Aarau Walking Tour: Scavenger Hunt Through Painted Gables

★★★★★★★★★★ 4.67 (3 reviews)

Free cancellation

1/20

Duration2h

GroupPrivate

LanguagesEN · NO +23

Mobile ticketAccepted

Riddles, painted eaves and a medieval tower: Aarau's scavenger hunt on your phone

This self-guided scavenger hunt takes you through Aarau on foot using an app-based game with riddles, trivia and photo tasks to guide you between landmarks. You start anytime, walk at your own pace and navigate using your smartphone — no guide, no fixed schedule, just your group and the city's famous gables. The tour runs around two hours and covers the Obertorturm (a 13th-century gate tower), the Alte Kantonsschule (Switzerland's oldest secular school) and the Alte Mühle (a historic mill). You'll need a fully charged smartphone with mobile data and the Explorial app downloaded before you arrive at the starting point on Metzgergasse.

The Experience

The Obertorturm dominates the early part of the route — a 13th-century gate tower with a carillon that has watched over Aarau for centuries. Riddles tied to its history pull you through the clues. At the Alte Kantonsschule, trivia honours the country's oldest non-clerical high school, the school where Albert Einstein once studied. The final stretch leads to the Alte Mühle, a working mill that grounds the town's industrial past in the present. Throughout, you're walking beneath Aarau's famously painted eaves — the kind of architectural detail that rewards looking up.

You control the rhythm entirely. The app marks your location on a map and delivers riddles one at a time; you solve them, move to the next landmark, and take photo tasks when the game asks for them. There's no waiting for a group to gather, no guide setting the pace, no fixed start time. If you need a break, you take one. If someone in your group wants to linger at a stop, the game pauses. A scoring system tracks points across your group and compares you to the city's leaderboard, so there's a competitive element if you want it — or you can ignore the scores entirely and just follow the clues.

You'll receive a 6-digit game code by text and Viator message after booking. Download the Explorial app to your smartphone before you start, enter the code, and begin at Aarau Info on Metzgergasse. The app works in 24 languages, so you choose yours when you open the game. Bring a fully charged phone with an active mobile data connection; disable any VPN and avoid city Wi-Fi, as these will cause the app to malfunction. The whole experience runs around two hours of light walking through the old town.

What’s included

Download of the Explorial app (iOS or Android).
self-guided walking tour with interactive riddles, trivia challenges and photo tasks.
live location mapping so you always know where you are.
points and scoring system to compete within your group and against the city leaderboard.
stories and history of Aarau's landmarks and local legends.

Good to know

Easy physical levelPets welcomePublic transport nearby

Operated by Explorial

Is this one for you?The app delivers all commentary and clues in 24 languages — choose yours when you start the game — so anyone in your group can follow at their own comfort level without a guide speaking over them. Start anytime you want and walk at your own pace, which works well if your group moves at different speeds or wants to linger at certain stops without holding anyone back.