Vienna Self-Guided Sherlock Holmes Murder Mystery Game

The starting point is the Sisi Museum inside the Hofburg, a few steps from the Imperial Treasury. From there the trail leads out through the inner city of Vienna, past the Albertina and the Vienna State Opera, and on to the plague column on the Graben. It is a self-guided walking tour with a murder to solve, and the answers are found on the way.

The first district is dense, so the walking is short but the streets are busy. That suits families with children, groups of friends, couples and colleagues, and it can be done alone as well. Four people at most make up a team, all reading from one phone, and anything larger splits into separate teams. There is no guide setting the tempo and no fixed departure time, so Vienna can be taken slowly.

How to play

You need nothing on paper; the game is handled through a single app.

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

The case is the murder of Balthasar. Codes need cracking, photographs need taking at set places, and digital characters give statements that do not agree. In the squares around Stephansdom the details start to line up, and every answer you get right removes a suspect.

Send out two teams and it becomes a race for the solution, which makes it a straightforward teambuilding activity as well as an outing. Break for lunch, come back to it, and close the case in the centre of Vienna at whatever hour suits you.