Escape Rooms in Barcelona and Madrid

One thing Tina and I love to do while on vacation is check out their escape games. It’s a great way to breakup touring and every country does it differently.

We started doing them in Vancouver and loved it so much we’ve been playing them around the world. We’ve done rooms in Vancouver, Seattle, San Francisco, Hong Kong, Budapest, Vienna, Prague, Istanbul, and now Barcelona and Madrid =). Needless to say we’ve played a lot so I’ve a lot of experiences to compare with.

Last week we were touring around Spain for 10 days and below I’ve compiled our reviews of the rooms we tried and how we did. I tried not to include any spoilers below so they are just our ratings and reviews of the rooms. And just so we’re clear on the ratings below, a 5 is average and I give scores on a normal distribution (I really hate yelp and tripadvisor).

Barcelocked Barcelona
Address: Carrer de l’Arc de Sant Silvestre 3 Bajos Barcelona, España
Cost: 55 euros for group of 2
Result: We got out! 57:00 with 2 people with 3 hints.
Notes: Only a single room.

Ratings
Tina: Unscored
HH: 5/10

Pros
Scary music during the game got your blood pumping. Nice large scaryish type of room. It was also 5 mins from our hotel in El Born which was really convenient. Other rooms in the city are further out from the Gothic Quarter. Immersion wasn’t that great but the entry to the room was cool.

Cons
Non-linear puzzles in a very linear progression. It wasn’t a particularly hard room but figuring out where the key you just found went wasn’t intuitive and wasted a lot of time. Lots of key or combo locks, not too much custom tech. He gave us hints even when I thought we weren’t struggling.

Enigmik (The Bunker) Barcelona
Address: Carrer del Rosselló, 508, 08026 Barcelona, Spain
Cost: 54 euros for group of 2
Result: We got out! 59:27 with 2 people with 1 hints.

Ratings
Tina: Unscored
HH: 7/10

Pros
Immersion was good with the intro impersonation and the highly bunkerized room. The room itself was large and a little scary. Lots of puzzles of varying types. Non-linear puzzling but it wasn’t confusing. Given a briefcase with our mission details and info about the people we were going after as an intro too. Good use of props.

Cons
Not too many cons but just didn’t have enough amazing elements to push it over a 7 for me.

Fox in a Box (Bunker Room) Madrid
Address: Calle de las Infantas, 25, 28004 Madrid, Spain
Cost: 55 euros for group of 2
Result: We got out! 58:05 with 2 people and 2 hints. Meant for 2-6 probably ideal with 4 and very tough with 2.

Ratings
Tina: 7/10
HH: 8.5/10

Pros
Immersion was great. Host made us put on military jackets and asked us to wait downstairs and came back in a Russian military outfit with an accent. Number of puzzles and varieties was perfect, not too much not too little. Has more than just mental puzzles. Our game master was also into puzzle games and gave us lots of recommendations of other rooms she’s played.

Cons
Hard to hear a few clues. If you’re not dexterous it could be frustrating but I enjoy the variety. .

Fox in a Box (Zombie Room) Madrid
Address: Calle de las Infantas, 25, 28004 Madrid, Spain
Cost: 55 euros for group of 2
Result: We got out 49:11 with 2 people and 1 hint.
Notes: I liked it so much the first time we did another room at Fox in a Box.

Ratings
Tina: 8/10
HH: 9/10

Pros
Even better immersion. Non-linear puzzles but clear instructions about them. Great themed intro. Room was the perfect level of suspense and excitement. Don’t want to give too much away but the zombies are cool too =).

Cons
Hard to think of any other than it may have been a little too scary for Tina haha.

EXIT Madrid (Cold War room) Madrid
Address: Calle de Caracas, 15, 28010 Madrid, Spain
Cost: 45 euros for a group of 2
Result: We didn’t get out. Took us 66 mins with 13 hints and I’d say we weren’t close (13-17 hints is average). Only one 2-person team has completed Cold War with 1 hint. Meant for 2-5 people and was their hardest room there.
Notes: TripAdvisor put this as the #1 escape room in Madrid so maybe the other rooms are much better. We didn’t have enough time or I would’ve tried another one. TripAdvisor also skews scores though and most people only do a single room so I wouldn’t put too much weight in their reviews.

Ratings
Tina: 4/10
HH: 6/10 (immersion: 8, puzzles: 4)

Pros
Immersion was strong. No costumes like in Fox in a Box but the voice acting from the owner was really really good as he adapts to what you’re saying and I could feel his acting chops. Once you get into the room it’s also themed nicely with artifacts from the time period. Before the room started and after the intro I’d say I was most excited to start this room.

Cons
The room itself though had a lot of issues. It was clear from the introduction that the room would be non-linear. However I tend to think there’s non-linear and then there’s never knowing what goes where. Non-linear is fine so that people can do multiple things at one time. Having ambiguous clues where you aren’t sure if it applies now or later even when it is supposed to apply now is just adding difficulty for difficulties sake. The room itself was also fairly small compared to the other rooms we’d played in Barcelona and Madrid so far. This room also touted a ridiculously low escape rate and I think it’s due to the ambiguity of the clues as opposed to a puzzling masterpiece.