Teen Birthday Party Idea: Escape Games

It's sometimes hard to plan a great birthday party for teens. They are too old for bouncy houses, and bowling and skating parties have become too boring. You might be lucky enough to have a great recreation center that has the newest games as well as indoor soccer, Nerf games or something like that and then it's easier.

If you have an Escape Game nearby, you may have it made. It's $26 a person here, but the limit is 8 people, so your child would have to limit the guest list and keep you from going totally broke. Then you just need to go to a nearby fast food place for drinks and a cake.


I thought about doing it next February for Jasmine's 16th birthday, but decided to try it out. Here's our experience:

A couple of weeks ago I decided it was time to do something with our older kids. So I booked my husband, myself and four of our children to do an Escape Game. It's called "The Attic."

Here's the description:

A long time ago a young lady and a gentleman fell madly in love, and they made plans to be married.  On the day of the wedding, however, the young gentleman was nowhere to be found.  The young bride to be was never able to move passed that day, and everyday for the rest of her life she would retreat into the attic wearing her wedding dress to surround herself with things that reminded her of her long lost love.  The Attic was her sanctuary, but after a while it became her cage.  Finally, on the day of her death she locked herself in the attic, and her soul never escaped.  It is your responsibility to follow the clues, and help free her lost soul!

Here are some pictures taken with my phone before we went in.
(You can't take pictures in the room.)

This is the lobby

Jessica signing the waiver. 

Waiting

The guy who works there explaining how it works. You are locked in a room where you look for clues for how to get out. He gave us the clipboard he was holding to write down notes. 

They were really ready to go.

 We went into the room, and the guy locked the door and started the one-hour timer. There were lots of objects around the room. Some of them had numbers and letter on them. Together they gave us the clues to open locked boxes with other clues. It was a bit complicated because there were multiple codes to break, and the guy gave us some clues on a monitor to help us when we got stuck.

When we escaped that room, we were in yet another room! That one had its only set of clues, but less complicated. So we were able to get out  with six minutes to spare!

Has anyone else done an Escape game?

Anyone have another great idea for teen birthday parties?