Escape Room Stag Do

You get locked in a themed room with your mates and you’ve got about an hour to get out. Inside are puzzles, padlocks, codes and hidden clues, and every one you crack gets you a step closer to the door. An escape room stag do swaps brute force for brainpower, which, depending on your group, could be the hardest challenge of the weekend.

The themes vary a lot. You might be breaking out of a prison cell, solving a murder, stopping a heist or getting out of a haunted house. Sessions usually last 60 minutes, and a games master keeps an eye on you through a camera and can send hints when you get stuck. You will get stuck.

Escape rooms show you who your mates really are. Within ten minutes you’ll know who takes charge, who panics, who goes quiet and then solves everything, and who spends the whole hour trying to force a lock that was never going to open. It’s a brilliant way to get a group talking, especially if half of them have only just met.

Rooms usually take teams of roughly 4 to 6 people, so a bigger group splits across a few rooms. That’s where it gets good. Book rooms of a similar difficulty, start at the same time and race. Losers buy the first round. The winners will be unbearable for the rest of the night, and that’s exactly how it should be.

It’s also weatherproof, it works in most cities and nobody needs to be fit, so it’s a safe pick for a mixed-age group.

• Split the stag and the know-it-all. You know the one. Put them on different teams so neither can hog every puzzle, and so you get a proper grudge match.
• Stay sober-ish. A pint beforehand is fine. Five is not. A puzzle that looks easy at 2pm looks like ancient Greek after a session, and venues can turn away anyone who’s clearly had too many.
• Book a slot before the bars. An afternoon start is perfect. You do the brainwork while everyone can still think, then argue about who was useless over dinner.
• Talk to each other. Teams get stuck because three people found the same clue and nobody said anything. Shout out everything you find.
• Take the hints. There’s no shame in it. Well, a bit of shame. But less shame than not getting out.
• Turn up early. Slots run to a tight timetable, and arriving late can eat into your time in the room.

An escape room makes a good opener for a city weekend. Do it on Saturday afternoon, then head into the bars, a comedy night or a few hands at the casino. If your lot like a puzzle with more running and screaming, the zombie stag do is the same panic at a much higher volume.

If you’d rather keep the brain cells for the bar, crazy golf and darts gives you the competition without the thinking. And for help keeping a big group on track, have a read of our organising advice.