Turns out you didn’t book an escape room, you booked a stay in the room where the very Aunt Hilda used to stay. This escape room begins with a warm welcome in the Grand Trip Trap Hotel by a polite doorman, that tells you a story very similar to the following blurb.

Nobody knows Aunt Hilda’s real name. Everyone at the Grand Trip Trap Hotel has always called her so. And it is “Aunt Hilda”, that she wrote on the register in 1837. First resident of the Grand Trip Trap Hotel, it is there that she has imagined her most beautiful tales, turning her room into a wonderful world inhabited with marvelous characters.

Lay back and relax, because the intro takes a while and you are about to experience one of those wow moments you won’t easily forget.

Legends say that Aunt Hilda always told a new story to the ones willing to listen. As the blurb suggests, if you pay attention you will be brought into her world. You’ll get as immersed as you did when you vividly lived a story as kid when listening to adult storytellers. You are brought into a new world, with a stellar production and objects that belong in the era. No non-sense “walkie-talkies” nor unnecessary magnets.

Diegesis in its pure form, beautiful riddles at a comfortable pace will have you do tasks that not only fit the theme well, but with a slight suspension of disbelief from your side, you will undoubtedly feel like a character from the story.

The worst part? It ends. Had I had known we were so close to the end, we would have stalled, observed the set for minutes and waited until the very last moment. They don’t do the best job at advertising it, there’s no photo-finish, an odd name and no preview picture yet it seems to always be fully booked.

I was fortunate enough to be able to play 128 rooms in 2019 and, without a doubt, Aunt Hilda was my favorite room of the year. The craziest part? I played it on the 28th of December, barely making it into 2019. Recency bias? Perhaps. This room is a masterpiece. Congratulations to Trip Trap for making it to the top 31 TERPECA.

• Aunt Hilda’s
• Website: Grand Trip Trap Hotel
• Duration: 90m
• Escape time: 65min
• Players: 3-8
• Languages: English, French.
• Rating: 10/10