Self-Guided The Amsterdam Syndicate City Escape Game

The hunt begins on Beursplein in Amsterdam and moves straight into the oldest streets of the centre. Played as an outdoor escape game, it sends your team across Dam Square, past the brick front of De Nieuwe Kerk and down to the water of the Oudezijds Voorburgwal. Distances are small here, but the centre is layered with canals, alleys and courtyards.

Amsterdam is crowded at almost any hour, and reading clues while cyclists and pedestrians move around you is part of the challenge. Families, groups of friends, couples and colleagues all take it on. A team is two to five people sharing a single phone, and larger groups start more than one team. Every player is given a character with their own role in the mission, so the phone passes from hand to hand. There is no guide walking ahead of you and no fixed start time.

How to play

Everything runs from your own phone, so the only preparation Amsterdam asks of you is a charged battery.

1. Book the City Game
2. Check the instructions email
3. Download the Loquiz app
4. Start playing whenever you like

Magnus has taken the formulas and scattered the proof of it across the old centre. Your team follows the trail through the Kalverstraat, into the quiet of the Begijnhof and up to the Koninklijk Paleis Amsterdam, cracking codes, solving riddles and setting up photo tasks. Roles matter here: one player reads, another looks, and the team moves on only once you agree.

Send two or more teams out at the same time and the hunt turns into a contest, which is why it works for teambuilding. You can leave the case for a while and pick it up again later in the day. It amounts to a straightforward afternoon on foot in Amsterdam.