7 Unusual Activities to Do in Nantes
Looking to get off the beaten path and enjoy unique experiences in Nantes? From fun sightseeing tours and creative workshops to thrilling adventures and immersive games, the city is full of unusual activities that appeal to both locals and visitors. Whether you’re with family, friends, a partner, or a group celebrating a special occasion, these experiences promise adrenaline, discoveries, and plenty of laughs.
In this article, we present 7 must-try activities in Nantes, ranging from urban treasure hunts and artisan chocolate-making workshops to indoor skydiving, collaborative virtual reality experiences, futuristic escape games, axe throwing, and even high-speed driving experiences on a race track. Each activity has been selected for its unique, immersive, and memorable nature, making it perfect for turning your outing or stay into an unforgettable experience.
Get ready to discover Nantes from a completely new perspective: whether you’re into culture, gastronomy, or thrilling adventures, there’s something here for everyone!
1. Discover Nantes Differently with an Urban Treasure Hunt by Paris Enigmes
Passage Pommeraye
To explore Nantes in a fun and original way, why not turn your visit into a real-life urban treasure hunt? Thanks to the Paris Enigmes app, you’ll embark on an interactive adventure through the iconic landmarks of the city’s historic center.
The concept is simple: equipped with your smartphone, you follow a guided route through Nantes while solving puzzles inspired by the city’s history, architecture, and symbols. This immersive experience allows you to discover Nantes’ monuments from a completely different perspective.
Along the route, you’ll pass several must-see sites such as the Château des Ducs de Bretagne, the elegant Passage Pommeraye, the charming Place du Change, and the majestic Basilica of Saint-Nicolas. At each stop, you’ll be invited to observe details, decipher clues, and solve riddles to progress through the adventure.
The experience lasts approximately 1 hour and 30 minutes and is designed for teams of 1 to 4 participants sharing a single phone, making it the perfect activity for friends, couples, or families.
Unlike a traditional sightseeing tour, this treasure hunt transforms city exploration into an interactive cultural adventure, where every monument hides a clue and every street tells a story.
Practical Information:
- 📍 Starting point: 4 Place Marc Elder, Nantes
- ⏱ Duration: approximately 90 minutes
- 👥 Team: 1 to 4 players per smartphone
- 📱 Equipment: one smartphone (Android or iPhone)
- 💰 Price: €14.90 per team
An ideal activity for discovering Nantes while having fun, while learning fascinating stories about the city’s heritage.
2. Make Your Own Chocolate Bar at Choc-Hola
choc Hola
If you’re looking for a truly original activity in Nantes, why not make your own chocolate from cocoa beans? This immersive workshop offered by Choc-Hola, a cocoa roaster located in the heart of Nantes, immerses you in the world of chocolate as it was prepared centuries ago.
During 2 hours, you’ll discover the origins of cocoa, its history, and traditional transformation methods. The experience is inspired by the practices of ancient Mexican civilizations that worked with cocoa long before chocolate became industrialized.
The workshop begins with an introduction to the different stages of chocolate making: roasting, grinding, and transforming cocoa beans. Then it’s time to get hands-on! You will manually perform every step, just as pre-Columbian civilizations once did.
One particularly fun moment awaits during the experience: a blind chocolate tasting where you’ll learn to recognize cocoa aromas and subtle flavor profiles. The workshop ends with the tasting of a hot chocolate prepared from a recipe inspired by the Mayan era.
The best part comes at the end: you leave with your very own chocolate bar, entirely handmade by you.
Practical Information:
- 📍 Location: 11 Rue Saint-Léonard, Nantes
- ⏱ Duration: 2 hours
- 💰 Price: €55 per person
3. Try Indoor Skydiving with Airfly Nantes
If you’ve always dreamed of skydiving but never dared to take the leap, there is a spectacular alternative in Nantes: an indoor skydiving simulator. Thanks to the wind tunnel offered by Airfly, you can experience the sensations of real flight… without jumping out of a plane.
The concept is based on an extremely powerful vertical column of air. Once equipped and accompanied by an instructor, you enter a flight chamber where the air circulates at nearly 270 km/h. This force keeps you suspended and recreates the sensations of real freefall.
Before flying, a quick briefing teaches you the basic movements to control your position in the air: moving up, moving down, or shifting sideways. In just a few minutes, you can already experience the unique feeling of floating and flying freely.
This activity is particularly impressive because it recreates the sensations of a parachute jump so well that professional skydiving teams use this type of wind tunnel for training.
Another advantage: unlike traditional skydiving, the weather has no impact on the experience, and the flight time is often longer than a tandem jump.
Good news for the more cautious: the wind tunnel is accessible from age 5 and even suitable for people prone to vertigo, since you never actually leave the ground. It is therefore an ideal activity for an outing with friends, a birthday, or an unusual family experience.
Practical Information:
- 📍 Location: Nantes region, Loire-Atlantique
- 💨 Air speed: up to approximately 270 km/h
- 👶 Accessible from age 5
- 🎉 Ideal for: thrills, events, group outings
A perfect activity to experience the adrenaline of freefall in complete safety, without leaving Nantes.
4. Pilot a Submarine as a Team with the Immersive Experience Into The Abyss at Challenge Arena
Among the most original activities to do near Nantes, Into The Abyss offers you an unusual mission: take control of a submarine and explore the depths of the ocean with your crew.
This immersive experience offered by Challenge Arena is neither a classic escape game nor a simple virtual reality game. It is a 360° collaborative game where each player occupies a specific role aboard the submarine.
For around 1 hour, your team must cooperate to complete an underwater mission full of challenges and unexpected twists. To succeed, everyone must play their role:
- The captain coordinates the crew and makes strategic decisions
- The pilot steers the submarine and maneuvers through the depths
- The mechanic manages energy and repairs the vessel’s systems
- The gunner protects the crew by neutralizing threats
- The sonar operator detects obstacles and hidden objects
The success of the mission depends entirely on communication and team spirit. Between strategy, reflexes, and coordination, the experience quickly becomes intense and full of twists and turns.
Thanks to complete immersion and an interactive environment, you will truly feel like you are piloting a submarine on an ocean exploration mission. Dangers can appear at any moment, and your crew will need to react quickly to continue the mission.
Combining adrenaline, cooperation, and laughter, this activity is ideal for an outing with friends, team building, or an original birthday celebration.
Practical Information:
- 📍 Location: Saint-Herblain (near Nantes)
- ⏱ Duration: 1 hour
- 👥 Players: 4 to 6 participants
- 🎮 Type: collaborative immersive experience
- 💰 Price: from €25 per person
- 🌍 Languages: French / English
A perfect activity to enjoy an extraordinary group adventure and test your teamwork in the depths of the sea.
5. Solve a Virtual Reality Escape Game at Virtual Room Nantes
Virtual Room Nantes
If you’re looking for a futuristic adventure in Nantes, head to Virtual Room, the city’s first collaborative virtual reality venue. Here, you’ll dive into an interactive world where escape games, cinema, and video games blend together to create a unique immersive experience.
Equipped with a VR headset, you and your team enter a virtual world where you’ll need to solve puzzles, explore different environments, and cooperate to complete your mission. Each player sees their teammates as avatars and must communicate effectively to progress through the adventure.
The experience is built around teamwork and collective problem-solving. You’ll need to share clues, manipulate virtual objects, and coordinate your actions to overcome the challenges ahead.
Several scenarios are available, including time-travel adventures, journeys through Ancient Egypt, and missions inspired by the world of Asterix. Each mission transports you into a spectacular and interactive setting.
With its combination of immersive technology and team-based gameplay, Virtual Room offers an original activity to enjoy with friends, family, or even colleagues during a team-building event.
Practical Information:
- 📍 Address: 14 Rue du Chapeau Rouge, Nantes
- ⏱ Duration: approximately 45 minutes of gameplay
- 👥 Players: 2 to 4 participants per team
- 👶 Suitable from age 8
- 💰 Price: from €25 per person
An ideal activity for enjoying a spectacular immersive adventure without leaving Nantes, while discovering a whole new way to play together.
6. Blow Off Steam with Axe Throwing at Les Frères Jacks Nantes
Les Frères Jacks Nantes
For an original and adrenaline-filled activity in Nantes, there’s nothing quite like throwing axes in a gaming bar! Les Frères Jacks invites you to discover this unusual pastime imported from the United States in a safe and friendly environment.
Suitable from age 10, this activity is perfect for bachelor and bachelorette parties, birthdays, nights out with friends, or even family outings. After a quick 2-minute safety briefing, you can jump into 15 interactive game modes: duels, zombies, giant darts, timed challenges, and more. Every game is different and guaranteed to provide plenty of laughs.
You can also try shurikens and other fun projectiles, while enjoying the on-site bar serving local beers, soft drinks, and sharing platters to extend the fun after the competition.
The concept is simple: book your session, throw, score points, and enjoy the relaxed atmosphere. If you can’t stick an axe in the target, your game is even free, making the experience stress-free and incredibly fun.
Practical Information:
- 📍 Address: 18 bis Rue Marie Curie, Saint-Sébastien-sur-Loire (near Nantes)
- ⏱ Duration: 1 hour per session
- 👶 Suitable from age 10
- 💰 Price: €19 per person
- 🎯 Game modes: 15 interactive variations
- 🍻 Bar & snack platters available on-site
An ideal activity for releasing stress, testing your accuracy, and creating unforgettable memories in Nantes in a friendly and festive atmosphere.
7. Experience High-Speed Thrills as a Passenger in a BMW M3 with Motorsport Academy
For thrill-seekers and adrenaline lovers, nothing beats a high-speed passenger experience on a racing circuit near Nantes. With Motorsport Academy, you’ll climb aboard a BMW M3 V8 with over 400 horsepower and let a professional driver give you the ultimate motorsport experience.
During the ride, you’ll be propelled at high speed around renowned circuits such as Fay de Bretagne, Le Mans, and Magny-Cours, experiencing explosive acceleration, expertly controlled corners, and intense braking. The experience is designed to let passengers feel the power, handling, and adrenaline of a real race car, all in complete safety.
The vehicle is prepared for maximum excitement: an American-style light bar, seating for three passengers to share the experience, and a roaring 4.0L V8 engine that comes alive with every acceleration. It’s a unique experience to enjoy with friends, family, or as an unforgettable gift.
Suitable for children aged 12 and over, the experience allows up to 3 passengers to enjoy the thrill simultaneously. It’s the perfect choice for an unusual outing, birthday celebration, or special event for speed and adrenaline enthusiasts.
Practical Information:
- 📍 Location: 375 Route de Vannes, Saint-Herblain (near Nantes)
- ⏱ Duration: 2 laps per experience
- 👶 Suitable from age 12
- 💰 Price: €39.90 promotional rate
- 🚗 Vehicle: BMW M3 V8 4.0L, maximum 3 passengers
- 🏁 Circuits: Fay de Bretagne, Le Mans, Magny-Cours, and other French race tracks
A must-try activity for experiencing the speed and adrenaline of a racing driver without getting behind the wheel yourself, perfect for sharing intense and unforgettable memories.
Conclusion
Nantes is much more than a historic and cultural city: it is also a playground for those seeking original and memorable experiences. From urban treasure hunts, creative workshops, immersive virtual reality activities, adrenaline sports, and high-speed racing experiences, these 7 unusual activities offer the perfect opportunity to discover the city from a different perspective while sharing unique moments with your loved ones.
Whether you’re a visiting tourist, a curious local, or an event organizer, these experiences allow you to break away from routine and experience Nantes in a fun and unexpected way. So don’t wait any longer: plan your next outing, book your activities, and let yourself be surprised by the creativity, adrenaline, and fun that Nantes has to offer.
Nantes has never been so fascinating and surprising—it’s up to you to turn every visit into an unforgettable adventure.
