Self-Guided The Leeuwarden Syndicate City Escape Game

In Leeuwarden the game begins on the Waagplein, next to De Waag on the canal, and the first clues send you over the Lange Pijp into the shopping streets. From there the route bends towards the Stadhouderlijk Hof and the quieter lanes of the old town. Leeuwarden is walked along its grachten, from one bridge to the next.

Families, friends, couples and colleagues make up most of the teams. Two to five people play together on a single phone, and each of them is handed a character with a role in the mission, so progress depends on what the whole team notices rather than on one pair of eyes. Groups above five head out as separate teams. There is no guide and no scheduled start; the centre of Leeuwarden is flat, ringed by water and small enough that you are never far from the next task.

How to play

Getting under way in Leeuwarden is a matter of four steps.

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

The trail belongs to Magnus, who disappeared with a set of stolen formulas. Codes have to be cracked, riddles worked out and photo tasks completed at the places he passed, with each role holding a piece the rest of the team needs. The hunt reaches the Keramiekmuseum Princessehof and finishes in sight of the Oldehove, the tower that never got straight.

More than one team on the route turns it into a competition, and that is what makes the game a reasonable teambuilding exercise. Nothing is timed, so you can stop for lunch and take up the chase again afterwards, somewhere in the middle of Leeuwarden.