Free San Jose Scavenger Hunt: For Tourists and Locals

San Jose 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 San Jose 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.

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

Scavenger Hunt Checklist for San Jose

ItemPoints
The Tech Interactive2
Santana Row5
San Pedro Square Market4
Japantown5
Winchester Mystery House3
Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum2
Municipal Rose Garden4
San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles2
San Jose City Hall3
Alum Rock Park5
Children’s Discovery Museum3
Kelley Park2
SAP Center4
Peralta Adobe & Fallon House Historic Site2
San Jose Improv3
Overfelt Gardens4
San Jose Flea Market2
Mexican Heritage Plaza4
History Park2
San Jose State University5
Guadalupe River Park & Gardens3
Cesar Chavez Memorial Walkway5
Japanese Friendship Garden3
Emma Prusch Farm Park4
San Jose Center for the Performing Arts2
Pizarro Brothers Mural3
San Jose Fire Museum5
Lake Cunningham Park2
Silicon Valley Capital Club3
San Jose Heritage Rose Garden4

How to Play

For this San Jose 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.

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