At Team Building Philadelphia we’re passionate about finding and listing the best team building activities, corporate events and company outing ideas in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and the surrounding area.
Maybe you’ve tried to host an offsite of your own, but it was one of those team building events full of trust falls and cheesy games that left everyone on your team feeling like it was a waste of time. If that’s the case, then you can feel confident knowing we’re not about that style of team activities. All team building companies in Philadelphia are not created equal and we’ve spent countless hours researching the best options to find the cream of the crop.
We’ve done the hard work because we truly believe in the benefits of team building. The research shows many benefits of team building but as far as we’re concerned, it really boils down to two principles:
- Teams that play together, stay together
- Teams that play together, perform better together.
Without further ado, let’s talk about the best team building activities, corporate event ideas, team outings, and team events in the Philadelphia, Camden, Levittown, Upper Darby, and Cherry Hill areas.
Table of Contents
- The Best Team Building Activities in Philadelphia
- Fun Team Building Activities in Philadelphia
- Unusual Team Activities in Philadelphia
- Philadelphia Team Building Events with Food
- Team Building Philadelphia: Frequently Asked Questions
The Best Team Building Activities in Philadelphia
We have high standards when it comes to naming the best team building activities in Philadelphia. To determine who stands out from the competition, we evaluated a number of different factors: fun, creativity, impact on your team, and pricing. With those criteria in mind, we’d like to present the top two best corporate events in Philly: Museum Hack and The Great Guac Off! Museum Hack’s museum tours are fun, “renegade”, optimized for maximum team bonding, and the company delivers on its promise to show clients the best time they’ll ever have in a museum. The Great Guac Off is newer to the Philadelphia team building scene, but we love it for its innovative guacamole making competition. Your team will compete, laugh, and eat — all at a price point we found to be surprisingly reasonable. Check them out below!
1. Museum Hack – ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ [Highest Rated]
Museum Hack is tops in corporate team building activities in Philadelphia, and for good reason. Museum Hack runs unconventional museum tours, and their team building events follow suit with fun, interactive, engaging content. Museum Hack has been in business across the US since 2013 and has hosted hundreds of team building activities for top companies like Google, Facebook, Spotify, Adobe, J.P. Morgan, and Bloomingdales. No matter where your business is with experience doing team activities, Museum Hack is a great option for your next team event. Museum Hack’s menu of options for team building activities includes complete customization (they once ran an entire tour about yogurt for Dannon), drinks, snacks, and a storytelling workshop that Fortune 100 companies have used to increase sales and workplace performance. Get ready to laugh, learn, and have a great time on your team outing.
2. The Great Guac Off™ – ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ [Includes Food]
Facilitated avocado smashing is one of the best team activities in Philadelphia! The Great Guac Off promises exactly that experience with unique, fun corporate events. At your Guac Off, your team members will be split into smaller teams tasked with creating the most delicious guacamole recipe Philadelphia has ever seen. But this team building event goes beyond simply mashing avocados; each Guac Off is packed full of challenges, competitions, and a lot of avocado puns. Also, you can BYOB margaritas and the pricing is reasonable. What more could you ask for from a team event? In our opinion, The Great Guac Off is a great choice when planning for the best Philadelphia team building activities.
Fun Team Building Activities in Philadelphia
While we believe at Team Building Philadelphia that team activities aren’t one size fits all, we do think all team building events should have one thing in common: fun! Below are a variety of corporate event ideas that will leave your coworkers looking forward to the next team outing.
3. Gingerbread Wars – ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ [Holiday Themed]
Gingerbread Wars gets our endorsement for the best team building event for the holiday season! Does your office plan an annual company holiday party? If your team could use a boost of festive cheer this year then give the elves at Gingerbread Wars a call. Your team will enjoy fun challenges, holiday trivia, and an epic gingerbread competition to see which group can build the office’s best gingerbread house. Snacks, catering, and BYOB are all optional. Gingerbread Wars’ facilitators will even come decorate your office (or a rental location in Philadelphia location) before the festivities get underway. It’s time to make your next team event merry.
4. Team Building Hero
Team Building Hero is one-stop-shopping for planning the best corporate team building activities. Team Building Hero offers an array of fun team activities in Philadelphia, from scavenger hunts to storytelling workshops to food competitions to company holiday parties. Team Building Hero aims to be your yearly provider of all your team events with a dedicated sales rep who will get to know you and your team; this gives a more personalized and customized approach to your corporate events. Team Building Hero has reasonable pricing, with preferential pricing when you book multiple team events at once.
5. Zoo Hack
When you think corporate team building activities, do you conjure up images of cuddly, cute zoo animals? No? We think you should! Zoo Hack runs unconventional team building tours at the Philadelphia Zoo. Zoo Hack’s events are fun, unique, unexpected, and optimized to maximize engagement and team bonding. Your experience includes games, activities and wild stories about the animals you think you know. Your team will have a zoo-tastic day coming together and learning what really goes on behind the scenes at the Philadelphia Zoo. With the authentic connections the folks at Zoo Hack are pros at making, your coworkers will head back to the office with a renewed appreciation for each other that will show in their work. We think Zoo Hack is among the most fun team building activities in Philadelphia.
6. North Bowl
Tried and true, you can gather your team for a friendly round or two of bowling. There are bowling alleys throughout the City of Brotherly Love, so finding a spot that works for your team outing shouldn’t be too tough. We happen to like North Bowl. You and your coworkers can knock down a few pins, grab appetizers and maybe a drink as you come together over the lanes and relax. Bowling is a good option for teams looking to unwind, enjoy a little friendly competition, promote team bonding, and get out of the office for a few hours. Bowling is about as easy as it gets for hosting Philadelphia team building activities because most of your people will already be familiar with the sport. If your team is on the larger side, then North Bowl will let you rent out the alley to host a private party, making it a good option for team building for large groups.
7. Improv your way to better team building
The thought of doing improv may fill some of your coworkers with dread, but it’s actually a quite accessible and useful skill to learn. Improv teaches a number of skills that can be beneficial back at the office, ensuring your team outing has far-reaching benefits that extend beyond the afternoon. Improv will help boost communication, collaboration, teamwork, problem solving, and creative thinking skills. At ComedySportz Philadelphia, trained instructors are professional performers with real-world experience teaching the skills honed during their careers. Your team will come together and bond, with the added benefit of getting to see new sides of your coworkers’ personalities they may otherwise keep closed off at the office.
8. Escape the Room Philly
You probably couldn’t call any list of corporate event ideas complete without including an Escape Room. There are tons of options in Philadelphia, from Museum Hack‘s clever Escape the Museum to something more traditional like Escape the Room Philly. For your Escape Room, you’ll be locked in a room with your coworkers and you have to figure out how to escape. Left only with a series of clues to decipher, you and your teammates will battle the clock to free yourselves from the room before time runs out. Escape rooms are helpful for working together, problem solving, thinking outside the box, and communicating with your team, making these team activities a good option for your next event.
9. Painting with a Twist
Tap into your creative side and host a painting party for your next company outing! Painting parties are gaining popularity in Philadelphia and are quickly becoming among the top group activities for adults. At your private painting party and team event with Painting with a Twist, you can choose from more than 6,000 different painting options. Your group will come together in a private room with your own personal instructor who will show you how to paint the chosen scene. All supplies are included in your price, from brushes to easels to smocks. The studio is BYOB, so you can choose to bring outside food and beverages to take your fun corporate event to the next level.
10. Arnold’s Family Fun Center
We know the name may not inspire thoughts of fun activities for employees, but give Arnold’s Family Fun Center a chance for your next team building event. Arnold’s Family Fun Center offers nostalgia to the max, with all of the classic games you loved from childhood. Think laser tag, go kart racing, and bowling. Your team can rent the space out for private events, enjoy a private dining room with on-site catering menu, an open bar, and take advantage of a theater room with A/V hookups to take your next company meeting and team outing to the next level. With room for up to 150 people in the theater, Arnold’s Family Fun Center promises to be a great time for your next corporate event.
11. Office Olympics
Host your own Office Olympics! While it will take some planning and organizing on your end, hosting an Office Olympics is a great option for in-office team building that you can do on-site. Come up with a list of games and challenges that can be done in your conference room or around the building. We like this list of event ideas as a place to get started. Come up with scoring and prizes for your event, and get ready to watch your coworkers interact and engage with each other in new ways. Sprinkle in some icebreaker questions and collaborative challenges, and you’re well on your way to an awesome DIY team building event at your office.
12. Yay Clay!
Yay Clay! is a make-your-own pottery studio in the heart of Philadelphia that can also double as a location for your next team event. Yay Clay!’s instructors will teach you and your coworkers how to throw your own unique piece of pottery while using a pottery wheel. Beyond that main activity, the studio offers its own arcade and so your team can relax and unwind with some game play. Yay Clay! also has a partnership with a local caterer who can take care of all of your food and beverage needs, making this option an easy all-inclusive team building event your coworkers will enjoy.
13. The Leader’s Institute
Turn your day of team building into a day of giving back with The Leader’s Institute charitable team building program. The Leader’s Institute offers several different options for charitable corporate team building activities in Philadelphia, including Build-A-Bike where your coworkers will team up to build a brand-new bicycle for children in need. At the end of the day, employees will have worked together to create a bicycle, but there’s a catch: participants can only build the bike through parts they earn by solving puzzles and clues throughout the event. Another option is Rescue Bear, where your team will craft snugly teddy bears to donate to fire departments, so firefighters can gift these bears to children that are the victims of accidents or fires. The bears often represent the only comfort these children have after everything has been lost in a fire. The Leader’s Institute offers an awesome way to come together and give back as a team while supporting your local community during your corporate event.
14. Trivia
Who doesn’t love a fun night of trivia? You can either craft your own in-house trivia or you can leave all of the planning to the pros at The Big Quiz. The Big Quiz’s team will design a custom trivia game for your group ranging from five to 500 people; the night can last anywhere from half an hour up to three hours, and The Big Quiz will travel to the location of your choice. Want to host your team building activities at a bar? The Big Quiz will be there. Thinking the corporate event would work better in your office conference room? That setup works for The Big Quiz, too!
Unusual Team Activities in Philadelphia
Maybe your company is a regular when it comes to planning corporate events and it’s time to shake things up. With these unusual team building activities in Philadelphia, you can feel confident you’ll surprise your coworkers with an unexpected and unique team event.
15. Drop From The Sky
As far as unique team building events go, indoor skydiving at iFLY is definitely closer to the top of the list. With an indoor wind tunnel that mimics the rush of the wind, your team members will experience all the thrills of skydiving without the terror of actually jumping out of a plane. iFLY is a good option for adventurous teams or teams that really need to come together and experience team bonding over a shared experience that gets the adrenaline flowing. With an on-site meeting room, A/V hook-ups, and catering options, iFLY can offer a great compliment to your next quarterly meeting with the benefit of making your corporate event memorable.
16. Grab your paddles
It’s time to pick up your paddle and get ready to play ping pong! At SPIN Philadelphia, you can reserve a private room with several ping pong tables to get your coworkers talking, laughing, and enjoying a little friendly competition against each other. SPIN Philadelphia’s private room includes tables, a lounge, and a private VIP bar. SPIN offers on-site catering and drinks at a price, giving you everything you need for your next team building event.
17. Score tickets to a local game
You may be thinking it’s time to visit the Philadelphia Phillies or perhaps you’re checking this list out during Flyers season. We have another idea in mind that should top your choices of fun corporate events. Did you know that in addition to being home to NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL, and MLS teams, the City of Brotherly Love also houses a handful of teams in other leagues? Why not grab your coworkers for an evening watching the Philadelphia Soul in the AFL or the Blue Coats of the NBA G League or the Philadelphia Wings of the National League Lacrosse? The games are often more cost-effective then the other leagues and have a fun atmosphere. You can extend the invite to your employees’ families to make it a true team bonding event for your company and coworkers.
18. Urban Axes
Have you ever wanted to learn how to throw an axe? Now you can with Urban Axes, a unique but cool idea for corporate team building. With locations in Kensington and South Philadelphia, Urban Axes may be able to provide fun team activities for your next off-site or team building retreat. At Urban Axes, groups range in size from a minimum of six to even a few dozen. Urban Axes allows you to bring in catering from local restaurants. Winners at your event will earn cool prizes, like a trophy for the champion and company swag to go home with, making this a full-service team event!
19. Explore Nature
Take advantage of the beautiful weather in some seasons, and get outside to explore Longwood Gardens. The stunning grounds are home to dozens of cool events, including beer gardens, live music, and performances. The best part about exploring nature is that coordinating your corporate event doesn’t have to be complicated. Instead, simply go online to reserve the tickets you need for your desired date. You can even head over to the gardens early to explore the beautiful location with your ticket, allowing your employees to maximumize their team bonding time.
20. Relax At The Spa
We’re thinking outside the box and recognize that a spa day may not be on many lists of the best corporate team building activities. Spas are often the exact antithesis of what we think about work; they’re relaxing, a place to zone out and zen out, a place to reconnect with yourself, pamper yourself, and leave refreshed, recharged, and relaxed. A trip to the spa is the ultimate in unwinding, and a company-sponsored spa day can have far reaching benefits for your grateful employees. If the idea of travelling with your coworkers to the local spa is a little too much, then consider giving out thank-you gift cards to your local spa to your employees and let them take an afternoon off to pamper themselves. Trust us, your team will appreciate the gesture and return to the office ready to rock.
21. Host A Meetup
Think beyond just team building activities in your office and consider celebrating all of the companies and people who make your business work as well as it does. There are so many ways to say thank you to your community, and hosting a meetup is one of our favorite ways to do just that! Bring your entire network together, including vendors, suppliers and employees’ families for an awesome afternoon of food, fun, and relaxation. You can allow the natural conversations to flow as people who wouldn’t normally come together are introduced and expand their network. Add some delicious food and fun games on a beautiful afternoon in the park and you have all the makings of a company team building event that will bring so much more back to your business.
Philadelphia Team Building Events with Food
Food is a simple way to please a crowd, so it makes sense to consider team building activities with food for your next company outing. From interactive murder mystery dinners to cooking classes to adding bar food and drinks to your trip to Dave & Buster’s, there’s a team building event with food in Philadelphia that will suit your company’s needs.
22. The Great Guac Off™
The Great Guac Off combines a guacamole making competition with other fun team building activities in a way your team will love. The event starts off with avocado themed trivia, then leads into more events and challenges, and culminates in the epic guac making competition itself. The Great Guac Off provides everything you need for your team event, including a fun faciliator, all of the guacamole ingredients and dippers, prizes, and options like BYOB and gift bags. Basically, the Guac Off is a hoot and your team will love it.
23. The Dinner Detective
The Dinner Detective is another option when planning corporate team building activities in Philadelphia. Murder mystery dinners are awesome for boosting communication skills, creative problem solving, and critical thinking; plus, a murder mystery will bring your team together over a delicious meal and team event. These dinner-focussed team activities will be a night of intrigue, clue solving, and figuring out whodunit as your team winds its way through the mystery to name the perpetrator. The Dinner Detective promises an interactive, enjoyable evening that’s among the best team building activities Philadelphia has to offer.
24. Really Cooking With Robin
Come together with your team over one of our country’s favorite past-times: food! With Really Cooking With Robin, you can host fun team activities for employees that don’t feel like team building. With two kitchen islands available, Really Cooking With Robin can host at least 50 guests per company team building event. Really Cooking With Robin offers dozens of menu items to choose from, plus your per person price includes the meal, an appetizer, sangria, and dessert. Take your corporate events to the next level with the company’s karaoke machine, photo booth, and HDTV with HDMI, which you can use for meeting presentations or to play an awesome company video.
25. Dave and Buster’s
Simplify your next company outing with a trip to your local Dave and Buster’s! Your team members will feel like kids again as they enjoy an afternoon in the arcade, on the Skee Ball machine, or playing pool. With several locations in the Philadelphia area, Dave and Buster’s makes for fun corporate events that definitely won’t feel like time spent on the clock. Plus, organizing your team activities will be super simple as Dave and Buster’s has everything on site from games and bowling to a full food menu and bar. If you want to go above and beyond for your team, then you can work with one of Dave and Buster’s event planners on your next team building event.
26. City Food Tours
What better way to explore Philadelphia than through an awesome culinary experience and corporate event? Book a team outing with City Food Tours to get an insider’s perspective on the city’s food scene. You can choose from a variety of team building activities, including themed tours that will take you around to Philadelphia’s top sandwich spots, dessert stands, and bakeries, or an array of different cultural eateries. You can also go in an entirely different direction and book a cook-off among your team to promote and encourage competition and team bonding!
27. Wine School of Philadelphia
It’s time to uncork a bottle of wine and plan your corporate team building events with the Wine School of Philadelphia. The company’s ftaff will help you plan the perfect team outing. You can put together team building events focused on food pairings, whisky tasting, or even spending a few hours with the resident winemaker. Perhaps your team is the type to enjoy a guided mixology lesson or maybe an evening of wine and cheese is right up your alley. Whatever your team’s passion, the Wine School of Philadelphia can help you put together an awesome company event that will have your group clinking glasses and enjoying each other’s company as they learn something new together. We think that experience is a pretty cool way to enjoy team building. Cheers!
28. Themed Pot-Luk
People on your team probably enjoy cooking, and so you can harness that interest to make a successful team event. Choose a theme like “vegetarian” or “everything stuffed” and encourage your employees to bring a dish that matches that theme. You can and should provide a stipend to pay for the ingredients, which could be up to $25 per person. This budget will also take care of making sure everyone enjoys a meal together. You can complete your event with wine and icebreaker questions.
Final thoughts: Team building isn’t one size fits all.
As you can see, corporate team building activities in Philadelphia can come in a variety of sizes, shapes, and forms, and that’s a great thing! While an afternoon at the bowling alley may be the ideal outing for Company A, indoor skydiving could be higher on the list of perfect corporate event ideas for Company B.
Here is what we know for sure about team building: it’s too important not to invest in it. Study after study has shown that team building is directly linked to improved employee job satisfaction, increased employee loyalty, and better on-the-job skills ranging from communication to creative thinking to problem solving.
If you’re not team building yet, then why not?
Have questions about planning the perfect team building retreats for your office? Not sure which of these awesome choices offers the best Philadelphia team building activities? Get in touch! We’d love to help. ❤️
Happy planning!
Team Building Philadelphia: Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best team building activity in Philadelphia?
The best team building activity in Philadelphia is The Great Guac Off, an innovative guacamole making competition that involves competition, collaboration, and creative thinking. Plus, you’ll get to eat some delicious chips and guac!
Can I combine team building with our company holiday party?
Yes! We think working some team building into your next office holiday party is a great move, and we’d recommend Gingerbread Wars to do it!
How often should my company team build?
If your budget allows, then we suggest hosting a team outing at least once per quarter. If need be, then it’s okay to sprinkle in a DIY in-office team building activity throughout the year to keep costs down.