One of my all-time favourite things to do with friends is trying out Edmonton’s escape rooms.

In the last two years, escape games have surged in popularity in our city.

As of March 2016, there are at least 8 companies opened (with more in the works).

You’d think that’s a lot but Mike and I recently tried an escape room in Vancouver and the owner there told us at last count there were almost 30 escape rooms in the Richmond, B.C. area alone. Crazy!

There’s huge demand for these games – which put you and a group of friends in a themed room, where you need to solve a series of puzzles in order to complete and escape the room.

They’ve quickly become my alternative to say – going to a movie.

I’ve tried most of the escape games in Edmonton so far (my friend Lamya and her boyfriend have too – and started a blog reviewing each room they’ve done!) and I have to say my favourite rooms have been at GTFO and Escape City.

INTRAP Escape Room at 10355 Whyte Avenue.

Last weekend I tried one of the newest rooms – Pharaoh’s Treasure at INTRAP Escape – and it quickly shot right up to one of my favourite rooms ever.

Head down to the basement for INTRAP Escape!

My friends Fred, Catherine, Karen, Sharman, and Miguel joined me in Pharaoh’s Treasure and we all had a blast.

It was Sharman’s very first time trying an escape room, and just Miguel’s second.

Everyone was thrilled with the quality of the room!

Nice space at INTRAP Escape Room.

It started off great as some of our team members were given these cool kerosene lamps. Everyone else were given flashlights (which is nice because in other rooms it can be frustrating to share two flashlights between so many people).

Pharaoh’s Treasure had a lot of really cool puzzles, fantastic flow to the puzzles, nice little surprises and reveals that were really delightful.

Depending on how many rooms you’ve done, some types of puzzles tend to come up again or what you’re supposed to do in a room becomes more obvious.

Even though I’ve tried so many now, a lot of the puzzles and ‘effects’ in Pharaoh’s Treasure were new for me!

We also appreciated how before entering Pharaoh’s Treasure, we were shown how different locks we’d encounter in the room would work. This is great because I find sometimes you can waste a lot of time trying to figure out how to use or reset a type of lock – wasting precious time!

Love this. You enter with these ‘kerosene lamps’ too.

The whole group loved it, and while we technically finished with time to spare, we did end up using one extra hint (some escape rooms are getting more lax on hint/helps).

Still, we were just one puzzle away from solving the room without a hint so I really think it still counts!

Such success! Completed Pharaoh’s Treasure at INTRAP Escape.

INTRAP has two other rooms that I can’t wait to try – Cell No. 8 and The Haunted Apartment.

Pharaoh’s Treasure is ranked at mid-difficulty level, I have a friend who has already tried The Haunted Apartment and said it was extremely difficult but so much fun!

Solid success wall.

INTRAP is co-owned by three friends – Yubo, Sky, and Chun – Yubo is still a NAIT student and Sky and Chun recently graduated from the University of Alberta.

I’m so impressed when people turn their dreams into realities and make something – something so cool, starting their own businesses.

I asked Yu Bo why she wanted to get into the business and whether she looked at the other rooms as stiff competition and she said the three of them have actually been working on building out INTRAP for over a year – at the time, there really weren’t too many rooms open locally.

Congrats to Yubo and her friends for coming up with awesome rooms/puzzles, creating this wonderful new addition to the Edmonton escape scene.

In terms of ranking my other favourite rooms, I’d say Pharaoh’s Treasure is right up there with Magic Emporium from Escape City, and The Heist/Nightfall at GTFO.

Pharaoh’s Treasure room had great type of puzzles, flow of puzzles, and set design/’reveals’ were really well-thought out and executed.

I’m so excited to try INTRAP’s other two rooms, and I’m excited to give away a pair of admission passes so you can try INTRAP on me! Enter below:

INTRAP is so fun!

** GIVEAWAY **

ENTER TO WIN A PAIR OF ADMISSION PASSES TO INTRAP EDMONTON ESCAPE ROOM

(Valued at $50)

Here are the different ways you can enter this contest (please check off what you’ve done through the Rafflecopter widget below to qualify!)

• Leave a comment on this blog post telling me which of INTRAP’s escape rooms you’d most like to try.
  Note: You MUST leave a comment in order to be eligible for the prize!

• Tweet this message: I want to try Edmonton’s new escape game @INTRAP_Edmonton in @OldStrathcona! Hope I win @lindork’s giveaway. http://bit.ly/1M9dUeq #yeg

• Follow me @lindork on Twitter

• Follow @INTRAP_Edmonton on Twitter

• Follow @lindork on Twitter

• Like my Facebook Page – Lindork – Linda Hoang

• Like INTRAP Edmonton’s Facebook Page – INTRAP Escape Room

(Click here if the widget doesn’t load)

I’ll randomly select one winner after the contest closes on March 25, 2016.

* Note: Comments are moderated so if they don’t appear right away, don’t worry!

Thanks to INTRAP Edmonton Escape Room for arranging this giveaway with me!

Good luck!!

And if you’re interested in more reading about local escape games, here’s a post I did about Escape City, one about GTFO, and a story I wrote for NAIT techlifemag. There’s also the Edmonton Escape blog from Lamya + Jason.

Linda

Follow @lindork

Disclaimer: I will always provide my 100% honest opinion on this blog. INTRAP invited me to come try one of their rooms, and gave me a pair of passes to give away for readers. This has no impact on opinions stated in this post.