9 leaders’ ideas for adventure in the great indoors

At Girlguiding we believe adventure is for everyone. It’s great getting out into nature and exploring the world. But getting outside isn’t practical for every meeting.  

This could be due to many things, including access needs, cost or location. It might be because you or your girls don’t feel comfortable being outdoors. Or they don’t feel confident doing outdoor activities.  

But adventure can take place anywhere. As part of our quiet adventure series, we want to celebrate all the amazing adventures you can do indoors. 

Indoor adventures

Indoor adventures can be just as exciting and fun as those done out in the wild. From the comfort of your meeting place, you and your girls can challenge yourselves to learn something new. You can build things you never thought you could, experience something magic and unusual together, and share your adventures as a group. Sometimes you can even bring a bit of the wild in! 

And we know this is happening across Girlguiding. So we’ve spoken with leaders across our community to get their ideas for indoor adventures. These are adventures that everyone can enjoy, no matter who they are or where they’re from.  

Check out these brilliant ideas from volunteers. A huge thanks to everyone who contributed and for all the amazing work you do with girls!

9 ideas for indoor adventures: 

1. ‘We often do indoor sleepovers but what about an indoor camp-over?’
   If you have enough room, why not put up tents in your unit meeting space, grab your sleeping bags and snacks and have an indoor camp-over? You could also bring the outdoors in by adding nature-inspired decorations to your space using natural materials like leaves. If you don’t have enough room for a camp, you could all work together to put up a tent and learn about the process. Many girls have never done this before, so it will help build their confidence for other camping trips they do in the future.   
2. ‘You can learn and use valuable adventure skills indoors.’ 
   As well as practising putting up a tent, you can also learn and explore other adventure skills. Why not teach your girls knot skills and use them to do something creative? There are loads of tutorials on YouTube if you’re not sure yourself. And then once you’re all confident, you could make catapults or a bow and arrow with the knot skills you’ve learnt. Or even create something they can eat afterwards, using strawberry shoelaces. 
3. ‘Ask your girls to share an adventure experience they’ve had locally.’ 
   Get your girls to attend a unit meeting ready to share an adventure they’ve had in the local area. It could be about exploring a new park, building a fort at home and the adventures they had playing in it. Or, reading an exciting story they got at the library and having an adventure through reading. No adventure is too big or too small! You can be creative about how they share their adventure; they could make a postcard to present or a video blog to share with the group.   
4. ‘After girls have shared their experience, get your unit to think about something that’s inspired them for the future.’ 
   Make a travel inspiration scrapbook using material from magazines to illustrate their next adventure. A great tip to source magazines is to speak to local shops to see if they can donate old stock they were planning on recycling or throwing away. Once the girls have created their scrapbooks, they can present them to the unit too. This allows them to learn from one another, share what’s possible and build confidence to imagine what their next adventure might be.  
5. ‘We’re often doing things we don’t think are adventurous, but they are!’  
   Have you ever made your own paper planes or frisbees and seen how far they can go? Or made and tested parachutes using eggs? Or even done a science experiment with bicarbonate of soda, vinegar and an explosion or 2? These unusual activities help us to explore our world. They challenge us to think outside our experience and expand our horizons. These are adventurous things to do, and you can do them all indoors.  
6. ‘Once a leader brought chickens to our unit meeting and that was an adventure!’ 
   This may not be for everyone (and must be carried out with a thorough risk assessment!) but if you can, why not surprise your girls by bringing animals into your unit meeting? When one leader brought chickens, her girls were astonished to see them indoors! They learnt all about how they lay eggs that some of us use as food. Then the girls, that wanted to, ate omelettes made from eggs produced by the chickens in front of them, which was an unusual experience too!  
7. ‘My girls love finding things.’ 
   Outdoor scavenger hunts are a staple of adventure in Girlguiding. But you can do them indoors too. Hide things around the space and create a map and a story – are they pirates finding hidden treasure? Or murder mystery sleuths trying to find clues? This is also a great way to build confidence with girls leading their own sessions and designing their own hunts. Encourage them to challenge themselves in the safety of an indoor space.  
8. ‘I was jumping out of my skin with the escape room my girls made!’ 
   Another great idea for indoor adventure is to make your own escape room. Kits can be bought for as little as £10 or you could get your girls to create their own escape room, full of its own unique traps and puzzles. This is another brilliant way to give your girls agency and let them take control. 
9. ‘Do some out of this world stargazing, indoors.’ 
   Ask your girls to imagine what the surface of a different planet in our solar system might look like. Then get them to draw their ideas and go online to compare their drawings to pictures of what it actually looks like. You can do this with interactive websites like Solar System Scope. Then discover what the night sky looks like from that planet and imagine doing some stargazing from that planet's surface.