Tag Archives: escape room

Rankings, Reviews

Top 5 Escape Rooms of Switzerland

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Want to see more of the best escape rooms in Switzerland? See our top 50 escape rooms Switzerland ranking.

Nr 1: AUNT HILDA’S ROOM (Geneva)

I don’t think I have to say much about this room. Not least of all since we already reviewed it at length here.

Suffice to say this: This room is leagues ahead of any other room in this country. It is hard to explain why without giving away any spoilers – which is partly the reason why so few photos exist of this room. But it is what I’d call a perfect combination of beautiful and extravagant decoration and very well done and tricky puzzles.

If you are even remotely in the region of this room (which is Geneva), definitely schedule in a stop. You won’t regret it.

Nr 2: Beutezug 1847 (Baden)

This is a room where you truly feel that the owners are enthusiasts themselves. Not only does the story make sense, the puzzles are also nicely embedded and all kept in theme with the time this story is set in. The love to detail they put into building a replica of an actually old fashioned train is exceptionally noteworthy.

The company, Time Maze, is one of those few companies that we completely trust to never make a bad room – and they did not disappoint with their second room which in our opinion is totally up to par with the first one.

Nr 3: The Pirates of the Blacktrap (Martigny)

If there is any room that truly makes you feel like you’ve left the building that you entered and were transported into a completely different time and space – this is it. They built a whole pirate ship – no, not just the cabine or the deck, they built the whole ship. The ship is surrounded by huge screens that show the ocean and the changing weather that comes with it so that you truly feel like you are in deep waters. The cherry on top are strong fans that emulate the heavy winds on deck combined with an appropriate soundtrack.

This is how immersion is done to perfection. Also the riddles are very well implemented and fit the theme. Have you ever dreamt of becoming a pirate? Then don’t hesitate, this room will make you feel right in the middle of a big pirate treasure hunt!

Nr 4: The Forbidden City (Baden)

I’ve already teased it in Nr 2. This is the second game by the company Time Maze and it is just as good as the first one. One defining detail about their rooms: Both of them are very well integrated into the history of Baden, the city where the room is located. The background stories are always in depth and well thought through.

Here, you can kill two birds with one stone: Where else can you play two top-5-rooms in one location? Time Maze is the place!

Nr 5: Kontinuum (Winterthur)

If you know Technorama, the place where Kontinuum is located, you know that this is not your average shopping mall or industrial area where usually escape rooms are to be found. No, the Technorama is a big science museum which clearly had an influence on how this room was built.

We had played the Kontinuum around our 200th rooms and for the first time in a long time, we were able to say that we had encountered more than one completely unique and new thing inside the room. This is how technology is supposed to be used! Simply mindblowing.

Reviews

The Forbidden City 1901 – time maze, baden

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Die verbotene Stadt 1901

This game takes you to the “Forbidden City” in the workers’ district in Baden where unauthorized people were not allowed to enter back in the early 1900s. The atmosphere in the room makes you forget that you are playing an escape room and the props are just superbly done. They told us they carefully hand-picked very specific pieces in vintage shops. A personal small touch they customized for our group (ohhh <3) made us feel very welcome early on in the room. Don’t be jealous, you will also get it! On top of outstanding decoration, you get to experience the magic of the room without almost seeing any of the tech behind it.

We also really enjoyed the puzzles, repeatedly failing only on the dexterity part (our nemesis). They will have your team cooperating, and this room will test the limits of your team’s communication. You will face the mighty “Wall Of Easy Riddles™”, although they probably got more complicated than they initially planned for. Advice for all rooms, but specifically for this one: communicate clearly and accurately. Eventually, we managed and escaped with 17,5 minutes to spare.

From beginning to end: This is how escape rooms should be done. You can see how the creators have a vast knowledge about the subject matter and how they don’t shy away from going the extra mile for making it an unforgettable experience. Definitely go and play the room as soon as you can. Bonus points if you spot the duck in each of their rooms! The room is clearly designed with German as the main language and fully playable in English, although they had to keep some untranslated words, but you don’t need to be able to understand.

The negative side? They don’t have a third room yet.

– Dominique & Enric

  • The Forbidden City 1901 / Die verbotene Stadt 1901
  • Website: Time Maze
  • Duration: 60min
  • Escape time: 42:36
  • Players: 2-5
  • Languages: English, German
  • Rating: 9/10

Reviews

Aunt Hilda’s room – Trip Trap Escape

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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
Reviews

Narcos – Operation Safehouse

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Looking for rooms to play close to the city of ZĂźrich, we stumbled across a new company in Kloten, that is currently only offering one room: Narcos- Operation Safehouse. After a very immersive and for Switzerland quite unique introduction, we entered a safehouse of Pablo Escobar with a clear mission: securing incriminating evidence for upcoming shady deals.

Solving riddles and collecting clues about potential suspects, we made our way deeper into the safehouse, eventually discovering stashes of drugs, money and weapons! Evidence that put the final nails in Pablo Escobars coffin.

The game was a lot of fun, and even a minor mistake the game master made while setting up the room for us did not take anything away from that – especially since we got offered a discount as an apology without even asking for it (their customer service really is on point!).

Playing Next Level Escape’s first room and talking to the owners made us very excited for the second one they are currently working on! True to their name, the company is trying to create a new level of escape experiences. Narcos is a room built by enthusiasts, with a lot of love for details and with elements that really improve on a standard escape game, especially in the beginning. For the second room however, they want go beyond that and are working with people that have a background in theater and special effects. We can’t wait to come back!

Next Level Escape, Kloten, Switzerland

Reviews

Circus – Escape Quest

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Escape Quest Luzern welcomed us again filling our VIP card with our 18th sticker! We played the Warlock’s dinner and then Circus. The Warlock was by comparison much weaker, trying but not quite succeeding at creating an eerie atmosphere. Few riddles and a bit shallow. An ending with potential but awkwardly executed. We escaped in 28mins. On the other hand, Circus is their newest room full of surprises and cleverly used props, letting the team work on multiple riddles at the same time. A must play, original theme and beautiful execution. We set a new record at 39min!

Escape Quest, we’ll be back as soon as you open more rooms!

Luzern, Switzerland

Reviews

Enigmania Duisburg

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While we are travelling to a boardgame convention in Essen, Germany, we of course could not pass on the opportunity to play some escape rooms as well.

Today we played the Dark Sherlock, the Magic School and the Ghost Ship at Enigmania in Duisburg. We had so much fun! The decorations are superb, not only inside the room but in the welcoming area as well. Also a shout out to our great GMs! Thanks for making us feel so welcome!

Reviews

Escape Together Championship – 4th place

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What a truly epic small finale it was! Congratulations to Team Malm for beating us with 15 seconds to spare! You made us sweat a lot during the last few minutes! We had such a good time participating in this championship and meeting amazing people along the way. Thanks for organising and hopefully see you all again soon!

Escape Quest, Lady Thompson

Reviews

Beutezug 1847 – Time Maze

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Yesterday, we got to play the quarter finals of the escapetogether.ch championship. We went in knowing it could go either way but escaped within 26.04 minutes, securing us a place in the semi finals and breaking the room-record!


This was to no small portion thanks to the amazing room by Time Maze. Beutezug 1847 is simply stellar. From the first moment on, you can tell that the owners of the company are enthusiasts themselves and that they put their heart, souls and a lot of hard work and attention to detail into this room.

The riddles are well polished and logical while taking nothing away from a cool storyline that is present throughout the whole room. If anything, we were sad we had to rush this room due to the championship but we will for sure be back once their second room opens!

Time Maze, Baden, Switzerland

Reviews

Abduction 3 – The Exam

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Usually, escape rooms are there to exercise your mind and your wit but this particular room does more than that. Not only your brain cells will start sweating but your body might get out of breath pretty soon as well. And how much fun that is!

Without spoiling too much of what is inside the room: You will laugh, you will pant and you will have moments of thinking “wait, we’re actually meant to do that???” This room has definitely gone up and beyond of what escape rooms can do to you physically and it has done it very well.

The only criticism we could think of is the naming of this company. There have to be better names than Abduction 1, 2, 3 and 4 for your rooms? But anyways, in the end, the name doesn’t really matter and the only thing you will remember is who gets to take the shirt home.

Badalona, Barcelona

Reviews

The Ticking Heart – Inside Breakout ZUG

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We are taking part in the escapetogether.ch Championship and had such a great time so far. However, one thing we noticed is that the rooms that are participating are of a very varying quality, which of course makes sense given all the different styles and topics that the companies offer.

The best room that we’ve played for the championship so far has definitely been The Ticking Heart by Inside Breakout. It’s so refreshing when everything just works, the gming is amazing and the room is fun yet still very challenging.

Unfortunately, we had a few occasions where things didn’t work as intended in other rooms such as electronics malfunctioning or a GM not paying attention to what we were doing but nothing of the like happened go us at Inside Breakout. This is how escape rooms should be done! Even if you don’t participate in the Championship, go try out their rooms. We are very excited to go back some day and play the other room they offer.

A beautiful story that reveals itself through the solving of puzzles, highly narrative oriented. This is the perfect room to get started with escape rooms.

Zug, Switzerland

Reviews

Chapter 1-3 – Crime Runners

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The unique things about the three rooms ‘The dark secret of the congressman’ (chap. 1), ‘Crime Scene: Back alley’ (chap. 2) and ‘Patient Zero’ (chap. 3) is that they are all part of the same story.

Chapter 1 starts out in the mansion of a missing congressman, and your mission is to find out all you can about the shady business he was involved with. The clues you find take you into a back alley, where a murder has taken place (chapter 2). Here you find out about a mysterious laboratory, where it all started, and where you will go during chapter 3 to end the terrible threat to mankind that has arisen from there…


All three rooms can be played separately and in any order, but the story probably is best experienced if you start with chapter 1 and end with chapter 3. All rooms are really done well thematically, with ‘Patient Zero’ standing out specifically. Cool riddles, unique usage of recordings to tell a story and progress advancement in the rooms as well as a lot of love for details make all rooms really special and enjoyable. We definitely recommend visiting these rooms if you visit Vienna / live here and enjoy escape rooms!

Chapter 1: The dark secret of the congressman
Theme: 6.5/10
Puzzles: 6.5/10
Scary: 1.5/10
Score: 7.5/10

Chapter 2: Crime Scene: Back alley
Theme: 7/10
Puzzles: 6/10
Scary: 1/10
Score: 7/10

Chapter 3: Patient Zero
Theme: 9/10
Puzzles: 8.5/10
Scary: 4/10 (scary theme)
Score: 9/10

Vienna, Austria