There's a lot of treasure in London at the moment, and a lot of ways to find it. While there are treasure hunts in museums, galleries, based on alternative realities or winning actual prizes, there's just good old fashioned running around in a structured fashion, re-discovering your surroundings with a bit of organised playfulness. One such outfit offering a very nicely put together, easy to organise treasure hunts is Treasure Days.

There's a variety of urban and rural treasure hunts to purchase and download in one handy .pdf from the site, each .pdf including question sheets, answer sheets, bonus picture rounds, bonus pub name round, a scavenger / craft round and a junior level treasure hunt that kids can undertake that covers the same route as the adult one. There's something for everyone, be it a work outing that is your turn to sort out, a good excuse to visit a new part of town with friends or just trying out something new with people you're just getting to know.

Londonist tried the Hampstead treasure hunt and we can tell you with utmost certainty that it takes very little effort to enjoy a Treasure Days afternoon, and it is indeed like discovering gold. Londonista Hazel took on the role of hunt leader which is the key role for all Treasure Days hunts: this person holds the answers, distributes the question sheets, is on the end of the phone for emergencies and does not take part themselves. For all others, all it took was turning up at the meeting point, forming teams then heading out with quiz sheets in hand.

All involved were mightily impressed by the clarity of the directions and the just-right level of difficulty - enough challenge to keep everyone interested but not so hard as to be frustrating. Everyone had something to do within the range of activities built in to the treasure hunt,so there was no chance for a leadership battle. The final clue was located in a lovely pub which conveniently led to answer checking with pints and wine, lots of friendly cheer and many promises to undertake another one. A day to treasure.

For your chance to win a Treasure Days treasure hunt of your choice, just enter the prizedraw here:

For more information on Treasure Days and to purchase one of your own, click on this link to the Treasure Days website.

Image courtesy of Katcha from the Londonist Flickr pool.