Free Monterey Scavenger Hunt: For Tourists and Locals

Monterey has so many sights to see, and this free scavenger hunt will lead you to all the best places, local haunts, and have you keeping an eye out for what makes Monterey unique! Below, is our free scavenger hunt, where you can click or tap each item to mark it as complete. And for the planners out there, you can drag and drop rows to change the order in case you want to map out everything in advance.

For a print-and-play instead, click the picture below and you can download and print that.

Monterey Scavenger Hunt

Read further for more information on how to play as well as additional scavenger hunt options we offer.

Scavenger Hunt Checklist for Monterey

ItemPoints
Cannery Row5
Monterey Bay Aquarium4
Fisherman’s Wharf2
Old Fisherman’s Grotto3
Monterey Coastal Recreation Trail2
Monterey State Historic Park3
Monterey Harbor4
Pacific House Museum2
Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary4
Colton Hall5
Monterey Bay Whale Watching3
Steinbeck Plaza5
Dennis the Menace Park3
Custom House4
Monterey Bay Sailing2
Path of History3
Monterey Beach4
El Estero Park3
Old Whaling Station1
Monterey Bay Kayaks4
Monterey Bay Coastal Trail5
Pacific Grove Monarch Sanctuary3
Colton Hall Museum2
Cannery Row Monument4
Monterey State Beach3
Maritime Museum of Monterey2
Pacific Biological Laboratories4
Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute5
McAbee Beach2
Monterey Jazz Festival4

How to Play

For this Monterey scavenger hunt, we’ve come up with a list of things to see in the city. Some of them are popular tourist attractions while others are more local secrets. For each item, you (or your team) will need to take a picture that shows both you and the listed item. For each photo you take, you’ll get the corresponding amount of points listed to the side of that item. 

At the end of the allotted time for the scavenger hunt, you can see what level of rank you’ve earned and whichever team has the most points wins! You’ll be allowed to go to City Hall and ask for a key to the city. (We haven’t actually made any arrangements, but it doesn’t hurt to ask, right?)

Additional considerations for how you play:

  1. We recommend three hours for the scavenger hunt just to have a limit on the time you’re focused on this activity, but that’s up to you.
  2. If you’re traveling as part of a group and don’t want to split up, we’d recommend treating this as a game of I-Spy and awarding points to whoever in the group spots the item first or takes the first photo.
  3. It’s up to you how tough you want to make it with respect to awarding points just for seeing something, or if you have to go inside, or taking it further and requiring even more depending on the location.

Score and Rankings

0-10: Did you even leave your hotel?
11-20: Business trip traveler
21-30: Frequent business trip traveler
31-40: Tourist
41-50: Lives in the next city over
51-60: Over-caffeinated tourist
61-70: Recent transplant
71-80: Local
81-90: Actually grew up here and has always lived here
91-100: Mayor

Think you’re the best ever? Let us know how you did in the comments (and how long it took you) and sign up for our newsletter to be alerted of other scavenger hunts, our challenges designed for only the top finishers, and more.

Leave a Comment