Escape Room Dubai: A Fun Family Activity

The Escape Room Dubai: One of the fun family activities in Dubai and of course one of the fun things to do with friends in Dubai too… Having done it both in Dallas and Dubai, I highly recommend it to everyone!

Concept:

Escape Room is about being locked in a room full of locked objects, keys to which are found by solving puzzles. Typically a 60minute team game (team size can range from 2 to 12 players), the final objective of the game is to escape the locked room by solving puzzles, within 60minutes. Hence the name, Escape Room.

Location

Dallas:

Within Dallas and Fortworth, there are many of them. The one we went to was Escape the Room in Fortworth, due to proximity and having challenge rooms which accomodated over 6 people..

Dubai:

There are a multitude of fun family activities in Dubai, to choose from be it beaches, adventure sports, yatching, water sports or just lounging. Most of these also qualify for fun things to do with friends in Dubai. Escape rooms also feature in both categories and Dubai has its own fair share of them. The one we went to was Escape Reality. Its on Sheikh Zayad Road Dubai and about 15mins walking distance from the FAB (formerly FGB) metro station. Ample paid parking is available outside the building. Escape Reality is on the first floor.  We found this to be closest to our place and challenging enough to have an amazing one hour.
If you are looking for other fun things to do in Dubai with kids, you can check this post.

Themes

In an Escape Room, different themes are typically different levels of difficulty and in some cases also restrictive of the number of people who can join in to play. Some rooms are 4-6 people, some are 6-10 people and so on.Escape reality allows a maximum of 6 people across their rooms while we were 8 of us in Dallas across varying age groups.

The themes in Fort Worth included Submarine (full with special effects etc), 3 Mile Island, The Theatre, Western Bank Heist and the Clock Tower. Escape Reality had 8 themes like Apocalypse, Alcatraz, Fibonacci etc.
What makes it difficult varies across escape rooms and themes. In some cases, just making the connections across clues collected at different stages and then putting it all together in a later puzzle is challenging. In others, the whole coordination (and team work) could be challenging and in many others, it could just be the numeracy/math and language skills.

If you’re thinking of Escape room dubai as one of the fun family activities in Dubai, you’ll need to choose the theme appropriately. If you have 10yr or older kids and want to do this with them, pick a theme they won’t get scared with.

The escape room theme we chose was Alcatraz and it is apparently one of their most difficult themes. The best part is the team being divided in two different parts and not being able to see each other in the initial phase.

How does it work?

Once you reach any Escape room in Dubai, you’ll take the first 15-20minutes in registration and to understand the rules.

Players are initially debriefed for about 10-15mins which includes explaining about the room, the challenge, the locks, how to work, what the keys and answers could look like, when and how to reach for help, clues for when you’re stuck etc.

Once this debrief is done, you are locked into the room and have to come out of it by solving a series of puzzles and riddles.

Usually you are given torchlights, UV light reader etc and your cell phones and other digital gadgets are safe in the locker outside.

Bear in mind, the puzzles will never require any high level of knowledge or any specialized skills. Most of it is just applying yourself to solving puzzles.

I will not be able to divulge anything more without ruining your experience.

More about the experience and why should you do it?

It’s a fun filled experience in team work, and definitely one of the most fun things to do with friends in Dubai. The assets we bring to the table and a torchlight on what amongst the different challenges we find really enjoyable as well.