MonsterHero Safari Trail 2020 | At Your Local Shopping Centre

2020 has certainly been the year of trails as we all look for safe activities to do as a family. Yesterday we did the MonsterHero Safari 2020 Trail at our local shopping centre and had a great time searching for 10 monster heroes in shop windows. It’s a lovely initiative set up to raise funds for NHS Charities Together and bring people back to the High Street safely. The great news is that you can do this trail up and down the country, as loads of shopping centres are taking part. It’s on until either August 31st or through September depending on your area. Have a look at the list below to see if the trail is in your town.

MonsterHero Safari 2020 Locations

Aldershot, Armley, Ashtead, Aylesbury

Barnstaple, Bishop’s Stortford, Bookham

BOURNEMOUTH: Boscombe, East Cliff, Pier Approach & Seafront, Southbourne, Tuckton, West Cliff and Poole Hill, Westbourne

Bracknell – The Lexicon, Bradford – Kirkgate Shopping Centre, Bridlington, Burnley, Bury St Edmunds

Camberley, Caterham, Cheltenham, Chester, Christchurch – Saxon Square, Colchester, Coleraine, Derby – St Peters Quarter

Dorking, Dundee

Eastbourne, Elgin, Exeter

Falkirk, Farnborough, Filey, Fforestfach Retail Parc

Gloucester, Great Yarmouth, Guildford

High Wycombe, Halifax, Harborne, Hoddesdon, Hornsea, Huddersfield, Hull

Inverurie

Kendal, Kirkwall, Knowle, Knutsford

Lancaster, Leatherhead, Leeds – The Springs, Lowestoft

Melton Mowbray, Minehead

Newcastle under lyme, Newmarket, Newry

Paisley, Plymouth, Poole, Purley, Putney

Radstock, Romford, Runcorn

Scarborough, Slough, Solihull, St Albans, St Ives, Stockton, Stevenage, Strabane, Streatham, Sudbury, Sutton

Tavistock, Thame, Thatcham, Thetford

Warrington – Birchwood Shopping Centre, Weymouth, Whitby, Widnes – Green Oaks Shopping Centre, Wigan – Grand Arcade, Withernsea, Wolverhampton, Worcester

We did the one in Slough that had us looking inside the Queensmere Observatory and along the High Street. This is a selfie of us when we found our first MonsterHero. I scanned the QR code and it brought up a story about the character on my phone, which I read out to the kids. Then it brought up a map with the locations of the other 9 monster heroes. There’s also a ‘Donate’ button to raise funds for NHS Charities Together – they suggest £2 per family.

My kids love doing trails in general, especially ones in shopping centres. You may remember we did the Paw Patrol trail at The Lexicon earlier this year (just before coronavirus hit), and last year we did a Dinosaur trail there. This new one is great because it’s all digital – there’s no paper map getting tatty and no need for a pen. Every time we scanned a monster, my phone brought up a stamper on the screen, so we could see how many more digital monster stamps we needed. Here are 8 more we found:

We had a break in the middle to give the kids’ legs a rest, and stopped off in Starbucks. It was the first time we used the Eat Out to Help Out Scheme, and it was lovely to get £10 off!

When we found our last Monster Hero, and collected all 10 digital monster stamps (see below), it took me to a screen to enter my email address so we could receive the e-book.

It was such a buzz to have found all 10 and we walked home feeling quite happy. Our legs were aching by the time we got home – it’s good exercise doing this trail! At home the kids relaxed while I read them the Monster Hero story from the e-book. They enjoyed the story and the bright illustrations. Nice way to end our day out.