The best escape rooms are very atmospheric. They can be exciting and even scary. It’s possible, therefore, for people to get a little carried away.

To ensure that everyone has as much fun as possible, here are some tips to help keep you and your group safe when you visit an escape room.

 

Wear comfortable clothes

Wear clothes that allow you to move freely. An element of most escape rooms is physical. This doesn’t necessarily mean scaling cargo nets or walking tightropes, but you will be looking for clues. Your exploration might involve stretching, bending, and crawling.

For this reason, casual clothing is best for an escape room. You’ll see many participants arriving in jeans. Most people wear the kind of thing that they would wear if they were going for a walk. Sportswear is great too as it is designed to work with you when you are taking part in physical activity.

With that in mind, sneakers are recommended too. You can wear what you like on your feet, but keep in mind that two of our games might last a full hour and you need to be comfortable on your feet during that time. Stilettos are out.

In addition to having clothes that allow you to move freely, we’d like you to keep your clothes safe too. Due to the possibility of crawling and searching for clues, you might get some garments dusty, so please don’t wear your best clothing.

 

Protect your belongings

You won’t need cell phones, purses and wallets, or bags when you are in the escape room. These experiences are designed so that you don’t need any special equipment. All you need to escape the room is available in your head and the room.

Keep your belongings safe. Don’t leave them in a waiting area where anyone can reach them while you are busy in the escape room. Where lockers are available, use those for your precious items. Alternatively, you can carry them with you in the escape room or ask a member of staff to look after them for you.

 

Don’t be (too) afraid of the dark

Escape rooms often use low-level lighting to create a tense or spooky atmosphere. Occasionally, you might participate in an experience in which the lights go out completely. If this happens, don’t panic. It’s all for effect, and temporary.

Refrain from rushing around in the dark as this could lead to injury. If you or another player accidentally breaks an object in the room in the darkness, this causes a safety hazard. If this happens, the best thing to do is to keep still until you can identify what has happened.

 

Beware of objects, particularly sharp ones

Bear in mind that most accidents happen in the home. Accidents, therefore, can occur in escape rooms too.

Even if nothing is broken, you might find that some objects in an escape room are potentially dangerous.

While climbing is not ordinarily necessary, note for example that standing on a chair or table in an escape room is no safer than standing on a chair or table at home. If you can trip over a rug at home, then you can accidentally trip over a rug in an escape room. Please be careful as you enjoy the room. There are no deliberate booby-traps, but we’d ask you to be just as cautious as you would if this was not an organized event.

Sometimes a sharp object is an important prop in an escape room. This might be a pair of scissors or a letter opener that is useful for advancing through one or more puzzles. Again, please apply the usual caution when using any such implement. We understand that escape rooms can be exciting and that it’s possible to get carried away.

 

A word about using force

We’ve seen people come up with very creative ways of getting out of their escape room. We’ve seen other people use brute force.

If you’re using a lot of strength to manipulate an object, wall, or some other aspect of the room, you’re on the wrong track. If you’re shoving or yanking on something that isn’t ordinarily intended to be shoved or yanked, you or someone near you might get hurt.

Escape rooms are designed to respond to your intellect and ingenuity rather than physical strength.

 

Don’t touch electrical sockets

Escape rooms are cunning. Some might say that they are even diabolical. No escape room designer, however, would go so far that they want their clientele to mess around with electrical sockets.

Inserting anything into an electrical socket is extremely dangerous. Unless the socket is very clearly fake and obviously part of the game design, you have no reason to go near it.

In most cases, any electrical devices in the room that need to use electricity will already be plugged in before you enter.

 

A word about windows

If you are in an escape room that has a window, you don’t need to open it

Climbing out of a window would be a fairly simple way to escape some rooms. It can also be dangerous. It’s not part of escape room game design. You shouldn’t expect any clues to be outside the room.

Escape rooms will have an emergency exit in case you or anyone in your group needs to get out fast. This will be explained to you before you go in, so please pay attention to the rules and safety speech. There should be no need to attempt to leave through a window in an emergency.

 

Escape rooms are designed so that people can have maximum fun and an authentic experience with nothing that pops you out of the story. Nothing pops people out of a story like a physical injury, so we work hard to make sure there are no trip hazards, sharp edges, or wobbly objects to climb.

With your help, we can keep escape rooms as safe and as fun as possible.