Boulder’s Best Escape Rooms

The door locks behind you. You’re stuck in a small room. The clock starts ticking. The challenge: Can you and your friends find your way out?

This is no ordinary night out. It’s a night locked in.

Escape rooms first came to the Boulder-area scene in 2015, and they continue to thrive, becoming a popular attraction in Boulder County. In fact, since the first one opened, there are now at least seven different escape room destinations in Boulder and Broomfield counties, and each of those has multiple escape rooms to choose between, with diverse storylines and varying levels of difficulty.

An escape room is a live-action, interactive puzzle where you’re trapped in a room and must search around for hidden clues to help you find the way out. It’s a dash of detective work, like a real-life movie starring you and your crew. It is definitely one of the most fun things to do in Boulder.

Most escape rooms cap your time at one hour. If the clock runs out, which it often does, the door unlocks and you leave, wondering where your teamwork and creative-thinking went wrong.

Most escape rooms aren’t scary, although they can be suspenseful and thrilling. Some are appropriate for all ages. And some don’t actually lock you in the room (in case that freaks you out a bit). Most tickets cost about $26 to $28 per person.

Here’s a look at the Boulder area’s seven escape rooms and what kinds of adventure they offer, in no particular order.

1. Boulder Escape Room

1966 13th St., Suite LL60, Boulder

The Boulder Escape Room has two different rooms, each designed for groups of eight. You can also rent rooms for private events.

The room themes change up over time and tend to be a little edgier than other escape rooms in the area. One, Captive, is for mature audiences only (no kids). the names are a little creepier than other Escape Rooms in the area. Other rooms include the Psycho Killer (appropriate for all ages) with its hidden messages (you pretend to be trapped by a psycho killer who has set up puzzles to test your mental strength) and The Abduction, based on Area 51.

Online, find each room’s success rate to help you determine how hard it is. Warning: Only 30 percent (up from 22 percent last year) of participants outsmart The Psycho Killer and make it out before the time’s up.

No fear; you’re not really locked into these rooms. You can go out the emergency door at any time, although that counts as a forfeit.

2. Enigma Escape Rooms

1426 Pearl St., Unit 20, Boulder

This was Boulder’s first escape room. It opened on the Pearl Street Mall in 2015. As the most established, it also has the most rooms: four in total.

One of the easier rooms is The Startup (pretend to be working for the competitor of a tech company, looking for the source code backups). Then there’s the Missing Scientist part 1 and 2 (you don’t have to do one before two although it can be fun to combine them for a more in-depth experience). The toughest room is called The Melton Tablets, which can take up to two hours. Unlike other rooms, this one is not timed so you can take your time. It’s an “outdoor puzzle hunt,” meaning it’s outside the confines of a room. Beat this game and you win a free round of drinks.

At Enigma, you really are locked in the escape room, but someone is watching you at all times. Not sure if that’s comforting or unsettling.

3. Rabbit Hole

1156 W. Dillon Road, Louisville

There are two different escape rooms here and one more on the way. In the Ruins of the Mystic Temple room (the original room), you’re a treasure hunter who has discovered an artifact that you think will lead you to a lost Mayan temple. But the artifact has been stolen. The mission is to try to find the cube before it’s (dun-dun-dun!) too late.

Paradox, The Incredible Time Machine, has you working to rebuild a time machine. This challenge includes flashing lights and strobes.

A third room, Frost Base, is in the works and scheduled to open the summer of 2019. Curious about what goes into making an escape room? Rabbit Hole invites you to reach out to learn about and maybe even help in the build as they’re constructing it.

You can book the Rabbit Hole for private events. These rooms are best for players over the age of 13. Younger players must be with an adult.

Oh, and the door here is never locked. You can leave whenever you want. Kinda takes the pressure off, for better or for worse.

4. Themescape

6811 W. 120th Ave., Suite B-1, Broomfield

Themescape in Broomfield has two different escape rooms: The Stolen Relic and the newest room, The Terminal. The doors here are really locked, at least for the hour; they’re designed to simulate a situation where you need to escape. A third room, The Gate, is scheduled to open May 2019.

This escape room claims to offer “live-action mystery” and have unique room designs, technological puzzles and custom-made props “unlike anything you’ve seen before.” Go on a weekday rather than a weekend to save a few bucks on the ticket.

5. Puzzah

1 West Flatiron Crossing Drive, Broomfield

Find this escape room at the Flatiron Crossing Mall in Broomfield. It’s also one of the bigger businesses, with four different rooms. The easier options are M.A.S.K. and Hive Mind. It gets harder with Specimen and The Curse. The latter is “based” in an ancient chamber in the jungle of Central America. Puzzah also has a Denver branch.

Puzzah has both 60-minute and 30-minute challenges, in case you want to puzzle in a rush.

6. Gone in 60 Minutes

1129 Francis St., Longmont

This Longmont-based escape-room business boasts four different room themes. There’s Confusionism and Nightmare (despite the names, they’re not scary). Nightmare is based on “The Nightmare Before Christmas.” Then there’s Kaboom!, which lasts 75 minutes (despite the name of the business), as well as Dead Presidents Part 2. At Gone in 60 Minutes, you can find simpler puzzles and tests for the whole family (kids included), too.

Although some danger may be implied in the storyline and you may be in dark areas, you’ll never be in real danger.

A few unique features here: the extra-long challenge and larger groups (Kaboom can accommodate up to 12 people).

7. Twin Peaks Escape Room

425 South Bowen St., Unit 6, Longmont

This is Boulder County’s newest escape room, and it enters the scene with two impeccably crafted rooms that raise the bar for escape rooms everywhere. Area 51 is (you guessed it) based on the mysterious and secretive Area 51. This room opened mid-March 2019.

The all black-and-white Yin Yang Room is the most popular. The goal: Restore the balance in the world. Easy, right? In case you get stuck, you can request a hint to the camera in the room, but all participants must agree first. Clues pop up on a live-time TV screen above the door, where you can also keep an eye on your dwindling time.

More rooms are being constructed, with the goal of regularly having new rooms for returning visitors to take on.

All rooms are appropriate for all ages. One unique thing about Twin Peaks is all escape rooms are private (you can rent them with as few as three people), so you won’t ever be shut in a room with strangers.

Book Twin Peaks for parties, team building or, of course, just for a fun challenge. The business is run by a Longmont family.