The Best Real-Life Room Escape Attractions

Room escape attractions are popping up all over the country as puzzle masters and code crackers set aside room escape apps and games to take on the real thing. A trend that made its way over from Asia, these experiences include a group of friends or strangers locked in a room for up to an hour as they attempt to find clues and use their sleuthing skills to break their way out.

Mystery Room NYC brings you two escape experiences, one in SoHo and the other in Midtown. Penthouse 116 is located in SoHo and the game’s backstory includes missing persons, biohazard wastes and sinister intentions. The other escape attraction, Biotech Labs, is a continuation of the same storyline and sends players to investigate a sketchy medical office with something to hide. Tickets are $28/person, groups are between 6-10 people and children 5 and up are allowed.

If you’re looking for something a bit more challenging, try Trapped Philly, which has an escape rate of only 21 percent. They currently only offer one escape experience, The Factory, which revolves around an odd caretaker who is suspected of setting a stationery factory ablaze before his disappearance in the 1950s. Players find themselves locked in the factory’s break room by the crazed caretaker, struggling to find a way out before the building comes crumbling down around them. Tickets are $28 per person, groups are 10 people and children 8 and up are allowed if accompanied by an adult.

For those who want to take being locked in a room for an hour with a group of strangers to its most nightmare inducing, there’s The Basement. Located in Los Angeles and reminiscent of a horror film, the experience places players in the home of a psychotic serial killer and cannibal and, if you can’t escape, you’re on the menu. This room also includes actors who help to move the game along, as well as frightening tasks, tight spaces and a blindfolded entrance. The attraction was recently featured on The Bachelorette, but unlike on the show, there are no insects or animals included. Tickets are $30–35 per person, groups are 12 people and children 15 and up are allowed if accompanied by an adult.