Because a good night out is no longer about hitting a bar for a quiet one, oh no, why not get that adrenaline pumping by heading to one of Perth’s escape rooms?
There are plenty of adventures to be had—from hunting down serial killers to stopping a viral outbreak. You’ll be locked in a room and pushed to capacity to bring out all your smarts, teamwork and physical prowess. With just 60 minutes you’ll want to work hard and fast to beat the clock. For all you adventurous kids, here’s our roundup of Perth’s best escape rooms.
Hijinx Hotel
Karrinyup
In time for Christmas parties and school holiday fun, Perth is finally scoring a Hijinx Hotel blessed with ten lavishly decorated challenge rooms and an epic balcony bar with ocean views.
The fully immersive challenge rooms—including the Adore-a-ball, Scrambled, and Lolly Ball Pool challenges that go off in East Coast locations—offer quick-play fun for groups of two to six players, with colourful and nostalgic theming that evokes the world of Wes Anderson and Willy Wonka in a retro New York-style hotel setting.
On top of the challenge rooms, the 250-pax Hijinx Hotel Karrinyup will have a full-service balcony bar offering signature cocktails and mocktails and crowd-pleasing snacks to fuel problem-solving participants.
Hijinx Hotel will open on Friday 1 December, joining Funlab’s other venues Archie Brothers Cirque Electriq, Strike Bowling, and Holey Moley in the Karrinyup Shopping Centre. Learn more and book your visit from $20pp here.
Glowing Rooms
Hamilton Hill
The guys behind Perth's fave glow in the dark mini golf, Glowing Rooms, have launched a series of VR Escape Rooms. These fully immersive escape challenges will see you work together in the virtual world to pick up clues and solve mysteries within a time limit. And because you're not limited by real world possibilities, these cutting edge VR experiences will throw you head first into situations far beyond your standard escape room.
Escape This
Northbridge and Perth
Escape This is the largest addition to the Perth escape room scene. With two locations—one smack bang in the middle of Northbridge and the other on Hay St Mall in Perth's CBD—each location serves up a cracking lineup of hour-long escape room experiences across two categories—horror and adventure. For a real challenge, head to the Dracula escape room: there’s an escape rate of 1%, so you’ll want to bring your most cunning buddies. If you get scared easy or you want to bring the kids along, go for the family-friendly games like Pirates or The Wizard’s Chamber.
Strike Escape Rooms
Carousel, Forest Chase, Karrinyup
If you like your escape rooms with a side of karaoke, bowling or mini golf, head straight for Strike at Carousel, Forest Chase or Karrinyup. They’ve got two rooms to try, Casino Heist and Injustice, and, if you’re good, they’ll take you less than an hour to crack so you’ll be back out enjoying some crazy cocktails and putt putt in no time.
Mystic Clue
Rivervale
Fancy yourself a modern-day Sherlock? Head down to Mystic Clue’s Rivervale escape rooms to try to crack the Magician's Code. Or maybe you’re just really good at breaking into things? Then try to crack your way into the vault of a madman who’s promising to wreak havoc on the world. Either way, Mystic Clue offers some of Perth’s best escape rooms.
Realmz
Morley
With a background in animatronics, model making and computer game design, Realmz owner Glen Martin has also worked on hit shows like Supernatural and Dr Who, so it’s no surprise his escape rooms are some of Perth’s favourites. With rooms ranging from medium to hard difficulty, from two to six players, you’re in for a treat in Realmz’s fully immersive, custom-design rooms.
Escape Hunt
Fremantle
Offering a huge range of different escape rooms and two outdoor puzzle quests, Escape Hunt in Fremantle will put your brain to good use. Pretend you’re in the secret service and race to beat the clock in Spy Mission or celebrate just how awesome Disney movies are in Aladdin and the Magic Vault. As for the outdoor experiences, the games take place across the city and puzzlers use geolocation technology to crack codes and complete their mission.
Ultimate Roomscape
Malaga
If you scare easily, you might want to give Ultimate Roomscape a miss, but if you’ve got nerves of steel then it’s got your name all over it. With rooms like Viral Outbreak and Mental Perception, you’ll be thrown into the deep end as you try to find your way out of the commotion in 60 minutes or less. If you and your mates are super competitive, give their Pipeline room a go. You’ll form teams and race against each other to escape the room first—word on the street is it’s pretty tricky.
Time’s Up
Wanneroo
With a 41% escape rate, Time’s Up Escape Rooms in Wanneroo is certainly serving up a challenge. They’ve got four indoor rooms, as well as two outdoor experiences, and are rated very highly by Perth escape room lovers. P.S. they’ve also got a Bunbury location for when you’re down south.
Confined
Burswood
Confined boasts escape rooms for all ages, with one extra scary room for the more mature among us where you get to hunt down a serial killer. Their Laser Maze room looks like something out of a Mission Impossible movie—definitely stretch before that one—and then there are their VR games featuring an omni-directional treadmill for the ultimate dose of reality.
Lost Reality
Cannington
You've got four different escape rooms to choose from at Lost Reality which each take about 60 minutes depending on how clever you are. All are bound to challenge your problem-solving skills and team working abilities. Want to step into a Game Of Thrones-inspired kingdom of ice and fire? Try The Frozen King and work together to fight off the long night.
Not ready for the fun to stop? Here are Perth’s best bowling alleys to hit up.
Main image credit: Glowing Rooms