Explore Stockholm with the 100 Point Challenge
Go behind the scenes of one of the most exciting ways to experience Stockholm on foot.
Photos courtesy of Dan Paech / 100 Point Challenge
According to founders Dan Paech and Annica Curtis who describe it as the “Amazing Race meets the local pub quiz”, the 100 Point Challenge is an outdoor group activity, that involves walking around and exploring Stockholm.
Teams compete with each other for two hours, solving a series of questions involving a mix of history and culture, and completing challenges at points of interest around central Stockholm.
So we met up with founder Dan Paech to go behind the scenes.
STS: How did the idea behind the 100 Point Challenge come about?
While working as a tour guide for Run With Me Stockholm, I often talked to people, both locals and visitors, about what I was doing, including the types of places we visited and information we shared on our tours. A common response was, “that sounds fun but I’m not a runner!”
This got me thinking about creating something for people who were not interested in the running tours, but still wanted to explore Stockholm. I was also thinking it would good to be able to offer something fun for locals as well as tourists.
So I started thinking about creating a game. I wanted it to be outdoors, active, social, fun and educational. Being a competitive person myself, I also wanted there to be an element of competition.
In April 2016, I tried the first version of the game with a group of friends, giving it a Swedish name “hundrapoängsjakten”. At that point the format was quite different to what it is today, people used their mobile phones to take photos, and the questions were largely history-based.
I found out I had made the game too hard, with both teams, made up of a majority of Swedes, scoring less than 60 points.
During the summer of 2016, I ran different versions of the game as team building exercises for companies, and continued to gather feedback and re-design it. Greg, founder at Questrooms Stockholm, played with his staff, and suggested making an easier version to be more suitable for tourists.
So I modified the information and questions we had to create multiple versions of the game, one for those with no knowledge of Stockholm, known as “Astrid’s Adventure”, an intermediate level game, called Björn’s Battle, and the ultimate test for locals known as Gustav’s Glory.
Take us behind the challenge – what is it about and why would it be of interest to travellers to Stockholm?
The 100 Point Challenge is about having fun; and seeing and learning about Stockholm in a different way.
One of our early customers described it as “the Amazing Race meets a Swedish-themed quiz night”, and we think that is a great description.
We cater for tourists who are bored with conventional walking tours, and have a more adventurous spirit. They want to interact with the city in a different way, and participate more actively in what they do.
The goal for each team is to complete as many of the challenges as they can in two hours, with the highest possible score being 100 points.
In Astrid’s Adventure, we educate people in a fun and creative way about Swedish history and culture, while making sure they visit some locations in Stockholm that they wouldn’t normally find on their own as a visitor in Stockholm. We also make sure they have some memorable pictures to take home.
When are the next few challenges taking place and how can people follow along / sign up?
We run Astrid’s Adventure every Saturday morning at 10 am from April until November. We also have private bookings available for groups with more than 6 people and organize company team building. People can sign up via our website: www.100pointchallenge.com/stockholm
No one has scored 100 points yet! The highest scores to date are: Astrid’s Adventure (92), Björn’s Battle is (87) and Gustav’s Glory (80).
Have you got what it takes to complete the 100 Point Challenge?
