A treasure hunt that runs on paper and a phone camera
The classic QR code treasure hunt: players find a card, scan it, read the clue, and race to the next hiding spot. This generator handles the boring part — you type the clues, it produces print-ready station cards (up to 20 stations) in one of four themes, plus an answer sheet so you remember where everything is hidden. It works just as well for a classroom review activity, a rainy-day QR code scavenger hunt for the classroom, or a birthday treasure hunt at home — write the clues, press print, hide the cards.
Why these codes never break: no links inside
Most QR hunt tools encode a link, which means the hunt depends on their server, their business model, and the school Wi-Fi. Here the QR code contains the clue text itself (up to 300 characters) — a phone camera shows the words directly, offline, with nothing stored anywhere. Your clues never leave this browser: the hunt you build is saved locally on your device, and the printed cards are the entire product. For a class of younger kids, that also means no risk of a scanned code opening a browser to somewhere unexpected — there is nothing to open.
Writing clues that work
The pattern that never fails: each clue describes the hiding place of the next card. Keep clue one easy to build momentum, make the middle ones rhyme or pun for older kids, and let the final message celebrate (“the treasure is where we keep the towels!”). Print the codes at their natural size — each card prints its QR at roughly five centimetres, which phones scan comfortably from arm’s length. If you laminate the cards, they survive an outdoor hunt and can be reused every year. Pair it with printable puzzle cards from the escape room cipher generator to turn a simple hunt into a full escape-room afternoon.
