I recently completed my most densely-packed escape room marathon yet: 40 escape rooms in 10 days. On our busiest day, we played 9.5 hours of escape rooms. This trip was as exhilarating as it was exhausting, and I had an absolute blast.
An escape room marathon can take many different forms — from playing a few local rooms back-to-back to traveling far distances and playing out entire cities or even countries. I’ve learned countless lessons from planning and playing escape room trips over the past few years, and I thought I’d share some of those learnings. Whether you’re actively planning your own escape room marathons or are just curious about what goes on behind the scenes, I hope you find the following tips interesting and useful!
1. Do your research
The first step of planning an escape room marathon is figuring out where to go and what to play there. If you’re looking to travel, the Top Escape Rooms Project list and Room Escape Artist’s regional recommendation guides are invaluable resources.
In contrast, I’d ignore “top escape rooms” lists and awards from Tripadvisor and other non-escape room publications. They’re generally meaningless reflections of which companies advertise best, and they don’t actually reflect room quality. I’d also avoid Yelp/ Tripadvisor/ etc reviews as they’re almost always diluted by newer players who don’t yet have enough points of reference to differentiate the good from the bad.
Another great way to find out about top escape rooms and travel-worthy destinations is just to ask! I am always more than happy to give personalized recommendations for North American escape room markets. And if I haven’t already played a specific room yet, I probably know someone who has. There also are thriving escape room communities on the Escape Room Discord and Escape Room Enthusiasts FB group (along with other groups for specific countries and regions.)
Through this entire process, collect your research in a spreadsheet. Make sure to record the names of the escape rooms you’re potentially interested in playing, their companies, addresses, numbers of recommended players, game lengths (some rooms are longer than 60 minutes!), and any other info you think might be relevant.
2. Map it out
Once you have a giant info dump of all the escape rooms you might want to play, the next step is figuring out which ones you’ll actually have time to play and in what order.
When I’m visiting 3 or more companies on a trip, I usually make a custom Google Map with placemarks for each company, possible lodging, restaurants, and any other attractions my team might want to visit.
As I start blocking out a prospective itinerary, common considerations include:
Which companies are close to each other? I probably want to visit nearby companies one after another.
On what days and times is each company open? If we’re trying to play multiple rooms back-to-back at a company, does their public booking schedule allow for that? If a company’s listed times don’t work for us or they’re not open when we’re trying to visit, it may be worth calling or emailing them to see if they’re flexible to adjust their schedule to accommodate us. Don’t expect this to always be possible (and don’t be rude when the answer is “no”!)
Which are the top rooms of the trip? And when will my team most enjoy playing them? If I book an award-winning room on a Sunday night after playing a dozen other rooms in a weekend, it’s likely my team will be too tired to fully enjoy it. But if I book that room first in the weekend, my team may not be warmed up yet, and it might set an unbeatably high standard for everything else we play. The sweet spot for top rooms tends to be somewhere in the middle.
Keeping in mind my teammates’ dietary restrictions, what are some possible dining options either near a company we’ll be visiting or en route between companies?
3. Gather a balanced team
There’s an art to finding and cultivating a balanced, enjoyable escape room team. Ultimately, what matters most is that your teammates are people you enjoy spending time with. A whole lot of time. Often in various states of exhaustion.
It’s important that your team be balanced in skill sets and experience levels. Many different skills come into play in escape rooms, including searching and exploring; various types of puzzle-solving - logic puzzles, word puzzles, observing small details, visual-spatial, etc; communication and inventory management; and managing emotional levels. Another sort of skill is experience: exposure to more escape rooms and escape room tropes means you’ll more easily recognize common patterns.
It’s also important that individual play styles align. Some players like to be active, speedy, and competitive, while others like to take their time a bit more. Some players prefer to divide and conquer, while others like to stick together and see everything while playing. It’s important that every team member be generally on the same page about what makes for a fun escape room experience for them.
Then there’s the question of team size. I personally tend to prefer playing with smaller teams — ideally in the 2-4 player range. But recommended team size can vary quite a bit from room to room, with some rooms that are either physically impossible with too few players or just significantly more expensive with fewer players. If I’m trying to play a room that’s best for 3 players and another that requires at least 8 players on the same day, I’m either going to have to call in some ringers for the larger-team game or split up a larger team to avoid overcrowding in smaller-team rooms.
4. Track all expenses
When I’m the one organizing an escape room marathon, I usually pay for all the rooms upfront and let my teammates know how much they owe me at the end. It’s a lot easier to centralize who’s paying for things.
I always keep track of how much I’m paying for each room as I’m booking stuff. I’ll either use a spreadsheet, with columns for each of my teammates, or an app like Splitwise.
This continues into other expenses that come up during the trip. Who’s paying for the hotel or Airbnb? For meals? You’ll have enough other logistics to deal with, and forgetting who paid for what needn’t add to the chaos.
5. Include breaks
As tempting as it can be to keep going endlessly during an escape room marathon, breaks are absolutely essential.
When playing back-to-back rooms at a single company, I often book adjacent slots (e.g. 2-3pm, 3-4pm, 4-5pm) while keeping in mind that if we get behind in one room, it may make us behind for every other room that day. I try never to book overlapping time slots (e.g. 2-3pm, 2:45-3:45pm) unless I’ve reached out to the company to ensure there’s some flexibility in their schedule for us to either start early or end late.
When traveling between companies, I try to leave at least 1.5x the expected travel time to account for traffic and any unexpected delays. For travel after playing a long block of rooms, I leave even more buffer time.
In addition to travel time, it’s also absolutely essential to leave time for meals! If you don’t feed your teammates and yourself, trust me, you’ll regret it. Make sure to hydrate well during meals, and also to drink water and maybe also have some snacks between rooms. Sufficiently long meal blocks can also serve as a buffer in case your games or travel take longer than expected.
Meals can also be a great time to debrief on the awesome (or terrible…) experiences you just had. I often leave a voice recorder going or take written notes while debriefing, regardless of whether or not I’m reviewing the room. Details tend to blur together during an escape room marathon, and some extra notes can help to trigger your memories of a specific game later.
6. Have fun!!!
Most importantly, have fun! A ton of work and logistics go into planning an escape room marathon, but when you’re finally playing the rooms you’ve scheduled, just enjoy yourself.
If you run into a conflict with your teammates — and it happens to the best of us — try to resolve it as quickly and directly as possible. It’s in nobody’s best interest to stay angry at your teammate the rest of the weekend because they grabbed a key out of your hand (but also, don’t do that!) Assume best intentions and be open to feedback.
One final piece of advice: you’ll enjoy escape rooms (and perhaps life generally) most if you go in with no expectations. That room you’re finally playing that has been hyped up for months? If you expect it to be the best thing you’ve ever experienced, you’re setting yourself up to be disappointed. But if you go in with an open mind, you’ll be able to fully experience the game for what it is.
📰 Puzzling News 📰
Escape the Plagues
Last year, I co-designed a print-and-play social justice puzzle game that explores our modern plagues and what it means to be free. The game is rooted in the themes of liberation, equality, and justice, and we designed it to be full of thought-provoking questions and fun puzzles for players of any or no religious background and for families and adults alike.
If you give it a play, I’d love to hear your thoughts! And if you enjoyed Escape the Plagues last year, I’d greatly appreciate it if you’d share it with some friends who might appreciate it. It also makes a great gift!
The Book of Dreams
There’s a cool new puzzle book available now on Indiegogo! A whole bunch of awesome creators contributed to this anthology, and proceeds support Doctors Without Borders. I’ve playtested some of the puzzles that are part of this book, and they were fun, accessible, and beautifully illustrated. The project is already 400% funded, and there’s just one week left to snag your copy!