors.

What a GPS scavenger hunt is

A scavenger hunt whose stops are places on a map instead of codes on a wall. You pin each card to a spot — a bench, a gate, the oldest oak in the park. Teams follow the map on a phone, and a card opens once they stand inside its circle.

Opening a card is the start of the encounter, as it is on a QR trail. Some cards collect straight away. Others ask a question, or stay locked until the team holds the cards they name. In RPG mode some fight back, and every enemy is a duel on the phone. Eggtrail checks what a team holds and keeps the score.

The circle is the door

You choose how close a team must stand, from 20 to 100 metres — 30 unless you change it. Inside the circle the pin says In reach and the card opens.

The map shows what is open

A found card leaves the map for the team's collection. A locked boss stays off it until the team holds the keys, and then its pin appears.

Nothing to install

A team opens the trail link in the phone's browser and allows location. One phone per team, and nobody makes an account.

Setting one up

Nothing to print, cut or tape. The walk is the setup.

Pick or write the story

Start from a ready-made story in the library, or write your own around the place — by hand, or with the AI assistant you already use.

Choose GPS and the circle

When you build the trail, choose GPS locations instead of QR codes, and how close a team must stand: 20 to 100 metres.

Pin every card

Drag each card onto the map, or stand on the spot and pin it where you are. Pins may stand close together — a team inside two circles opens both cards.

Walk it, then start

Walk the route with a phone and move any pin that sits wrong. Press Start, share the link, and the board keeps the score from the first card.

What every GPS trail needs

One phone per team, with internet at every stop
Location permission in the phone's browser
A usable outdoor position
A paid plan

GPS or QR — which to run

Same cards, same score, same leaderboard. Only how players find the cards changes.

A GPS trail

Players find: A pin on the map
A card opens: Inside its circle
You print: Nothing
It plays: Outdoors, where a phone can place itself
A stop is: A circle you size
After rain: Nothing to replace
Each phone needs: Internet and location permission
Plan: Any paid plan

A QR trail

Players find: A printed code
A card opens: When its code is scanned
You print: One sheet of codes, cut out
It plays: Indoors or outdoors
A stop is: The exact shelf, plaque or post
After rain: Codes to protect or reprint
Each phone needs: Internet and a camera
Plan: Free to start

Read the QR scavenger hunt guide Find public trails on the map

What a printed code cannot do

A code stays where it is taped. A pin is a place on a map, and a place on a map can change.

A drawing of the real map, sped up: a real stay is 30 seconds or more. One team chases the boss and gets there late, then waits at the next spot on the loop — and the ring turns green when the boss is in reach.

Cards that move

Give a monster, a boss, an ally or a runaway animal more spots and a clock, and it moves between them — in order, so the loop can be learned, or at random. Moving cards are off until you turn them on, and turning them on means you answer for your players' ages and for every spot.

Pins that move while it runs

A van parked on the spot the morning you start? Move the pin on the map while the trail runs. The next check measures the new spot, and a team that already reached the card keeps it.

A boss that appears

A locked card stays off the map until a team holds what it needs. Once the last key is in the Pack, the boss's pin is there.

One story, any park

A story is a template. Build a new trail from it, pin its cards in another park, town or country, and walk the new route before you start.

How moving cards work

Things that go wrong, and how not to

Four ways a GPS trail stalls, and the fix for each.

Pick open sky

Tall buildings and heavy tree cover make a phone's position wander. A check accepts a position accurate to 20 metres, so a tight circle belongs in the open; under trees, size the circle up.

Pin where a team can stand

A team walks with one eye on a phone. Pin the bench, not the traffic island, and keep every spot a moving card visits on a path.

Walk it before Start

Signal and position change from corner to corner. Walk every pin with a phone on mobile data, and move the ones where the map puts you somewhere else.

Give each pin a clue

A circle is an area, not a spot. A clue on the pin — the bench by the bandstand — shows on the map, so a team knows where to stand and what to look at.

Where these run

Parks and nature reserves

The paths you already keep, with a reason to reach the far end of them.

Campgrounds and farms

A new trail each season on the same land, and nothing taped to a fence post.

Campuses and town centres

An orientation walk that ends at the right door, or a history walk between plaques.

Field trips and team days

A group in teams, one phone each, across a whole site rather than one room.

Questions about GPS scavenger hunts

A scavenger hunt played on a map. Each stop is a pin rather than a printed code, and a team opens its card by standing inside the pin's circle. On Eggtrail a card can be treasure, a question, a merchant or a monster to duel, and one leaderboard keeps the score.

No. Players open the trail link in the phone's browser and allow location — no app, no sign-up, no email. One phone per team.

Inside the circle you set for the trail: 20 to 100 metres, 30 unless you change it. A check accepts a phone position accurate to 20 metres. Those are settings, not a measured accuracy — phones and places differ, so walk the route before you start.

No. GPS needs a usable outdoor position, and inside a building a phone's position wanders. Use QR codes for indoor stops: a QR trail and a GPS trail can be built from the same story.

Someone determined can. A browser's location can be forged, so the check is a deterrent, not proof that a team stood at the pin.

No player coordinate is written to the database. A check sends the phone's position once, compares it with the pin and discards it; the map follows a team only while it is on screen, to draw its dot. The trail remembers which cards a team reached — never where it stood.

Start free with 5 teams on a QR trail, with no card. GPS trails come with any paid plan. Paid plans cost $1 per daily player per month; choose a player-count plan on Pricing. Automatic daily resets start at 50 players.

On a GPS trail, yes. Give a card more spots and a clock, and it moves between them, in order or at random. Moving cards are off until you turn them on in setup, and turning them on means you answer for your players' ages and for every spot. Players are told before they chase.

Yes. Move it on the map while the trail runs, and the next check measures the new spot; a team that already reached the card keeps it. A moving card's route is fixed from Start — move the trail back to setup to change it.

Yes. Describe where each card goes, and the AI assistant you already use pins it through Eggtrail's connector, with a clue for each. Review the map before you start.

A cousin. Geocaching hides a container at a set of coordinates; here the pin holds a card, so there is nothing to hide, sign or maintain. The card can be a question, a merchant or a duel, and a leaderboard keeps the score.

Put the treasure on the map

Free — your first 2 trails, 5 teams at a time, no card. Your own stories and GPS trails need a paid plan.

Build a trail for free Write to us

A GPS scavenger hunt with nothing to print Each pin holds a card.