Grote Markt Almere: a city game stop in the heart of town

The Grote Markt is a lively open square in the centre of Almere, lined with shops, cafés and restaurants. It is an easy place to meet before heading into town.

What makes it worth a pause is the way it shows you modern Almere. This is a young city, and its centre was built with bold, contemporary architecture rather than old canal houses. On a game, that pause comes with a question attached, so you really look at the buildings around you instead of rushing past.

Two games cross the square: Sherlock Holmes murder mystery in Almere and Secrets of Almere. In the detective game, you reach the Grote Markt after Stadhuis Almere and the Stadhuisplein, and the route then continues to De Lichtboog and the Kolkplein. You follow a fictional murder case on foot and use the places you pass to crack it.

Secrets of Almere is an exploration game. It starts at Kunstlinie Almere and leads you along the Weerwater Promenade, past The Tongue of Lucifer sculpture and Almere City Hall, with puzzles and photo tasks on the way, and it also brings you across the Grote Markt. Both games show you where to walk next, so you need no map and no guide.

A game gives you a reason to slow down. Rather than walking straight across the square with your shopping bags, your team stops, reads the next clue together and looks for the answer in the buildings and details around you. You end up noticing things you would normally miss.

It also turns a walk into something you do together. Friends, families, couples and colleagues all get a role: one reads, one spots details, one holds the phone. There is no guide talking over you. You set the pace and decide together when to move on to the next stop.

Each game costs €19.95 per team, with one phone and at most 4 players. It takes 1.5 to 2 hours, and you can start whenever you want, every day, within 12 months. Both games that pass the Grote Markt run in the browser on your own phone, so there is no app to download.

If your group is bigger, book one ticket per team and play the same route side by side. Almere also has The Almere Syndicate (outdoor escape game) for teams of 2 to 5 players, which runs in the free Loquiz app.