How to use riddles, trivia, and other puzzles to make treasure hunt clues

You've probably noticed that the answers to most riddles, trivia questions, or puzzles are not thing or places around the house (or elsewhere for that matter) where you would hide a treasure or a clue. So how can you use these things to make a treasure hunt? Well, here are a couple of ideas how you might use riddles, trivia, and puzzles to make clues for a treasure hunt.

The first way that you might use the answers is to have them answer several riddles, questions, or puzzles and then line up the answers so that certain letters will reveal the hidden location. You can use the first letter of each answer or you can line up the answer in such a way that you use different letters from each answer. Here is an example where if you correctly answer three riddles, you are led to where the next clue or treasure will be...the bed.

Another way to use and answer to lead to a location is to remove some letters from the answer so the letters that are left spell out a location. For example, the answer to the following rebus puzzle is split personality.

If you remove the letters spltpesality (split personality) you're left with iron, which would be the next clue. Look for where the iron is that you press clothes with.

You could make the clue a little more tricky by removing the explanation and just use pictures.

You can also play around with the letters that need to be removed. Using an anagram we can make the name Sally Tippets so instead of saying cross out spltpesality you can say cross out Sally Tippets

This can still be a little difficult to find answers that will work with the letters in the right order. It will be a bit easier to find answers that work if you tell the treasure hunters that they will need to unscramble the letters that are left to find the next location. The answer to the following rebus puzzle is "hitting below the belt". If we remove the letters from the phrase "the low tight ten" we are left with the letters i-b-b-e-l which can be rearranged to form the word bible. The next clue is hidden in the bible. Here is an example of how you might do this clue.