Escape Hunt Cheltenham — Attraction in Cheltenham

Found this a very frustrating experience - have done many escape rooms and this was one of the worst - would recommend Escape Rooms on Winchcombe St above this if looking in Cheltenham.

We did the Finest Hour room - the puzzles themselves were a standard level of complexity, but there were several times these were solved but the implementation of them proved frustrating - for example props in the room in poor condition that meant it was fiddly to make the room or host “recognise” when a puzzle was solved.

I also felt the host could have been more proactive. In my experience, they will keep an eye on progress and offer to provide a hint if they feel you are well behind the pace to have a chance of completing the room. We spent far too long on the first puzzles which meant we didn’t get to enjoy or even attempt some of the later ones - whilst some of this is on us for not wanting to ask for hints earlier, the onus is on the host as they are the only ones who know how many puzzles remain and whether you’re ahead or behind. For example, some intervention should really have come to prevent us spending 15+ minutes pointlessly looking around a room with torches when there was nothing left to find or waiting 5 minutes for a problem we had solved to be recognised on a minor technicality.

I had been planning to take a large group to the one in Oxford soon, so the only silver lining is I now know to find a...

Attempted the Excalibur room today with my daughter, and suffice it to say… the sword remains firmly wedged in the stone.

We were welcomed by our host, Ares, who absolutely nailed the role, lore-full, charismatic, and with plenty of cheeky humour. Their introduction had us giggling and energized before we'd even got into the room. Credit to them for establishing the mood so efficiently, it actually felt like we were away on a medieval quest… with a sideline in stand-up comedy!

The room itself was brilliantly designed. Challenging, difficult, and ingenious puzzles aplenty. We plunged in, optimistic.

…That optimism did not last.

Despite my daughter's repeated urgings to ask for a hint (which I stubbornly ignored because "we've got lots of time!"), time ran out. It transpired there were more puzzles than I was expecting. Totally on me, classic dad mistake.

Even in failure, we had a blast. It was quite possibly one of the most fun things we've ever undertaken together, and we're already planning our triumphant return. (And yes, I will take my daughter's advice next time.)

Huge shoutout to Ares, perfectly cast, funny, and an absolute plus to the experience. Highly recommend this location to anyone looking for a one-of-a-kind and memorable quest. Just… maybe ask...

I didn't realise I'd chosen the most difficult room to play with my two daughters, 15 and 11. Our Finest Hour is definitely one for the escapers who like working out codes. Luckily Ares who was running our game, was very forthcoming with clues when we needed them and understood that we'd have lost interest if we hadn't had some help! We got out but only by the skin of our teeth and plenty of help.

I would like to report that some of the clues were worn out and we weren't able to read them properly (had to ask a few times about one particular letter/number on the sheet that was almost missing which wasted time) Also the darkness of the room made it impossible to see the letters in the enigma box. It was very frustrating having people stand in the way of the light when trying to read worn out letters on the clue sheets. The magnet leads were also all falling apart. I had a £50 voucher for this game from friends for my birthday, so cost me £40. I would have been very unhappy if I'd have had to have paid full price of £90 for 3 of us! 😩

Ares, Thanks for making our hour worth while and enjoyable in the end. We did get quite frustrated! I hope you can make some improvements for the...