Can you solve the mystery of these chilling, thrilling centers before time runs out?
At first glance, it seems ludicrous that someone would pay to be locked in a room for an hour, charged for their own entrapment. Yet escape rooms are springing up all over the Hudson Valley and have skyrocketed in popularity as of late. These experiences take the mental challenge of puzzles and riddles to a whole new level, delivering twisted mind games to those who are up for them. Contrary to what the name implies, there is quite a lot of creativity when it comes to escape room formatting. Spaces may span multiple rooms or just one, although they generally have an overarching theme or objective. Regardless of whether you adventure through with family and friends or admit defeat once the seconds run out, you’ll love the chance to put teamwork, logic, and strategy to the ultimate test.
All In Adventures
Albany, Middletown, West Nyack, Yorktown Heights
Tickets start at $20
If you’re heading to a Hudson Valley mall (like Crossgates Mall, Galleria at Crystal Run, Palisades Center, and Jefferson Valley Mall), take a break from shopping ’til you drop and hit All In Adventures for a heart-pounding adventure. Nine different scenarios offered at different difficulty levels mean your experience at the escape venue is highly customizable. Whether you want to fight a zombie apocalypse in Paris, prevent a prison break at Alcatraz, or escape a trap set by an international arms dealer, you’ll enter a whole new world when you go All In.
Headless Horseman
778 Broadway, Rte 9W, Ulster Park, 845.339.2666
Tickets start at $29.95
Immerse yourself in the legend of Sleepy Hollow at the Headless Horseman’s three unique escape rooms, each one more terrifying than the next. In “Ichabod’s Revenge,” the dreadful task of relocating the horseman’s skull and saving the population falls on those who enter the room. If avoiding death by the mystical horseman sounds a bit too gruesome, test your fate for an hour in an abandoned mansion or become an inmate on Death Row, where you’ll work with fellow inmates to avoid the electric chair or vanish without a trace. These escape rooms are not just interactive jigsaw puzzles; like all Horseman thrills, they get the adrenaline pounding through nerve-wracking tasks like discovering secrets or narrowly escaping execution.
Enigmatic Escapes
49 4th St, Ste 2770, Troy, 518.687.1300
$29 (Student and military discounts available)
Set in 1893, this escape room lets you travel back in time to find Professor Prosper in the “Secret of the Study.” With only 60 minutes to search, the weight of the world lies on your shoulders. If you do not succeed, Prosper’s business partner holds power over all of his vital inventions and will charge an exorbitant sum to let the rest of the world access them. If that weight feels too cumbersome, however, opt to “Defeat the Biz!” and flash it back to the heyday of RadioShack. As an employee at the electronics company in the 1990s, you must collaborate with coworkers to unlock the front gates for a big sale day and deal with antics orchestrated by a vengeful ex-coworker. Whichever room you choose, you be able to escape the to-dos of today and spend time solving puzzles in the past, even if just for an hour.
Pursue the Clue
1500 Central Ave, Albany, 518.966.2929
$20 for children 10 and under, $25 for children 11-15, $30 for adults
Pursue the Clue offers two different escape rooms — one family-friendly room and one horror-themed escape room, the latter which is not recommended for younger visitors. If you bring the family, McWhirley’s Mystery is a classic who-dun-it puzzle in which visitors will work to find a beloved toy maker who has gone missing. If you are looking for a fright, bring your squad on a search for clues in “Zoe’s Torment” and uncover the horrors that occurred in the room while trying to ensure you do not befall a similar fate.
5 Wits
Albany, West Nyack
Tickets start at $24.99
While not technically an escape room, 5 Wits provides a similar experience except that escape is not the main objective. There are three interactive adventures from which to choose, and all are mystical and thrilling. Travel to the future in “Deep Space” and embark on a high-tech adventure where you teleport to a damaged spaceship and navigate an asteroid storm. If you’d rather traverse to the past, you can become an archaeologist tasked with exploring a tomb of a forgotten Pharaoh. You’ll have to outsmart traps and decipher ancient riddles in order to reach the Pharaoh’s burial chamber and escape his wrath for good.
