thetravellingwilbennetts

During the May half-term we were taking a break down to the South of France.  I had managed to get the family tickets with my British Airways Avios points, but we would have to fly from Heathrow.

Now I love a trip to London as much as the next and make a point of going there at least once a year but I really didn’t fancy having to drag bags for our week away through the city so we opted to drive down.  I also didn’t want to waste a day of the holidays so we had decided to drive down earlier and do a stop in Windsor.  A place I have, surprisingly, never been before (only to Legoland).  So when I started checking out things to do I came across Treasure Trails, after checking out the website I was completely sold and purchased a Windsor Towns and Parks Murder Mystery Trail.

What is Treasure Trails

With over 1200 trails they are a great way of exploring cities,  towns and villages around the UK.  They are easy to follow and self guided, showing you some great sights whilst you solve the clues (around 20-25) for either a whodunit, finding treasure or completing a mission.  The guides can be printed at home, printed and sent by the company and even personalised.

If you want to see more check out their video here

Booking

The booking process is super simple!  You literally type in the City, Town or Village to the home page and it will detail all the trails within a 30 mile radius of your chosen location along with a map showing where.

You then click on to the hyperlink on the left which takes you through to the booking page where you have a choice of delivery and I feel the costs are brilliant.

Print at home £6.99

Treasure Trail will Print and send to you £6.99 plus £1.49 P&P

Personalised Trail £9.99 plus £1.49 P&P

Our Trail

We had opted for the trail to be sent to us and within 2 days a great quality, printed coloured booklet came through out letterbox.  The pages were bright and you could see the instructions were easy to follow.  One great addition is that if you get stuck you can call for a hint which will help you on your way.

We arrived in Windsor and headed to the starting point at the station, where the first clue was alongside a replica of the royal carriage.  Moving through Windsor we saw the Jubilee sculpture and gorgeous streets with stunning houses and pretty parks, around the grounds of old churches and back through the town.

Halfway around we stopped for a refreshment break along Church Street at the quaint Queen Charlotte pub.  This area is just lovely – cobbled streets and a number of small, independent restaurants.  We were quite  taken with Latino a Greek restaurant and decided to head back here for dinner at the end of the day.  So after a lovely ice cold cider for me and hubby and a non-alcoholic apple drink for Ella we set off on the second part of the trail.

This time on to the Long Walk.  Rewind just over 12 months and Ella (and I) had loved watching the Royal Wedding and so when we arrived and looked through the gates and down the road she (we) were taken right back there.  Ella really curious about whether Meghan and Harry would be “in”.

We stopped for a small picnic of sandwiches and crisps under the trees along the Long Walk in the sunshine and took it all in.

The Trail then took us down to Batchelor’s Acre another little green space in the middle of town.  One look at the fountains and Ella was stripped to her pants and was running wild, screeching to a volume only dogs can here but despite the freezing water she was having a wild time.  Thankfully it was a beautiful day as we were without a towel to dry her off but the sunshine quickly did that and then she was straight in the playground jumping around.  This was a really lovely park and definitely a great find that without the trail we would have been unaware of.

At the end of the trail we solved the “crime” at which point it recommends that you submit the answer into the website to be entered into a £100 monthly draw.

Summary

We had a really great day.  We saw areas we would not have come across without the trail and the activity really kept Ella engaged.  At £6.99 (£8.48 incl. postage) this was amazing value at less than £3 per person (and obviously less the more in the party).  We were all impressed and would absolutely do this again.

Why not PIN this review of Treasure Trails in Windosor