Hey guys, I was recently gifted a wonderful day out with Amazing Co and I thought I’d share with you what it was really like. Amazing Co is a global company that organises Mystery Picnic Experiences. Their most popular packages are Mystery Picnic dates but you can also book with friends, or family. We booked a date for the mystery picnic in Bristol. Working together to answer clues and riddles which will lead us to different cafes, collecting food for our picnic.
With our phones fully charged and a picnic blanket in tow we began solving the first clue on my phone. Revealing the word Bar Chocolate, we headed to Clifton Village to find out first stop. I was a bit nervous heading in to collect our treats, I was unsure if the staff would know what I meant by “I’m here on a mystery picnic” but they knew straight away and explained we could choose a hot chocolate and a cake each to takeaway. In a cafe called Bar Chocolate it felt appropriate to to try their hot chocolate, which was amazing the perfect companion as we headed off to follow our next clue.
Clue two took us on a walk through Clifton Village to see the iconic suspension bridge, then clue three took us right back to the same street as Bar Chocolate, to visit The Mall Deli. Starting at the suspension bridge would have been more effective than this weird detour. However, as a huge foodie who lives in Bristol, I was very excited that our first two stops were places I hadn’t tried yet. In the deli I told them I was doing the mystery picnic, gave them my name and they had this bag all ready.
Our following clues took us to Anna’s Cake Couture, one of my favourite places in Bristol, to pick up a box of four of their amazing New York Style cookies. The next clue suggested going to Brandon Hill park to see the views across the city, we were feeling lazy and sure that further clues might take us back into Clifton so we skipped this one for now (as its on our way back home). And boy were we right, the following clues took us up to Whiteladies road which is a treck from Clifton Village let along from Brandon Park. Along Whiteladies road we were sent to Wild Oats, a health food shop, where the staff had a bag ready made for us. Finally onto Two Belly a cheese and Cider Shop I’d been dying to try picking up some cheese. The final clue revealed Clifton Downs as the final spot to set up your picnic (which makes sense just at the top of Whiteladies road). We simply swapped the earlier clue and headed to Brandon Hill to enjoy our picnic.
Brandon Hill with views of the city and the famous Cabot Tower behind was the perfect place to set up. We were also so lucky with the sunny autumn day as the leaves are going brown and the squirrels were out.
A little look at some of the food we had collected throughout the day for our picnic. I wasn’t sure how much food to expect but I did not expect to be carrying four bags and two boxes around. Including falafel, pitted olives, humus, black olive tapenade, cashews, lentil chips, fresh baguette bread, a Lancashire cheddar cheese, vegan sausage rolls and cloudy apple juices. And that’s just the savoury bits. Not forgetting the cakes from Bar Chocolate (I got a honeycomb rocky road) and the box of cookies from Anna’s I mentioned earlier. It was more than enough food for two.
So would I recommend a mystery picnic experience? I would however I think you get a lot more out of the experience when you aren’t local to the area. Due to us knowing the area so well (and Amazing Co being global) we knew shortcuts to the different clues that took away from the fun. If you are going on a city break I think its a fabulous idea to explore the city with some prompts picking up loads of local food along the way, it would make planing a day out on holiday so easy.
My only other consideration is I wouldn’t necessarily recommend it if you are fussy with food. When booking I noted that one of us is vegetarian and one isn’t hoping for a mix because I am fussy with meat. However it went through as two vegetarians and as neither of us is that healthy having a lot of things like olives, and nuts didn’t go down anywhere near as well as those cookies from Anna’s. It was only in our first stop, Bar Chocolate that we were offered a choice, everywhere else had a bag behind the counter with my name on. This isn’t a complaint just something to be aware of. Overall I was super excited to get to try so many local and artisan Bristol food companies in one day out.
If I was going to do something like this again I’d love to try it in an area we love but don’t know as well, like Bath or Costwolds. Find out more about Amazing Co and view the picnics local to you here.