The Sims 4 has two hidden lots in the base game, Sylvan Glade in Willow Creek and the Forgotten Grotto in Oasis Springs, and each is opened from an object in a public park rather than from the map. The rest of the game’s secret areas belong to packs: the Deep Woods in Outdoor Retreat, Sixam in Get to Work, the Magic Realm in Realm of Magic and the temple ruins in Jungle Adventure. Below we cover what a hidden lot is, how to open each one, what it needs, and what is worth collecting once you are inside.
What Counts as a Hidden Lot
A hidden lot is a playable area that does not appear on the world map. You cannot travel to it, build on it or move Sims into it; you reach it by interacting with a specific object in a normal world and, usually, passing a skill, career or quest gate first. Each one holds collectibles that are rare or unique to it, which is the practical reason to bother. Verified against the official patch notes from spring 2025 through the September 22, 2026 update, none of these entrances or gates has changed; the only related fix was a November 2025 one for rocks and dig sites not respawning, which affects how much you can harvest per visit.
The Two Free Ones
Sylvan Glade (Willow Creek). Go to the Crick Cabana lot area in Willow Creek and find the large, distinctive tree at the back of the small park beside it, which the game labels as a tree you can View. Click it and work through its options: View, then Water, then Chat, and keep going. Each interaction eventually reveals a new option to explore into the trunk, and a short series of text choices later your Sim steps out into the glade. Inside are fishing spots with fish that are hard to find elsewhere, harvestable plants, and a lot of frogs. No skill is required; it only takes patience with the tree.
Forgotten Grotto (Oasis Springs). In the park neighborhood behind the Affluista Mansion lot there is a boarded-up mine entrance in the rock face. The gate here is a skill: your Sim needs Handiness at level 10 to open it, which is why this one takes real preparation. Our guide to maxing skills fast covers the quickest honest route, and our skill cheats guide covers the shortcut. Once the entrance opens, a short choose-your-path text adventure drops your Sim into the grotto, where the draw is minerals, crystals and metals to dig up, plus fishing spots. The 2025 version of this guide said to “break open the entrance with handiness”; it is not a repair, just a locked interaction.
Both areas are the classic examples of why Build Mode cheats exist: players who want to build in them use the free-build cheat, since neither is editable normally.
The Pack-Locked Ones
- Deep Woods, Granite Falls. Needs the Outdoor Retreat game pack. The developer’s own description tells you the point of it: “find the hermit rumored to live in the deepest parts of the forest.” Book a vacation to Granite Falls, go to the national park, and look for a bramble at the back of the forest area; interacting with it starts a short text adventure that leads to the hermit’s clearing. The hermit teaches Herbalism-related tricks, and the area has rare insects and plants.
- Sixam. Needs Get to Work. There are two doors in: reach the top of the Scientist career and build the Wormhole Generator at the lab, or buy a rocket ship, raise Rocket Science, and fit the Wormhole Generator upgrade. Sixam is the alien home world, with its own crystals, metals, plants and alien Sims to meet. Note that in the July 2024 update the developer turned off calendar event scheduling while on Sixam, which is a hint of how separate the lot is from the rest of the game.
- The Magic Realm. Needs Realm of Magic. Travel to Glimmerbrook and click the portal by the waterfall. It is the least hidden of the set, since the whole pack is built around it, and our guide on becoming a spellcaster covers everything inside.
- The Temple, Selvadorada. Needs Jungle Adventure. The developer describes the pack as “revealing a temple, jungle obstacles, cursed relics and treasures”. The jungle beyond the tourist town is gated by vine and rubble obstacles that need machetes, and the temple at the end holds relics and treasure rooms. It is closer to a dungeon than a lot, but it is off the map and gated, so it belongs on this list.
Newer expansions are worth a note because players ask. Enchanted by Nature’s Innisgreen has a magical forest, Everdew, where you meet Mother Nature, and Adventure Awaits adds custom venues and Getaways; per their official descriptions both are ordinary map neighborhoods and venues, not hidden lots.
What to Collect Inside
The reason to unlock these is collections. Sylvan Glade and the grotto together supply the fish, frogs, crystals and metals that are slow to find on ordinary lots, and Sixam adds the alien-only variants. If your Sim gardens, the rare plants from Sylvan Glade and the Deep Woods matter more; a plasma fruit, for instance, is one of the ingredients our vampire guide sends you looking for, and a Death Flower is worth carrying at all times. Remember the November 2025 fix: dig sites and rocks respawn again, so repeat visits pay off.
Every other Sims 4 guide we have written is on the Sims hub.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many hidden lots are in the base game? Two: Sylvan Glade in Willow Creek and the Forgotten Grotto in Oasis Springs. Everything else on this list needs a pack.
Do I need Handiness 10 for Sylvan Glade too? No. Sylvan Glade has no skill gate; you only need to keep interacting with the tree until the explore option appears. Handiness 10 is for the Forgotten Grotto.
Can I build on a hidden lot? Not normally. They are not on the map and cannot be selected in Manage Worlds. Players who do it use the free-build cheat, at their own risk.
Can my Sim live in Sixam or the Magic Realm? No. They are visit-only areas. Your Sim can stay a while, but the household home stays in a normal world.
Did any recent patch change these areas? Not the entrances or gates. The November 2025 update fixed rocks and dig sites not respawning, which affects how much you can collect per visit, and the July 2025 update fixed a Realm of Magic curse spawn.