Escape rooms have exploded in popularity in recent years, becoming a go-to activity for friends, families, and even corporate team-building events. But what’s behind this phenomenon? Why are so many people suddenly flocking to these immersive, puzzle-solving adventures? My teenager daughter and I decided to find out…
A Unique And Engaging Experience
Unlike traditional outings, like popping to the cinema or visiting your favourite restaurant, escape rooms offer a unique and engaging experience. Participants are transported to another world, whether it’s a spooky haunted house, a thrilling heist scenario, or a fantastical magical realm. The immersive themes, intricate puzzles, and ticking clock create such an adrenaline-pumping adventure that’s truly hard to resist.
Teamwork Makes The Dream Work
Escape rooms are designed to be tackled as a team, and so this makes them a fantastic way to bond with friends and family. Working together to solve puzzles, decipher clues, and overcome challenges fosters communication, collaboration, and problem-solving skills. It’s a chance to see how your loved ones perform under pressure and discover hidden talents.
Fun For All Ages
One of the great things about escape rooms is their versatility. Many venues offer a range of themes and difficulty levels, making them suitable for most ages. Whether you’re planning a day out with young children, teenagers, or a group of adults, there’s likely to be an escape room that caters to your exact needs.
A Break From The Ordinary
In a world dominated by screens and digital entertainment, escape rooms offer a refreshing change of pace. They provide a chance to disconnect from technology and engage in a real-world adventure. It’s a chance to exercise your brain, have some laughs, and create lasting memories with your favourite people.
More Than Just Fun And Games
Escape rooms aren’t just about entertainment. They also offer a range of wider benefits, including:
- Boosting cognitive skills: Solving puzzles and thinking creatively can help to improve problem-solving abilities and critical thinking, which knocks the socks off of doing a crossword or sudoku on a Sunday.
- Enhancing communication: Working together as a team encourages communication and active listening.
- Building confidence: Successfully escaping a room can instantly boost self-esteem and confidence.
- Reducing stress: Engaging in a fun and challenging activity can be a great way to relieve stress and unwind from the challenges of everyday life.
Escape London: Casino Heist Escape Room
As a mother and daughter duo, scrolling for a fun weekend activity to undertake during the winter, we excitedly came across the Casino Heist in Whitechapel, East London. I’m all for encouraging and supporting Millie to try new things, nurture a sense of achievement and spend quality face-to-face time together away from home and daily routine. I believe that communication and relationships flourish with the more time and effort that you put into them, and the skills and confidence built from the challenge and hopeful triumph of an escape room can be extended into all aspects of life.
The tantalising plot line, which led to our room selection, was the discovery of a new underground casino -I can literally sense Tom Cruise’s eyes widening- as we were informed that the security cameras have been disabled for just one hour with our mission to steal as much money as possible from the vaults. We’ve been warned that we must wager our time wisely in the casino and seek out the hidden tools available to escape before security guards shows up to cart us away – a healthy dose of excitement and risk that makes Hollywood blockbusters so successful! We’re ready for our moment! Will riches be rolling our way, or will greed and buffoonery consume us both?
This was our first ever joint escape room experience and upon arrival our instructor cheerfully greeted us, showed us to a locker to stow our belongings, walked us through the health and safety procedure in the event of an emergency and then handed us a walkie talkie. Although we were locked in the casino with no way out, other than to escape by finding the clues, should we need to communicate with a member of staff, get stumped and require a clue, or want to leave to use the toilet we could.
As the door clacked shut behind us, and the timer began, we scoured the room for clues and challenges to solve. What seemed like an ordinary bar with drinks, a juke box, arcade machine and decor soon turned into a detectives dream, as everything had a purpose and was strategically placed in order to unfold the heist. Knowing that we were on a timer, and having no idea where to begin, we developed a system of searching and calling out everything that we found, even if it seemed significant or ridiculous – pink flamingo, five pineapples, a missing purple tile – as at any point in the game it could all make perfect sense when seeing the answer to a clue.
We flicked through pages of a book, looked at objects upside down, searched beneath and above shelving and read every label, tag and piece of information as we made our way through a series of exciting challenges that were all computerised to instantly sound a coin drop, light up the next puzzle or release a further clue. With CCTV throughout, the instructors could watch our every move to ensure that we were safe, within our time limit and offer assistance if needed.
Without wanting to give the game away and spoil the surprises, we had the most amazing experience -literally jumping for joy- as we unlocked each puzzle, secret doors popped open and we worked our way through the bar, casino and vault to fill a briefcase with bundles of cash and escape the security system before the guards were able to catch us.
The escape room introduced us to an entirely new way of thinking, like watching a gameshow on TV times a million for the adrenaline, excitement and the sheer joy of cracking the codes. We learned to question everything, looked at every item far more intently and with purpose and realised how wonderfully refreshing it was to be truly present in the moment, compared to the auto-pilot that we are stuck in day to day, where we miss so much of our surroundings and details by never truly paying attention.
With literally seconds to spare, we escaped the vault with our briefcase of cash, buzzing from the high-octane excitement, our minds absolutely electrified with mental stimulation and enthusiasm, along with an innate desire to become detectives or spies! What an incredibly fun, thrilling and thought-provoking experience that has ignited a passion for puzzle-solving within us that we didn’t even know that we had.
These escape rooms are suitable for 2-5 players aged 10yrs+ with our Casino Heist having a 57% success rate and approximately 60% difficulty rating, making it the most challenging escape room. With the Overthrone room set in a King’s castle, Witchcraft And Wizadry featuring a mad professor, The Master’s Cabin eerily in the woods, The Da Vinci Room seeking the holy grail, Escape The Seven Seas a sailors delight, Taken II kidnapping, Project A psychic experiment, Sector X aliens and a Mayan Temple in the rainforest, there is something incredibly exciting for everyone.
Each experience should last no longer than 90 minutes, from first entering the building until the moment that you leave, making it an ideal addition to a lazy weekend or tourist spot stop-off when travelling to new cities. Players aged between 9-11yrs must be accompanied by an adult in the room, with 12-16yrs requiring an adult on the premises or no further than 5 mins away from the location – fab for teens to have space and independence whilst honing problem solving skills.
If you’re searching for a fun and memorable activity for your next birthday party, weekend adventure or friends and family day out, then look no further than an escape room. With so many immersive themes, engaging puzzles and a strong and healthy focus on teamwork, they offer an experience that’s sure to leave everyone wanting more. Gather your crew, choose your adventure, and get ready to put your problem-solving skills to the test!
Use code “TRACY10” at Escape London for 10% off of escape room experiences!
www.escape-london.co.uk
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