Apr

Meet the Challenge: Escape Rooms of the World

by Meredith Mullins on April 9, 2018

Detective with magnifying glass, part of the new trend of escape rooms around the world which enable cultural encounters and teach life lessons. (Image © demaerre/iStock.)

Everyone loves a challenge.
© demaerre/iStock

Cultural Encounters, Adrenaline, and Life Lessons—All in a Day’s Fun

I couldn’t help but get excited. Maybe a little nervous. I’d heard about it. I’d read about it. People had described the experience in a way that was seductive and sense-heightening. It was time to go for it. To see for myself.

Of course, I’m talking about escape rooms—the newest game phenomenon taking root around the world and offering cultural encounters of the mind-challenging kind.

Escape rooms are more than just a game, though. They’re theatre, mystery, teamwork, logic, puzzle solving, deciphering, intellectual sport, and, most of all, real-life fun.

Sherlock Holmes violin in the Exodus Escape Room in Monterey, California, one of the escape rooms around the world that offers cultural encounters and life lessons. (Image © Richard Green/Exodus Escape Room.)

Sherlock’s violin sets the stage.
© Richard Green/Exodus Escape Room

You’re Sherlock Holmes, Harry Houdini, Indiana Jones, Nancy Drew, Inspectors Poirot and Clouseau, Columbo, Harry Potter, and Jessica Fletcher all rolled into one.

And, if your main purpose is fun, you are also a child again.

Ladder to an escape opening, not typical of escape rooms around the world where cultural encounters and life lessons abound. (Image © Peshkov/iStock.)

Escape is not this easy in the escape rooms of the world.
© Peshkov/iStock

For those of us who spend too much time in front of a screen of one kind or another, when we step into a world of make believe that actually has tangible elements and human teamwork, it’s a welcome treat. Add to that the challenge of the hunt, and we’re in game heaven.

I was ready. I had trained watching quiz shows like Jeopardy and reality shows like Survivor. I had scored 800 on my math SATs (albeit many years ago). I was a daily sudoku player who was also immersed in a second language (brain activity . . . check!). And I reveled in detective mysteries.

Bring it on.

Sherlock Holmes study at the Exodus Escape Room in Monterey, California, one of the escape rooms around the world, where cultural encounters and life lessons abound. (Image © Richard Green.)

Sherlock’s Study—the setting for a race against time to escape
© Richard Green/Exodus Escape Room

What is an Escape Room?

An escape room is a kind of physical adventure game where a team of people are locked in a room and have to figure out how to escape within a certain amount of time.

The players must work individually and as a team to discover clues, find hidden objects, solve problems and puzzles, answer riddles, unlock locked safes and boxes, and think creatively and strategically as a team.

Sherlock Holmes items on a desk in the Exodus escape room in Monterey, California, one of the escape rooms around the world that offers cultural encounters and life lessons. (Image © Richard Green/Exodus Escape Room.)

Which of these items has a hidden clue? Perhaps all of them?
© Richard Green/Exodus Escape Room

Since there are more than 3000 escape rooms in the world, they can take many forms. You can escape from a room set in specific time period (Sherlock Holmes, Roaring 20s), or you can escape from a prison or a dungeon or a space station.

You can rob a bank, find a missing person, solve a murder, be an adventurer, defuse a bomb, or capture (or be) a spy. The themes are creative and endless, and, more often than not, fit within the culture of the country.

Casino setting at The Game in Paris, France, one of the escape rooms around the world that offers cultural encounters and life lessons. (Image © The Game/Paris.)

It’s time to rob the Royal Casino. Can you make the heist in the one-hour time limit?
Photo courtesy of The Game/Paris

Cultural Encounters While Escaping

Escape rooms around the world all have different themes—settings and characters that have meaning to the particular country and culture—for example, a metro car, a casino heist, a haunted house, an espionage center, or the catacombs.

Metro car in Paris, one of the escape rooms around the world, where cultural encounters and life lessons abound. (Image © The Game, Paris.)

In Paris, one of the escape rooms is a metro car.
Photo courtesy of The Game/Paris.

In Berlin, you escape to the other side of the wall, and send a message to tear the wall down. In Ontario, Canada, you participate in the Ontario Gold Rush of 1866. In a replica of 18^thcentury Zagreb, you find a passage so you can save an innocent woman accused of witchcraft from burning at the stake. There’s even an escape igloo at a ski resort in Slovenia.

Other cultural adjustments also exist. In the U.S., you can be teamed with strangers. In some other cultures, working with strangers would never be forced.

In all cases, the gamemaster explains the problem to be solved, and what may and may not be touched, lifted, or moved during the experience. (Everything not mentioned is fair game.) The door is locked (well, not in all cases, due to legal liabilities, but you get the idea). And the adrenaline rush begins. The clock is ticking. It’s a race against time.

Catacombs, one of The Game escape rooms in Paris, France, one of the escape rooms around the world that offers cultural encounters and life lessons. (Image © The Game, Paris.)

The Catacombs Escape Room: Dark, dangerous, gloomy and captivating. Enter at your own risk.
Photo courtesy of The Game/Paris

Five Escape Room Life Lessons

What happened to my team in my virgin escape room experience? We had to find a murderer in the era of Sherlock Holmes.

We were a bit timid at first (since we didn’t all know each other and we hadn’t yet figured out how to work as a team), but we fell into the rhythm, used our individual talents wisely, and escaped the room with 15 minutes to spare.

The exhilaration of solving the final clue and finding the key to escape was a proud victory, especially since only 50% of the teams working our room had actually escaped within the time limit. We weren’t on the leader board, but we were in the top 50%.

Can we reveal any secrets? No. Escape room ethics dictate, “What happens in the escape room, stays in the escape room.”

Bookshelf in the Exodus Escape Room in Monterey, California, one of the escape rooms around the world that offers cultural encounters and life lessons. (Image © Richard Green/Exodus Escape Room.)

Look closely. There are at least five clues in plain sight.
© Richard Green/Exodus Escape Room

Aside from having a fun adventure, my real “Oh, I see” moment came when I realized that the five things I learned from the escape room experience were also good life lessons.

Appreciate that everyone has unique skills. A great team works well together but also thinks differently, finds unique paths, reaches conclusions in different ways, and thinks outside the box.
Divide and conquer, but keep clear lines of communication. Use everyone’s specific skills to benefit of the team and to make effective use of time, but, while working independently, let the team know what clues have been found and what puzzles have been solved.
Don’t be afraid to ask for help. (In the escape-room world, the gamemaster is watching and can provide hints if needed to keep the team from getting stuck or frustrated.)

Narrow room with violin case in the Exodus Escape Room, one of the escape rooms around the world that offers cultural encounters and life lessons. (Image © Richard Green/Exodus Escape Room.)

Is there a room behind this room? Only time will tell.
© Richard Green/Exodus Escape Room

Don’t stop searching. (Look everywhere for clues. Crawl under things, turn things over, look behind things, empty drawers and pockets. Check and double check.)
Enjoy the experience. You don’t have to “win.” (But it would be nice not to be locked in the room forever.)

Am I now an escape room addict (diplomatically called “enthusiast”)? Possibly.

I can imagine a road trip with cultural encounters in Estonia, Hungary, Romania, Cyprus, Japan, Australia, and the Netherlands . . . and all the other countries with growing escape room opportunties.

And, even if I stay home, the escape room life lessons are worth living.

Group including Meredith Mullins, Jerry Fielder, Alexandra Roden, Patricia Roden and others in the Exodus Escape Room in Monterey, California, one of the escape rooms around the world that offers cultural encounters and life lessons. (Image © Exodus Escape Room.)

Our victorious team: Unique skills and teamwork were the key to our success.
Photo courtesy of The Exodus Escape Room

Thank you to the Exodus Escape Room in Monterey, California and The Game in Paris, France.

Additional information VIA Professor Scott Nicholson.

To find escape rooms near you, here’s a map of worldwide escape rooms.

Comment on this post below, or inspire insight with your own OIC Moment here.

Meredith Mullins Comments

Cultural Encounters/Life Lessons/Worldwide Sites

Apr

Absolutely Albuquerque!

by Joyce McGreevy on April 2, 2018

A detail from Maisel’s Indian Trading Post inspires a travel writer in Albuquerque, on one of her best trips to awe-inspiring New Mexico. Image © Joyce McGreevy

Floor detail from Maisel’s Indian Trading Post, in downtown Albuquerque since 1939.
© Joyce McGreevy

An Underrated American Gem
in an Awe-Inspiring Setting

To many who’ve yet to travel here, Albuquerque must be a colorless locale on flat, treeless land. Such is the power of stereotypes about desert cities.

So let’s cut to the OIC Moment: Visiting New Mexico’s largest city is one of the best trips you’ll ever take. Original, affordable, this is a Southwestern urban gem surrounded by awe-inspiring nature.

Route 66 inspires a travel writer in Albuquerque, on one of her best trips to awe-inspiring New Mexico. Image © Joyce McGreevy

Albuquerque is home to the longest urban stretch of Route 66 in the country.
© Joyce McGreevy

Follow the Rio Grande—or the vintage neon glow of Route 66—to a colorful city whose diverse neighborhoods reflect four centuries of architectural variety. When I arrive, it’s a cool spring day. A canopy of brilliant blue stretches overhead.

As for “flat”—pull-eeze. Despite its rift valley location, Albuquerque commands one of the highest elevations in the U.S. The panorama includes the watermelon-pink Sandia Mountains, conifer-covered mesas, and towering, snow-capped peaks.

Soaring Exploring

Where to begin? Local friends Julie and Lisa suggest we take it from the top. All aboard the Sandia Tramway!

Sandia Peak Tramway inspires a travel writer in Albuquerque, on one of her best trips to awe-inspiring New Mexico. Image © Joyce McGreevy

Swiss engineers recalled Sandia Peak Tramway as their most challenging project.
© Joyce McGreevy

A glass tram suspended in air reveals stomach-dropping views of the land below. Far below. I pick this moment to confess my fear of heights.

Four 100,000-pound Swiss-made cables carry us to the summit of Sandia Crest, altitude 10,378 feet. As I crawl along the deck, I’m glad I didn’t let mere terror come between me and awe-inspiring vistas of the Land of Enchantment.

Spencer, a guide at Sandia Peak Tramway, finds Albuquerque, New Mexico awe-inspiring. Image © Joyce McGreevy

“Best work-study job ever!” enthuses Spencer, our guide.
Sandia Peak is the longest tramway in North America.
© Joyce McGreevy

What Goes Up Must Come Down

Downtown, that is. Albuquerque Historical Society’s free walking tour is an absolute must, a fascinating stroll from 1800s boom through 1960s bust to today’s revitalization.

Abraham Santillanes recounts the history of Albuquerque, making awe-inspiring New Mexico one of the best trips in the U.S.. Image © Joyce McGreevy

Historian extraordinaire, Abraham Santillanes turns our tour into time travel.
© Joyce McGreevy

Abraham Santillanes guides us through beautiful landmarks like Hotel Andaluz and KiMo Theatre. He also conjures up history’s ghosts:

It’s the 1900s. We hear hubbub in the sumptuous, long-vanished White Elephant Saloon. Look! The bartender abandons the massive mahogany bar and steps outside to whack a metal lamp post with a meat cleaver. That’s how you “called 911” back in the day.
Jump ahead several decades. We laugh as the Marx Brothers hop off the train to crash a local wedding in character.
Picture it, 1953. We watch as a 14-year-old girl hides out in Sears-Roebuck after hours, helps herself to cowgirl duds, and then—Whoa, Nellie!—burns the place down. Seems she was bored.
Today: Downtown Albuquerque is getting its groove back, with a transformed Civic Plaza, flourishing Downtown Growers’ Market, and lively arts and dining scene.

Anna Muller is awe-inspiring, famed for restoring historic buildings in Downtown Albuquerque, New Mexico. Image © Joyce McGreevy

Civic dynamo Anna Muller buys and restores historic Downtown buildings,
and was a driving force behind the Growers’ Market.
© Joyce McGreevy

City of the Centuries

Founded in 1706, Albuquerque is one of the oldest inland communities in the U.S. It’s named for a Spanish colonial duke—hence its nickname “The Duke City.” Centuries earlier, it was home to the oldest farming civilization on the North American continent.

Today, most of the 19 pueblos that are home to New Mexico’s 22 tribes are within easy reach of Albuquerque. The Pueblo Cultural Center, a treasured resource of weaving, pottery, jewelry, clothing and photography, honors each tribe’s uniqueness. Exhibition texts offer compelling, pull-no-punches historical commentary.

Native American pottery is awe-inspiring to a travel writer in Albuquerque, New Mexico, one of the best trips in the U.S. Image © Joyce McGreevy

Eat Like a Local

Scenic venues and innovative menus abound in Albuquerque. Los Poblanos Historic Inn graces acres of lavender. El Pinto Authentic New Mexican Restaurant nestles among cottonwoods. Farm & Table’s stylish city brunch offers views of organic fields.

Biscochitos and bread at Golden Crown Panaderia make Albuquerque, New Mexico one of the best trips in the U.S.. Image © Joyce McGreevy

From hipster-district Nob Hill to charming Old Town, a world mix of bistros, bakeries, and coffeehouses up the culinary ante. Casually chic Grove Café & Market makes salads so good you’ll crave them—the better to balance “second breakfast” at Rebel Donuts, green-chile pizza at Golden Crown Panaderia, and liquid gold at 25 craft breweries.

But for my absolute ABQ favorites, you’ve gotta go old-school.

Frontier Restaurant’s friendly staff in Albuquerque, make awe-inspiring New Mexico one of the best trips in the U.S. Image © Joyce McGreevy

Start at the wildly popular Frontier. How warm, soft, and tasty are their tortillas? Honey, I wanted to wrap myself in them like a blanket. It wouldn’t break the bank. For $3 a dozen, I watch the friendliest counter crew in the west make tortillas on the spot.

Then there’s Monte Carlo Steakhouse. Newcomers unwittingly pass by, but every local knows this place like his mama’s kitchen. Enter by the liquor store, where George Katsaros recommends affordable fine wines, then join the wait for a table.

Monte Carlo Steakhouse in Albuquerque, make awe-inspiring New Mexico one of the best trips in the U.S. Image © Joyce McGreevy

All of humanity’s here: dressed-up couples on dates, family reunions, ZZ Top lookalikes, the business-suited, the cowboy-booted. On a bench up front, everybody squeezes in to make room for everybody else, and conversations flow. That guy in the bowling jacket? He’s a retired professor who plays in the local symphony. Those harried parents with toddlers in footed pajamas? They just bought their first home.

Look! Up in the Sky!

A week of Burque adventure flies by—sometimes literally. While savoring early morning coffee in my friends’ splendid adobe, I hear a distinctive hiss. . . . Could it be? Bathrobe flapping, I race to the garden, look up, and . . . There. It. Is.

A hot air balloon is an awe-inspiring sight in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Image © Joyce McGreevy

The city’s clear skies, low humidity, and high elevation offer the ideal conditions that have made Albuquerque the Hot Air Balloon Capital of the world. Now, a balloon hovers over the house, so close that my friends and I exchange pleasantries with the passengers.

A close-up of hot air balloon in Albuquerque, make awe-inspiring New Mexico one of the best trips in the U.S. Image © Joyce McGreevy

Adios Too Soon

En route to the “Sunport,” I see a baseball stadium. It’s home to a minor-league team with major-league cool, the Albuquerque Isotopes. Shouldn’t I linger to cheer them on? Stay until the cottonwoods turn gold again? Until Albuquerque’s outdoor ovens scent the air with roasting chiles?

I still need to hike the Paseo del Bosque Trail, take the “Breaking Bad” tour, sign up for that cooking class at UNM.

A variety of donuts from Rebel Donuts, in Albuquerque, make awe-inspiring New Mexico one of the best trips in the U.S. Image © Joyce McGreevy

As my flight rises above the watermelon mountains, I jot down plans for future best trips.

In Albuquerque? Absolutely!

The awe-inspiring Sandia Mountains make a visit to Albuquerque, New Mexico one of the best trips in the U.S. Image © Joyce McGreevy

To add Albuquerque to your travel list, start here.

Comment on this post below, or inspire insight with your own OIC Moment here.

Joyce McGreevy 2 Comments

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Meet the Challenge: Escape Rooms of the World