Do we need to pay for anything?

No. Every find is visible from a public street, the station platform or a park. The sheet itself is a free PDF with no sign-up.

About twenty minutes from Cheltenham Spa station to the Promenade, then a loop of the centre. Call it two to three miles in total at a child's pace.

Is it any good outside race week?

Yes. Only one item mentions the Gold Cup, and it's a sign rather than the racing. Everything else is there all year.

Illustration of Cheltenham Spa station with a green GWR train at the platform

Scavenger HuntFree download

The Great Cheltenham Scavenger Hunt for Kids

Cheltenham is a good size for this sort of thing. The station is a twenty-minute walk or a short bus ride from the centre, the town is flat, and almost everything worth finding sits within a few streets of the Promenade.

Twenty things to spot, scored out of 200. Four are at Cheltenham Spa station itself, including the footbridge you cross over the tracks and the red Transport for Wales trains with a dragon on the side. The other sixteen are around the town: the Wishing Fish Clock in Regent Arcade, Neptune's Fountain, the Gustav Holst statue, a Regency iron balcony, a racehorse on a Gold Cup sign.

It's a proper walk around a town centre disguised as a hunt, which is the only reliable way we've found to get a seven-year-old to do a proper walk around a town centre.

Download the printable

One page, A4, prints fine in black and white. No sign-up and no email address.

Download free PDF

PDF, 1.2 MB, 1 page.

The Great Cheltenham Scavenger Hunt for Kids printable sheet

Ages

4 to 11

Things to find

Points to win

200

Pages to print

What's on the sheet

20 things to find, grouped so you can work through them in the order you'll actually come across them.

At the station

Four finds at Cheltenham Spa before you head into town. Worth doing on the way out rather than the way back, while everyone still has energy.

A GWR train, the dark green ones (10 points)
A Transport for Wales train, red with a dragon on it (15 points)
The footbridge, crossing over the tracks up high (10 points)
The departure board (5 points)

Around the town

Sixteen finds through the Promenade, Imperial Gardens and the Brewery Quarter. The higher-scoring ones are the landmarks children walk straight past unless someone gives them a reason to look up.

The Wishing Fish Clock in Regent Arcade, and watch for the egg (15 points)
The Bull & Hare statue (15 points)
Neptune's Fountain, the big fountain with horses (10 points)
The Long Gardens fountains, water jets that shoot up high (10 points)

Know a family who'd use this?

Send them the link. These sheets only reach the families who need them if people pass them on.

Tips for the grown-ups

Start at the Wishing Fish Clock

It's in Regent Arcade and it does something on the hour, so time your arrival. Everything else on the town list is within about fifteen minutes of it on foot.

Imperial Gardens is the halfway stop

Flower beds, space to run, and two of the finds are right there. It's the natural place to stop, eat something and count up the score so far.

The walk from the station is part of it

Twenty minutes to the Promenade, and the blue plaques and Regency balconies on the list are on that route. Walk it rather than taking the bus and you'll pick up points on the way.