Time Out just released their annual list of the world’s 39 coolest neighborhoods in 2025, from Tokyo’s bookstore haven Jimbōchō to London’s food mecca Camberwell.
These vibrant pockets of cities share something special: DIY spirit, diverse communities, independent businesses, and that hard-to-define sense of “nowness.”
Sound familiar? These are exactly the neighborhoods where cityHUNTs come alive.
For over 24 years, we’ve been designing scavenger hunts that help teams discover the soul of cities through their coolest neighborhoods.
While tourists flock to famous landmarks, we send teams into the creative districts, multicultural enclaves, and revitalized industrial areas where the real magic happens.
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What Makes Cool
According to Time Out’s research, the coolest neighborhoods share key characteristics: street life, community spirit, cultural diversity, independent businesses, and that intangible quality called “nowness.”
These aren’t the sanitized tourist districts. They’re places where Turkish grocers rub shoulders with vegan coffee bars, where old-school bookshops sit next to avant-garde art spaces, where you can find authentic street food on one corner and natural wine bars on another.
What makes these neighborhoods cool is the same thing that makes them perfect for a cityHUNT: they’re designed for exploration and discovery. You can’t experience these places from a tour bus. You have to walk the streets, talk to locals, and stumble upon hidden gems.
That’s exactly what our hunts are built for.
Perfect Hunting Grounds
cityHUNTs thrive in neighborhoods with character. We specifically design hunts that take teams off the beaten path and into the areas where locals actually hang out.
Why? Because the best team building happens when people engage authentically with their surroundings. When teams have to ask a shop owner for help, find a hidden mural, or discover a neighborhood legend, they’re not just completing challenges. They’re connecting with the community.
Take a neighborhood like Borgerhout in Antwerp (number 2 on Time Out’s list). Its DIY spirit, multicultural mix, and artist-run galleries create the perfect backdrop for cityHUNT challenges. Teams might need to find street art, interact with local business owners, photograph architectural details, or discover community stories.
These interactions transform a scavenger hunt into something deeper: a genuine neighborhood experience that builds empathy, curiosity, and connection.
Urban Discovery
One reason we’ve focused on urban scavenger hunts for 24 years is simple: cities are endlessly fascinating when you know where to look.
The coolest neighborhoods offer layers of discovery. There’s the obvious stuff (cool cafes, street art, parks), the hidden stuff (speakeasy bars behind rolling shutters, vintage shops in old warehouses), and the human stuff (community gardens, local characters, neighborhood traditions).
Our hunts are designed to peel back these layers. We don’t just send teams to see things. We send them to experience neighborhoods the way locals do: by exploring backstreets, chatting with residents, and discovering spots you’d never find on a map.
This is why cityHUNT feels so different from traditional team building. We’re not taking you to conference rooms or ropes courses. We’re dropping you into the beating heart of cool neighborhoods and letting you discover them through play.
Community Connection
Time Out’s coolest neighborhoods all champion diversity and community spirit. These are places where different cultures, generations, and backgrounds mix and create something special.
cityHUNT challenges naturally encourage this kind of community interaction.
Teams might need to:
- Learn a phrase in another language from a local shop owner
- Find someone who’s lived in the neighborhood for 30+ years and hear their story
- Help someone carry groceries or hold a door
- Share a dance or song with a stranger
- Discover what makes the neighborhood special to people who live there
These interactions do something magical: they transform coworkers into teammates and strangers into temporary friends. Teams bond through shared experiences of awkwardness, laughter, and genuine human connection.
This aligns perfectly with our three pillars philosophy of playfulness, connection, and flow. Cool neighborhoods naturally support all three.
Local Business Love
One thing that makes neighborhoods cool is their independent business scene. Time Out specifically looks for areas where small businesses thrive alongside (or instead of) chain stores.
cityHUNTs support this ecosystem. When teams need to find clues, they’re visiting local cafes, independent bookstores, family-run restaurants, and neighborhood institutions. They’re spending time (and often money) in businesses that give neighborhoods their character.
We’ve designed thousands of cityHUNTs across cities worldwide, and we always prioritize routing teams through areas with strong local business presence. Not only does this create better challenges, it also introduces participants to spots they might return to later.
Many teams tell us they discovered their new favorite lunch spot or coffee shop during a cityHUNT. That’s exactly what we want: lasting connections between people and places.
Street Life
Time Out judges neighborhoods partly on “street life” – that buzzing energy of people out and about, using public spaces, creating spontaneous interactions.
cityHUNTs amplify street life. When you’ve got teams of 4-6 people exploring a neighborhood, laughing, taking photos, and engaging with locals, you’re adding to that energy. You become part of what makes the neighborhood vibrant.
We’ve run events where teams number in the hundreds or even thousands. Imagine that many people are flooding a cool neighborhood, spreading positive energy, supporting local businesses, and creating memorable moments. It’s like a flash mob of team building.
This is why cities often welcome our events. We’re not disrupting neighborhoods. We’re celebrating them and helping more people discover what makes them special.
Exploration Design
Creating cityHUNTs in cool neighborhoods requires careful design. We can’t just throw random challenges at teams and hope for the best.
We spend time understanding each neighborhood’s character: What makes it unique? What are the hidden gems? Where do locals gather? What stories define the community? What challenges would feel authentic to this place?
Then we design routes that are neither too compact (teams literally bumping into each other) nor too sprawling (physically exhausting). We hit that sweet spot where teams feel like they’re discovering a neighborhood while still having structure and support.
This routing expertise is one reason we can scale to very large groups without losing the intimate neighborhood exploration experience. Each team gets their own journey through the same cool area.
Any City Works
The beauty of cityHUNT’s model is that we can create custom hunts anywhere. Whether you’re in Tokyo’s bookstore district, London’s food paradise, or your own city’s up-and-coming creative quarter, we can design an adventure.
We’ve done cityHUNTs in:
- Historic districts being revitalized by artists
- Multicultural neighborhoods with incredible food scenes
- Former industrial areas transformed into creative spaces
- Residential enclaves with village-like community spirit
- Downtown areas mixing old architecture with new energy
The common thread? Neighborhoods with character, community, and that ineffable coolness that makes people want to explore.
Time Out’s list confirms what we’ve always known: the coolest parts of cities are where real connection happens. That’s where we want to send teams.
Beyond Tourism
Traditional team building often feels divorced from place. You could do the same activity in a hotel ballroom anywhere in the world.
cityHUNT is the opposite. Our experiences are deeply rooted in specific neighborhoods and cities. The challenges only make sense in that particular place. The experiences you have can only happen there.
This creates much richer memories. Teams don’t just remember “that team building thing.” They remember “that time we sang to a stranger in Camberwell” or “when we found that hidden speakeasy in Ménilmontant.”
Place matters. Neighborhood matters. Cool neighborhoods offer something special: a sense of discovery, community, and aliveness that amplifies everything else about the experience.
Future Exploration
As cities continue evolving and new neighborhoods emerge as cool destinations, cityHUNT evolves with them. We’re constantly updating our hunts to reflect changing neighborhoods and new discoveries.
This keeps our experiences fresh. Even if you’ve done a cityHUNT in the same city before, returning a year later might reveal new businesses, new street art, new community stories – because cool neighborhoods are living, breathing places that never stay static.
That’s part of the magic. You’re not exploring a museum or monument that stays frozen in time. You’re exploring a neighborhood that’s constantly reinventing itself while maintaining its essential character.
Conclusion
Time Out’s list of the world’s coolest neighborhoods reads like a cityHUNT bucket list. These vibrant, diverse, creative pockets of cities embody everything we love about urban exploration: DIY spirit, community connection, and that sense of discovery around every corner.
For 24 years, we’ve been designing adventures that help teams experience neighborhoods the way they’re meant to be experienced: on foot, with curiosity, engaging with locals, and discovering hidden gems. Cool neighborhoods aren’t just backdrops for our hunts. They’re essential ingredients that transform team building into genuine urban adventure.
Ready to explore your city’s coolest neighborhoods through a cityHUNT?
