Urban Adventure Quest – Catalina Island

Urban Adventure Quest … basically the company takes the «Amazing Race» elements and turns the race into a 3-​hours long smartphone-​based scavenger hunt. Catalina Island is one of 30+ different cities that you can choose for the race. What’s so special about this one comparing to other cities? Well, this particular version of scavenger hunt breaks up into two parts — the walking part and THE GOLF CART PART (yea, I got to drift around the city like a mania … j/​k — you still need to follow the traffic laws)!
To sign up for the scavenger hunt, you will need to do the following:
1) Create an account (and remember your email and password) and each team (1 — 5 people per team) costs about $ 50.
WARNING: THE COST DOES NOT INCLUDE THE GOLF CART!
2) Once you arrive to Avalon, you may pick up a golf cart at any golf cart rental place (Cartopia
or Island Rentals
). The website says 1-​hour golf cart rental, but I think 2-​hours rental is the better option. 1) If you are lazy, you can still complete some of the walking part via golf cart and 2) You can just return the golf cart early. You will need to drive about 5.8 miles for the golf cart part.
WARNING: GOLF DRIVER WILL NEED TO BRING DRIVER’S LICENSE & PROOF OF AUTO INSURANCE & MUST BE OVER 25 (for Cartopia) or MUST BE OVER 21 (for Island Rentals).
3) Using a 3G/​4G internet capable mobile device or tablet (I believe Catalina currently only has 3G for Verizon and 4G for AT&T), go to
using your Internet browser and click on «Play It». You will need to sign in using the same email address and password from step 1. Supposedly Verizon is the only provider that works on Catalina Island, but our group had AT&T 4G and the phone worked perfectly fine … but sluggish signal occasionally.
WARNING: USING WiFi HOTSPOTS WILL NOT WORK!
What do you actually do: The race will start once you sign in and begin to read the 1^st question. There are total of 21 questions with 5 bonus questions. Just like any scavenger hunt, you will need to drive or walk to the designated location (as described in each question, which could be confusing at times) to search for the answer. Once you’ve successfully answer the question, the next question will lead you to the next destination. The golf cart part of the race will shift to the walking part about half way through the race (~1 to 2 hours). You can return the golf cart and finish the rest of the Quest by foot.
Downside: The race was a bit too long … our group got a bit tired after 1.5 hours (by that time we already finished the golf cart part and completed couple questions for the walking part) and we started to answer rest of these questions by … yup, guessing and using this thing called Google. In the end, we were able to finish all the questions … but did not score that well.
You are essentially paying $ 50 (plus golf cart rental fees) for a set of questions. Somewhat exhausting race … but it was a great opportunity to explore the city of Avalon and get to see certain area you normally don’t get to see by foot. It is a bit like a paid self-​guided tour and you can start whenever you like (but I personally wouldn’t do this after the sunset). Probably one of your top activities that you can find on the Catalina Island (the other is Zip Line Eco Tour).