Whether you’re heading to Lake Geneva to gawk at the century-old mansions and estates, to pay homage to Gary Gygax (he’s the inventor of Dungeons & Dragons who lived there most of his life) or to frolic in the sparkling, spring-fed waters of Geneva Lake, don’t miss the first ever 222 Lake Geneva Selfie Scavenger Hunt.   

Here’s how it works:

1.) Snap a selfie of yourself at each of the following locations. 

2.) Share the photo to Instagram with the hashtag #222selfiescavengerhunt and @visitlakegeneva 

3.) Each photo counts for 22 points with extra points for creativity. 

4.) The person with the most points wins! What do they win? Bragging rights and a fabulous vacay around the charming shores of Geneva Lake.

Get set! Get ready! Go!

1. Snap a photo in front of the secret getaway door in Maxwell Mansion’s Underground Speakeasy. You’ll need a top-secret password (shhh!) to enter this subterranean speakeasy, hidden beneath Lake Geneva’s oldest mansion. The historic estate, originally called “The Oaks,” was built, like most of Lake Geneva’s Gilden Age mansions, as a summer home, this one for prominent Chicago surgeon, Dr. Philip Maxwell.  Now a snazzy boutique hotel, the Maxwell Mansion (circa 1856) has an 1880’s Apothecary that serves magnificently-creative craft cocktails, a bocce ball court, outdoor fireplaces and 28 rooms, one of which hosted General Ulysses S. Grant. Although we probably shouldn’t let the cat out of the bag, as of this writing, the secret password, which you’ll whisper to the bouncer through a small sliding window on the front door is: Jazz Hands. https://www.staymaxwell.com

2. Strike a pose with Albie Einstein inside the grand Beaux Arts Yerkes Observatory. In 1921, on the famous physicist’s first trip to the United States, he had two requests. He wanted to see Niagara Falls and he wanted to visit Yerkes Observatory. The Yerkes Great Refractor, introduced in 1897, is to this day the world’s largest refracting telescope. It stands 63-feet tall, weighs 19 tons and sits atop the world’s largest elevator. A virtual who’s who of astronomy has surveyed the cosmos through this telescope that was first to introduce real time photography of outer space to the general public. Until that time, solar systems could only be imagined through speculative drawings and graphs. It was at Yerkes that Edwin Hubble first photographed evidence of the expanding universe, that Sherburne W. Burnham cataloged 13,665-star systems and that Carl Sagan and Nancy Grace Roman, NASA’s first Chief of Astronomy, did their graduate work. https://www.yerkesobservatory.org/

3. Get your Tarzan on from one of 5 sky bridges at Lake Geneva Zipline and Adventures. Whether you make it down all nine (yes, NINE!) ziplines or climb to the top of all three spiral staircases or survey all 100 acres of this beautiful section of Wisconsin woods is up to you. Bonus points for letting out a hefty Tarzan yelp while snapping your treetop selfie. https://www.lakegenevaadventures.com/

4. Quick! Snap a selfie with the Tristan Crist’s Harley-Davidson–before it disappears. You’ll have about 2 seconds before magician Tristan Crist, recently named Master Illusionist of the Year by the International Magicians Society, will make the life-size Harley vanish into thin air. The good news is you’ll get a second chance when he makes it reappear over the entryway to his 175-seat magic theater. At this often sold-out show, you’ll watch the dazzling entertainer make objects levitate, cut his wife in half (and, thankfully, then put her back together) and produce a real helicopter right on stage. https://lakegenevamagic.com/

5. Say cheese in a selfie with a local celebrity mailboat jumper. Lake Geneva is one of a handful of places where the U.S. mail is still delivered by boat. Local teens try out each spring to win one of six coveted mail jumper spots. Criteria for a successful mail jumper includes being able to leap off the boat, hand-deliver the mail and jump back on before the US Walworth II, the current mailboat (it never stops), gets too far away to leap back on. Tourists can ride along, cheer for the mail jumpers and even get their postcards cancelled. US Mailboat Tour Lake Geneva WI | Lake Geneva Cruise Line (cruiselakegeneva.com)

6. Photograph yourself ringing the bell on the recently-reopened Expect a Miracle trail. Carolyn Gable was a 30-something single mom when she started her own freight company. Thanks to uncommon chutzpah and a solid belief in her dream, she was able to turn New Age Transportation into a multi-million dollar company that enabled her to buy one of Lake Geneva’s 15,000-square foot mansions.  To share her good fortune and inspire others to also follow their dreams, she turned her section of the 21-mile foot path that circles Lake Geneva into what she calls the Expect a Miracle Path. There are all kinds of inspiring quotes (What would you do if you knew you couldn’t fail? The best way to predict the future is to create it!) a guest book to sign and a bell to ring once you shout your dream out into the world.

7. Get a photo in front of the female-shaped lake at Hugh Hefner’s first Playboy Club Resort. The bunny hutch, the bubble machine and the disco ball are long gone, but the 1300-acre property where Hugh Hefner opened his first Playboy Club Resort in 1968 is alive and kicking. It’s now called the Grand Geneva Resort & Spa, and there’s still a ski resort (complete with lodge shaped like pair of interlocking snowflakes), two championship golf courses and, of course, the spa. Dean Martin, Sammy Davis, Jr., Bob Hope, Tony Bennett and Liza Minelli are just a few who graced the glitzy resort’s cabaret stage. Arnold Morton (who later started Morton’s Steakhouse) ran the resort operations and recording artists from John Mellencamp and Cheap Trick to Guns ‘N Roses and Red Hot Chili Peppers recorded in the on-site recording studio. https://www.grandgeneva.com/