The Distillery District is an excellent location for a team building scavenger hunt in Toronto.
About the Distillery District
The district is located to the east of downtown Toronto and it is bordered by Cherry St., Parliament St., Mill St. and the train tracks to the south.
For many years, the area was home to the Gooderham and Worts Distillery encompassing 47 different buildings and is a national historic site. The Distillery District in its current form was established in 2003 and features all of the old buildings having been restored beautifully on the exterior, and with the interiors renovated in a way that provides modern functionality while preserving the charm of the old style of architecture.
The district has done a great job of preserving the history of the area and walking around feels a little bit like being in an interactive museum. In various places you can find plaques, information, panels, and even some old equipment. The area now features, mini stores, galleries, studios, cafés, restaurants, theaters, a craft brewery and more.
Why Have Your Hunt in the Distillery District
- NO CARS: In our view, the most significant benefit of having a team building scavenger hunt in the Distillery District is that there are no cars. Your participants can walk the old cobblestone streets of the area and drink in the scenery and participate in the scavenger hunt without worrying about traffic, stoplights, or crossing streets.
- QUIET: This is a quieter area in which to have your corporate scavenger hunt, especially if you are there on a weekday. Generally speaking, it will not be particularly busy. If you have the types of participants that don’t enjoy the buzz and excitement of a downtown area then the slower pace of the distillery district would be appealing to them.
- PHOTOGENIC: This is certainly a very picturesque area. It is beautiful to look upon and photograph and given that one of the main tasks that participants perform while completing their scavenger hunt is taking photos. It is certain that some of those photos will be keepers!
- FINISH LOCATIONS: The district has several great options for finish venues. And while there may not be as many choices as in our downtown Toronto scavenger hunt, the venues in the distillery district are excellent.
- UNIQUE: This is a unique area of Toronto. If your group has people from out of town then it is likely that they have never seen this area before. Many locals may also not have been here before and so for them, your company scavenger hunt could be about discovering a new part of the city that they’ve never seen before.
Downsides of this Location
- SMALL AREA: One downside of the Distillery District as a location for a corporate scavenger hunt is the comparatively small size of the area. If you want your activity to last more than two hours, then you should probably choose a larger area such as Downtown Toronto. We normally recommend that groups take 90 minutes to complete our DIY hunt in this location and 2 hours to do our Standard scavenger hunt (view our price packages). They can definitely have a great experience during this amount of time and therefore it is only a downside if you would be looking for a team building program of a longer in duration.
- DISTANCE FROM DOWNTOWN: Another possible downside for this location is that it is a bit far from the downtown area and so there would be a commute to and from the area depending on where your group will be before and after the program.
- TOO SMALL FOR VERY LARGE GROUPS: One final possible downside to the Distillery District is that the relatively small size of the area doesn’t lend it self well to larger groups of over 100 people. Groups will be constantly running into each other and don’t have as much ability to spread out as they would in a larger scavenger hunt area. So if you have a larger group, we would suggest a different location such as downtown Toronto.
Alternative Locations
Some alternatives that you might consider to the Distillery District scavenger hunt are the Downtown Toronto, University of Toronto and Bloor-Yorkville.
Sample Tasks
- Take a photo of your team savouring or considering the selections at Mill Street Brewery.
- Take a photo of some retro coffee grinders.
- Take a photo of your team looking into number 19 mix kettle.
- What was manufactured in the Acetones Plant during WWI?
- What was the original use for Tankhouse 10?
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