A while back I wrote a little post about 26 ideas for a summer picnic. Well, if that appeals to you, definitely add an AmazingCo picnic to that list!
Maybe you haven’t heard much about AmazingCo. I hadn’t when they contacted me about trying out one of their many experiences. But you’re going to want to bookmark their site because they offer some really cool activities for every type of gathering. Their experiences could also make great gifts – particularly last-minute gifts – or a fun way to surprise your partner on date night!
I’m going to go over some of the basics of AmazingCo and what they offer via their site, and then review their mystery picnic based on my personal experience.
If you want to skip straight to my review of the mystery picnic, you can jump to it by clicking here.
What is AmazingCo?
AmazingCo is a company that operates around the world in the U.S., Canada, the U.K., and Australia. Within each country, you can select regions (basically “hub” cities) and then see the experiences that are available in and around that area.
Want to skip straight to all the AmazingCo options?
For instance, when I tried their Mystery Picnic experience, I selected an experience location that was actually a couple of hours away from the “hub” city. So you can pick to stay close to home, or opt for a road trip.
What are the experiences?
Before I get too far into my personal review of the experience I went on, I wanted to share an overview of the different types of experiences you can choose from on AmazingCo’s site.
The experiences are set up so you can choose how many people are going, and what kind of group will be going on the experience (friends, couple, family, etc), and finally what type of experience you want.
There are a ton of different experiences to choose from, so you’re likely to find something that everyone will enjoy.
Types of experiences include:
(click green header text to see all experiences in each category)
At Home
Great stay-home activities for any occasion.
- Virtual Kids Parties
- Home Bar-Crawl
- Foodie Date Night
- At-Home Dates
- Online Trivia Night
- Girls Night in
- And many more!
Couples
Unique dates for couples.
- Mystery Picnic Date
- Insta-Worthy Adventure
- Secrety Menu Taster
- Mystery Weekend
- And more!
Family
Activities for the whole family to enjoy.
- Family Night
- Family Mystery Picnic
- Virtual Challenge Parties
- Girl’s Night/Mother-Daughter Night In
- and more!
Friends
Experiences for 2 or more friends.
- Girls Night In
- Friends Game Night
- Mystery Picnic for Friends
- Murder Mystery Party
- Virtual Challenge Parties
- Foodie Fun Night
- And more!
Experiences from each category are tailored to the type of group that’ll be enjoying the activities (friends, family, couples, etc) and the number of people.
Price
The price depends on the specific type of experience you choose, and the number of people that will be participating. That being said I think it’s fair to say there’s something for every budget.
Fun on a budget
For example, you could choose a Girl’s Night-In experience that involves making your own home spa (with easy-to-find household ingredients) and activities that are delivered to you digitally. This experience runs ~$25, even when adding more people.
Treat yo self
On the higher end price-wise is the picnic experience. The price starts at around ~$100, which includes the food you’ll pick up as part of your experience. The more people you add to the experience, the more it will cost. You can also choose to add wine for an extra fee.
So, you can find experiences that will cost you $25, or you can opt for experiences that will be $100+. It’s up to you!
Mystery Picnic Review – My Experience
OK, now that the basics are out of the way, I want to go over my actual experience with the AmazingCo Myster Picnic.
FYI: AmazingCo set me up with this experience for free, and I really appreciate that they offered me the opportunity. I also might get a commission if you end up buying one of their experiences through the links on this site. That being said, this overview and review of the Mystery Picnic is my honest opinion based on my personal experience.
I have some good things to say about it, and some negative. Let’s get into it…
The setup
Pick a place, pick a day, pick a diet, get your clues!
Like anyone else buying an experience from AmazingCo, I chose a place and date for my mystery picnic. You can also let them know if you have any dietary restrictions, which is a great option. I personally didn’t give them any restrictions on what food I could have.
Soon after, I was given a confirmation email that told me what to expect next: Instructions and access to my picnic clues the day before my picnic date.
They also instructed me to grab a cooler with some ice (I used an ice pack), and a set of plates, utensils, and cups. Basically whatever you think you might need for a picnic. It’s pretty easy to haul around because you’re just driving to the different stops so all the supplies can sit in your car.
I also brought my dog. Not part of the supply list, but I think he was essential to the experience. AmazingCo actually notes that they can help you decide if your chosen experience is good for dogs or not, which I think is a cool detail.
So your picnic setup will be something like:
- Cooler
- Ice pack
- Cups
- Plates
- Utinsils (I used these compostable ones)
- Dog (optional but if you have someone to wait in the car with them while you pick up your food, why not?)
If you’re interested you can check out his doggy DNA results here. I compared 2 DNA test companies to see exactly what makes such a good boy!
The Process
Puzzles, places of interest, four-course meal, and final destination.
The night before starting the mystery picnic I got access to the digital “hints.”
Each hint was some sort of puzzle to be solved in order to reveal the location of the next stop. If any of the hints were too hard or confusing, there was a “reveal” button at the bottom of the screen that we could click to tell us exactly where to go.
Getting the food
After the hint was revealed there was a small factoid or saying related to the destination or the town, and a description of what type of food we’d be picking up from the restaurant. They order the food for you, so you don’t know what your meal is going to be until you get it – hence, mystery picnic.
Once we got to each restaurant, we told them we were picking up “a to-go order for AmazingCo” and I gave them my name. I was surprised to find that we weren’t the only AmazingCo orders at each stop.
Once we got the to-go containers with our food we took it back to the car and stashed it in the cooler, and went on to the next stop.
5 stops
The stops included a place to get our entree, a place to get an appetizer, a place to get a salad, and a place to get dessert and drinks. So four stops, plus a fifth for the picnic itself.
The Good
What I liked: The food, multiple course meal, the puzzles, having everything planned for you, the picnic itself.
Overall I’d say my experience with the AmazingCo mystery picnic was very good. Good enough that I’d do it again in another location and am considering giving it as a gift to a couple of people.
It was a fun and unique date setting that didn’t require us to do any planning, and the mystery part of it made it fun and interesting. I could see using it as a way to explore new cities, and making a point of scheduling an experience during a vacation as a way to try food from new local restaurants wherever you’re staying.
Relax, the work is done for you.
If you ever end up with the I don’t know what do YOU want to do back-and-forth for a date night, you’ll likely really enjoy this alternative.
The menu
The food was also very good at each place. There was the potential, of course, to get something we didn’t like, but everything we got was great. I also really liked the variety of multiple courses.
We got a sandwich as a main entree, a very good kale (I know, but it really was good!) salad, a hummus plate for an appetizer, and cheesecake for dessert.
We also brought a blanket so we could do the classic picnic layout. Zeus got the most use from it 🙂
I also just generally enjoyed the chance to get outside and relax for a while. It’s a pretty stress-free activity since all the plans are made for you. It seems like a really fun way to break up the day-to-day routine and try something new without being required to come up with the plan and prep yourself.
Sorta like having a personal assistant for fun instead of work.
The Bad
What I didn’t like: Not knowing what size cooler to bring, wait times at the stops, “points of interest” that weren’t.
Like I said, this is my honest opinion of the AmazingCo mystery picnic experience, so I gotta give you the good and the bad.
Fortunately, there isn’t anything inherently terrible about the mystery picnic experience. There were a couple of bumps in the road though that I think are worth addressing.
Bump #1 – Cooler size
This isn’t a big issue at all, but I thought I’d mention it to help others who might go through this experience.
So, the mystery part of the experience was part of the charm, for sure. But… a problem that arises with that mystery is that we weren’t exactly sure what size cooler we needed to bring, because we weren’t sure what exactly we’d be picking up.
Fortunately, the cooler we used fit just about right, except that we ended up carrying the containers with the cheesecake.
For a basic guide, I’d say think about the standard foam takeout containers you get when you’re doing pick-up orders, and think of putting at least 4 of those in a cooler, plus some ice. You can also add wine to your mystery picnic, so factor that in if you do!
You could also look at getting your own Tupperware containers to transfer food into if you think that might be easier than dealing with the foam to-go containers.
We used this cooler, for reference:
If you wanted to go for a more classic picnic vibe you could also check out an actual picnic basket with a cooler section built-in, like this one:
Bump #2 – Long wait times
This isn’t really on AmazingCo, but we did end up waiting like 20 minutes to pick up one of our to-go orders. We’d been waiting for so long that we finally went back to the front desk to ask someone about it, and they ended up bringing it out a couple of minutes later.
It seems like they might have actually forgotten about us. That was frustrating. Like I said though, not really on AmazingCo, more on the restaurant.
At every stop, though, it did take some time for them to get our order ready and bring it out. There was a lot of waiting around. Not necessarily a bad thing for a date since it could give you time to chat, but it could turn into an annoyance if it takes too long or there’s not a good place to wait at the restaurant.
A solution for bump #2
It did, however, help me realize something I would do differently next time, and something I’ll suggest to everyone that I give one of the experiences to as a gift – call ahead.
Once you get through your clue and you’ve mapped out how long it will take to get to your next destination, give the restaurant a call to let them know you’re on your way to get the pickup order.
The way the restaurants handled the orders seemed to vary. It seemed like it was the norm to wait to start making the food until you showed up, but one did have it ready when we showed up.
It makes sense to me that they wait to know you’re there (or on your way) to start making the food, because really, they don’t know for sure when you’re going to be showing up and that’s a better idea than having the food sitting for an hour or two.
However, to make the process a little faster when you get there, I’d call when you’re a few minutes away.
Bump #3 – “Points of Interest”
I mentioned earlier that you get little “factoids” or “points of interest” as you make your way through your experience. I really like that idea, and I liked it during the experience, mostly.
My gripe with the “points of interest” on my experience was that they were a little disappointing. For example, one of the restaurants had “Apple” in the name, and the “point of interest” for that stop was just basically the apple a day keeps the doctor away saying. There was another one similar to that, and then a couple of real facts and “points of interest” as well.
The area we did our mystery date in was a historical area and it seems like there would be plenty of more relevant facts and spots to stop that could have been included. Of course, I don’t know how AmazingCo comes up with the information for that feature but it would’ve been nice if it was more educational or pointed out some better detours.
I’d say the “points of interest” ended up being about 50/50 good and meh.
AmazingCo Mystery Picnic – Yay or nay?
I’m happy to say I can recommend trying out an AmazingCo experience, and particularly the mystery picnic if you’re looking for something unique to do for a date.
I’m looking at several of the other AmazingCo experiences as possible gifts for loved ones as well because I really did enjoy it, despite the bumps. I can see this being an especially great gift option for people that are hard to buy for over the holiday season.
I think it’s true that the most valuable thing we have to give to our loved ones is time, and this offers a way to give the gift of time together, plus a little extra. It’s a pretty cool idea.
Ok but will you like an AmazingCo experience?
I can obviously only really speak for my personal experience with the Mystery Picnic, but I think almost anyone will enjoy that or one of the other options that AmazingCo offers.
If you…
- Can’t figure out a good “thing” to give to someone, consider an experience instead.
- Want a cheap way to spend time together (check out the at-home options).
- Need a little help planning a get-together or date.
- Want to do something fun and new with your family that doesn’t require a lot of work.
If you feel that any of the above fits you, then you’ll enjoy trying out an AmazingCo experience.
If you’re doing the mystery picnic…
Check out the “bad” section of this post to get some pointers on how to avoid issues that I had and your experience will no doubt be even better than mine.
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