Because it is indoors and also offers plenty of space to roam and a vast amount of photo opportunities, a shopping mall is a great place to host a photo scavenger hunt. With no charge to enter, this also makes for a budget-friendly venue.

Meeting Location

When planning your scavenger hunt, you need to choose a specific meeting place and time. The food court is a good choice since there is plenty of seating available where guests can wait for each other to arrive.

Once everyone is gathered, the tables offer a place for teams to sit and formulate a game plan.

Scavenger Hunt Teams

Divide guests into teams. The amount and size of the teams will depend on how many guests are participating. You should have at least one adult chaperon per every three or four kids, so keep this in mind when forming teams. Each team should have a digital camera or mobile device that can take and save the pictures needed for the scavenger hunt.

Scavenger Hunt Lists

Give each team a list of things they must find in the mall. When a team finds something on the list, they must snap a photo to serve as evidence that they located the desired item.  You can give a copy of the same list to each team, or make a different list for each team. All lists should have an equal amount of items that are of similar levels of difficulty to find.

When you’re hosting this type of party, you can make a list of common things kids are likely to come across in a mall, or you can go to the shopping complex ahead of time and scout out things that might be less noticeable to the average shopper, such as a piece of the decor in a specific place (find the blue bench with red planters on each side).

Another idea is to look for details that signify a specific store the kids may know well by name, but have a harder time finding with just a description of the sign (find the sign with the blue letters and three flowers).

Suggested List Items:

• A pizza.
• A mannequin wearing a red sweater.
• A stuffed animal.
• A sign with an ice cream cone.
• A garbage can.
• A water fountain.
• A restroom hand dryer.
• A pair of red shoes.
• A book store.
• A baby stroller.
• A candle shop.
• A specific kiosk.
• An elevator’s button panel.
• A chalkboard menu.
• A mall directory map.

Timing

You can challenge the teams to gather their photos within a specific time frame, such as one hour, or you can simply send them off and reward teams with prizes according upon their return. One idea is to have a selection of various prizes so that everyone gets one, but the first teams back get to pick first.

Food

If you will feed your party guests at the mall, the food court offers plenty of options. Inquire with a specific restaurant ahead of time and you might be able to get a discount for a large order of sandwiches or pizza pies. If you don’t wish to dine at the food court, you can make a reservation at one of the mall’s dine-in restaurants.  You might be able to take advantage of a day when kids eat for free (usually with an adult purchase, so be sure to check the details of each offer). Most of these places offer some kind of free dessert for the birthday person, but you can ask ahead about the choices for serving dessert to the group. 

If you schedule the party between meal times, you can skip the meal and offer guests a snack, such as a soft pretzel or ice cream cone. Or, you can bring your own birthday cake to the food court to enjoy while you look over all of the scavenger hunt images.