Yes, I travel solely for the purpose of visiting escape rooms. This isn’t my first trip, but Manpans usually writes about them. Considering she’s not joining me on this trip, I would need to keep track of it somewhere.

The purpose of this article is more a guide to what one can expect when travelling to do an escape room in Greece.

[Btw, I will not be posting multiple posts. I will be constantly editing this one.]

Pre-Trip

Greece has multiple rooms opening on a yearly basis and there is much discussion in the ER Discord #Greece channel, as well as TERPECA What’s App group on which new rooms to do. (I don’t know if the latter is public or a private group). Deciding on rooms was challenging.

In the end, my sister (Leezet) and I put together this spreadsheet. I had a few goals:

  • Get as many TERPECA games in there.
  • Balance scary and non-scary room, since the majority of people do not like scary rooms.
  • Start off with non-scary rooms. I wanted us to acclimatize first.

For prep, we didn’t do much.

  • We pre-booked all our rooms a month in advance. Some rooms you could only book via Facebook.
  • We booked an AirBNB in Athens about 10 minutes away from the Acropolis.
  • I brought about $400 in Euros. I also have a Wise card to help with exchange rates (I’m Canadian).
  • I bought some clothes and shoes. One room advised to bring an extra pair of shoes. Others advised clothes for active wear.

Sadly, my sister (Leezet) had a flight cancellation (with no explanation). They rebooked her the next day. However, that would mean she’d miss out on the first two.

Day 1

Our flight left at 6pm Saturday (my time) and arrived around 11am Sunday (Greece Time).

  • We took the train from the airport to the city. I was only travelling with my daughter at the time, and she could get half of the ticket because she still is a student with Student ID (which we had to show).  Total cost for both of us was €13.50.
  • The wait time for the train was around 20-30 minutes. The trip itself was also around an hour to get to Athens.
  • There are many feral cats.
  • In our group, there were 9 of us, and we ate dinner/lunch at a restaurant close by. Total came ~€160, but I wasn’t sure on exact cost. The receipt was confusing because it had no total, and each line item had a percentage added to them.
  • I was exhausted so I took a three hour nap before our first game, which we booked around 7pm to give us time to acclimatize.
  • Our AirBnb is great. One thing I learned, however, is that you don’t flush toilet paper in toilets. There’s a bin for them. This is something I won’t get used to. Maybe I’ll just hold it for a week.
  • For escape room transportation, we’ve read Uber was the most convenient way to do it. From what I can tell, Ubers are just taxis, since every vehicle had a taxi sign on it.
  • We had five people, but taxis only take four people at a time, and there didn’t seem to be taxi drivers with larger vehicles. We had to take two taxis.

Game 1 – Scooby Who at The Art of Escape

About the facility:

  • Our Uber cost – €8. Traffic-wise, the expected travel time google maps suggested was accurate.
  • The Art of Escape’s front isn’t flashy, but easy enough to find if you were looking for it. Doors are locked and you need to buzz to get in. We were roaming about the outside wondering if it was still closed.
  • Free water! I am so used to paying for water in North America, it’s nice to see a water cooler. In fact, buying water is cheap. A huge bottle is a Euro. Water is a human right, so there is a cap on how much they can charge for it.
  • Bathroom was available in this place. I was worried since some places don’t have it available unless you’re in the game itself.
  • I still don’t know if we were supposed to put our phone away, but I did. (They didn’t tell us to).
  • We paid for the game after we played it. I’m used to paying up front.
  • The game had air conditioning! In fact, the remote for the air conditioning was available in the game. So cool!

About the game:

  • Game info:
    • 👥: 3 – 5 Players.
      We played with five. (Myself, Myra, Ekko, James, and Emma)
    • 🕒: Duration 2 Hours.
      We finished with a healthy amount of time left over.
    • 🏷️: Kids Friendly,  Case Investigation, Non-horror.
      The group I went with are not fans of horror. There were some minor parts that were a little scary for our jittery group.
    • EscapeAll entry.
  • Very cute game, and, as you can tell from our group photo (coming soon), the Mystery Machine is there.
  • Game had no locks, was all tech.
  • The puzzle didn’t feel ‘tight’ to me: the answers felt ambiguous at times. There were many instances where we would attempt iterations of answers to see which one would work.
  • One puzzle had a hindrance mechanic which annoyed me. A button was used to set a number. Instead of cycling numbers in order, it would randomly give you a number. One in 10 chance to get the number you wanted. Obviously, there was more than one button, and the answer to this puzzle was one of the ambiguous ones. After the sixth attempt, we were not happy.
  • Game host, however, monitored us the whole time to make sure we were on the right track. Validation was done through audible clues, which was nice, considering the ambiguity. While we were brainstorming answers, if we were correct, we’d get a ‘ding’. If we were incorrect, we’d get an error sound. (This was for puzzles which we were struggling on. The validation didn’t come in until we’ve worked on it for a bit).
  • We got a lot of prompting and hints, which we didn’t mind and was welcome during more frustrating times. Two puzzles were solved by luck or brute-forcing.
  • Assessment: 2023 TERPECA ranking: #194.
    • I feel it ranks appropriately due to the puzzles.

This completed our first game, and our first day. I arrived home a bit after midnight, and immediately fell asleep.

Day 2

I slept through the night and woke up around 9am the next morning. Ekko, Myra, and I went for coffee. I tried my first Greek Coffee and it was great (a bit like Turkish coffee). I also ordered eggs, toast and bacon. To the right, I have a photo of the receipt. I think the Greece population must be really good at math, because they don’t put the total in it.

Fortunately, the escape rooms haven’t asked us to do mental math. I would have failed at that.

For our next room, Ekko, Myra, and myself Ubered. James and Emma took the metro. The uber there cost ~€12.

Game 2 – Sherlock Maze 2 at Sherlocked Holmes

About the facility:

  • The facility was tucked away in the back of a store. It’s best to have Google Maps to guide you, because we missed it the first time. Look at that picture to the right. The sign is all you have.
  • This was another room with air conditioning controls available to you. I can understand this would be important during the summer. At the moment, the temperature during the day was 28°C, so it wasn’t bad at all.
  • We didn’t need a bathroom or water, so I don’t know if that was available.

Gameplay:

Coming soon…