Taking children of any age out for the day is always fraught with risk.

Parents have to carefully weigh up whether the attraction will meet with their offspring’s approval, or leave them bored, miserable and ruining the day for everyone.

For this reason, families are always on the lookout for days out with a difference – something quirky, that will capture their children’s attention and result in an enjoyable trip for all.

That’s what drew me to Treasure Trails – a fun, award-winning activity for all ages that enables you to explore destinations across the UK in an interesting, informative way.

The trails are easy-to-use, self-guided walks, set around one of three themes: a treasure hunt, a murder mystery trail or a spy trail. Each costs £5 and can be downloaded from the website or posted to your home. They cover a number of destinations in Yorkshire and Humberside.

We picked the treasure hunt, which invites participants to follow the trail, solve clues and uncover the whereabouts of the treasure. ‘You solve the clues to see the sights’, it promised.

We chose York’s Museum Gardens trail, hoping to learn much about the historic city. My husband and I were joined by my teenage daughter Molly and her friend Chloe, who had the foresight to bring along pads and pens – which you definitely need.

The clues are contained in a handy, A5-size booklet, which gives directions as you walk along the route.

Starting at Micklegate Bar, the first clue related to the siege of York in 1644, during the English Civil War. Rearranging certain letters from words on an information plaque, we had to form the first place to be removed from a treasure map on the back page of the booklet.

We then wandered off the beaten track, which is always interesting in a tourist destination – and a relief to get away from crowded pavements – to solve a number of clues relating to local churches, before heading back to Micklegate.

Onwards, we crossed the River Ouse, solving a couple of photographic clues, before getting stuck. ‘Find ‘7ft 0’ it said. ‘The initials above it match the initials of a place name which can be removed from your map.’ It was only a short street, but it was a good 20 minutes before my husband spotted the numbers on a small sign high up on the side of a building.

Thankfully, the next clue, an owl mosaic, was easier to locate and the girls quickly spotted it.

The clues were easy to unravel, but we all felt that too many involved rearranging digits and letters, rather than actual names and places, which would have taught us more.

Passing the Mansion House, the route led us into the pretty Museum Gardens extending along the banks of the river. One of the clues related to the 14th century Hospitium, one of the oldest surviving half-timbered buildings in York, where a wedding was taking place. We had to count the number of panes in a glass window, in front of which the wedding guests had gathered for photographs.

Where the trail succeeds is in highlighting lesser-known attractions that visitors would normally miss, such as York Observatory.

The oldest working observatory in Yorkshire, it was built in the Museum Gardens in 1832/33. Its 4in refractor telescope was built by York man Thomas Cooke, who went on to make the-then largest telescope in the world. The trail took us to Exhibition Square, home to York Art Gallery, so we took the opportunity to pop inside and see David Hockney’s largest-ever painting Bigger Trees Near Warter, on show at the gallery until June 12.

We then crossed the river by a different route, and completed the trail in another off-the-beaten track green space, the Memorial Gardens which, to be honest, are slightly depressing and I wouldn’t think hold any appeal to visitors to the city.

If I was to sum up the trail – which took around two hours – I’d say it was good exercise, and took us to places not on the mainstream tourist trail, but we didn’t learn a great deal.

The teenagers we roped in to help us enjoyed it, but would have liked more challenging clues. For my daughter, who tends to rush into things, it drove home the importance of correctly reading questions before working out an answer – something she needs to do with GCSEs approaching.

Once you have located the treasure, the answer can be typed into the website. There is no actual treasure, which could be disappointing for young children, but correct entries are entered into a prize draw.

I wouldn’t choose a trail for your first visit to York, as you wouldn’t necessarily see all the main attractions. But for subsequent trips, it offers something a bit different.

Information

* Treasure Trails can be followed on foot, but there are also trails for cyclists and motorists.

* At present they cover locations in North and East Yorkshire.

* For more details, ring 07989 957207, or visit treasuretrails.co.uk.