Escape rooms are an increasingly popular group activity, suitable for cold and rainy days as well. With escape room experiences popping up everywhere, we decided to give you an overview of spots where you can play an escape room in New York City. You can find information on how to book, how to get there, how many rooms they got and how many players can play.
What is an escape room?
An escape room is a real-life puzzle game where you and your team are being locked in a room. The challenge is to escape the room as quickly as possible by solving the riddles and puzzles hidden across the room. Team work is crucial.
Escape rooms always have a theme and background story to make the locked up experience as real as possible, with themed decorations and riddles. A time limit is set in which you have to try and escape, making it a nerve racking challenge.
When you’re really stuck, you can ask for a hint. Usually you can ask up to 3 hints. Sometimes asking a hint will cost you a couple of minutes, meaning that those will be deducted off of your remaining play time.
It really is a fun group activity! However, we mostly played escape rooms with just the two of us, while travelling the world. We’ve escaped rooms in Kuala Lumpur, Georgetown, Bangkok, Lisbon, and New York City. Okay, we didn’t really escape all of them, but almost!
Escape room etiquette: arrive at least 15 minutes prior to the start of the game. If you’re late, that time will often be deducted from your game time. Don’t break anything in the room. You won’t need brute force, things that are supposed to come off, will with a gentle nudge.
Where to play an escape room in New York City?
Keep in mind that in New York City, you have to pay a lot extra to play an escape room in private with just 2 players. Most of the time they ask you to pay for the maximum capacity of the room in order to guarantee a private game. That number can easily climb up to 12 players a room.
If you don’t book and pay for the entire room, chances are some other group will join you. We risked booking an escape room in New York City for 2 players and crossed our fingers no-one would join, but that didn’t work out for us. Luckily it was a nice group of people joining us, but you can be less lucky.
Anyways, without further ado, here’s a (non-exhaustive) list of escape rooms in New York City. We’re only giving practical information though, as nobody likes spoilers!
Brooklyn Escape Room
During our last visit to New York City we tried to escape a room at Brooklyn Escape Room. We played the Medieval Dungeon room together with 5 other people. Unfortunately we didn’t escape because one of our team members lost a crucial piece of information behind a cupboard. Nevertheless, it was a great room and we had fun!
- Number of rooms? 3, with varying difficulty (beginner – 40% escape rate – 30% escape rate)
- Price? $30 pp from Monday to Friday, $35 pp on Saturday and Sunday
- Price private game? $150 – $245 per room (pay for full capacity of the room – 1 player and call to confirm private game)
- Number of players? 2-8 (can differ slightly across rooms)
- Time to escape? 1 hour
- How to book? Book a time slot online at Brooklyn Escape Room
- Parking? Limited free indoor parking on first come first serve basis
- Closest metro station? Atlantic Avenue - Barclays Center
Mission Escape Games
At Mission Escape Games they have a pretty unique escape room. The Escape the Darkest Hour room is played completely in the dark. Are you up for that?
- Number of rooms? 4 (nothing mentioned about difficulty of rooms)
- Price? $29 pp
- Price private game? $180 – $232 per room (pay for full capacity of room)
- Number of players? 2-8 (can differ slightly across rooms)
- Time to escape? 1 hour
- How to book? Book a time slot online at Mission Escape Games
- Parking? No parking provided, but parking garages in the area and street parking available
- Closest metro station? Grand Street
Escape the Room
Escape the Room currently has the most reviews on Tripadvisor, with over 80% giving them a 5 star rating. They have 2 escape room locations in New York City: Downtown and Midtown.
Escape the Room in Downtown New York City
- Number of rooms? 2 (nothing mentioned about difficulty of rooms)
- Price? $28 pp from Sunday to Thursday, $30 pp on Friday and Saturday (service fee not included)
- Price private game? $280 – $360 per room (pay for full capacity of room)
- Number of players? 2-12 (can differ slightly across rooms)
- Time to escape? 1 hour
- How to book? Book a time slot online at Escape the Room NYC
- Parking? Parking garages in the area
- Closest metro station? Delancey Street - Essex Street
Escape the Room in Midtown New York City
- Number of rooms? 5 (nothing mentioned about difficulty of rooms)
- Price? $28 pp from Sunday to Thursday, $30 pp on Friday and Saturday (service fee not included)
- Price private game? $168 – $300 per room (pay for full capacity of room)
- Number of players? 2-10 (can differ slightly across rooms)
- Time to escape? 1 hour
- How to book? Book a time slot online at Escape the Room NYC
- Parking? Parking garages in the area
- Closest metro station? 23rd Street
Mystery Room
Mystery Room also has 2 escape room locations in New York City: Downtown and Midtown.
Mystery Room in Downtown New York City
- Number of rooms? 2 (nothing mentioned about difficulty of rooms, 3rd one coming soon)
- Price? $28 pp
- Price private game? $168 – $280 per room (pay for full capacity of room)
- Number of players? 2-12 (can differ slightly across rooms)
- Time to escape? 1 hour
- How to book? Book a time slot online at Mystery Room NYC
- Parking? Parking garages in the area
- Closest metro station? Broadway - Lafayette Street
Mystery Room in Midtown New York City
- Number of rooms? 2 (nothing mentioned about difficulty of rooms)
- Price? $28 pp
- Price private game? $168 – $280 per room (pay for full capacity of room)
- Number of players? 2-10 (can differ slightly across rooms)
- Time to escape? 1 hour
- How to book? Book a time slot online at Mystery Room NYC
- Parking? Parking garages in the area
- Closest metro station? 34th Street - Penn Station
SOS Escape Room
Apparently this escape room is now permanently closed.
Another escape room in New York City is SOS Escape Room. They often have promotions running, so keep an eye on their website.
- Number of rooms? 3, with varying difficulty (4 stars – 4.5 stars – 5 stars)
- Price? $20 pp
- Price private game? $60 – $129 per room (option to book entire room at discounted price)
- Number of players? 2-8 (can differ slightly across rooms)
- Time to escape? 1 hour
- How to book? Book a time slot online at SOS Escape Room
- Parking? Parking garages in the area
- Closest metro station? Times Square - 42nd Street
We hope this overview helps you decide which escape room in New York City best suits your needs and budget. We only tried out one, so would love to read about your experiences with these escape rooms in the comments. Have fun trying to escape!
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