An Easter holiday adventure, by Helen Annetts, Charlie Statham and Joe Statham.
On a sunny Tuesday morning we headed into Town ready for an adventure with Escape Hunt playing their Easter game, Return to Wonderland, to be played on the streets of Birmingham itself. After passing the first test – finding Escape Hunt Birmingham (damn those tram tracks and new builds) we arrived, early and ready to go!
Escape Hunt looks brilliant inside, all props, games, subdued lighting and numbered doors, definitely a place to visit with friends and family for one of their indoor games.
Our Games Master Tamara, all smiles and giving away nothing, covered off the Ts&Cs, and told us we had plenty of time so no need to run (thank god), asked if we were ready to go and so the stop watch started on our ninety minutess. However, we are l going to give anything away, so expect no spoilers. But, we do want to give you a flavour of what was an excellent experience.
We left HQ with an ipad – that offered us guidance, clues and maps, and a picnic basket filled with games props! Only taking them out when instructed. We can tell you the story is based around Alice in Wonderland and your role is to help the White Rabbit. The story takes you through the city – maybe to parts you’ve not visited before or to buildings you’ve maybe not looked at properly before – and when you reach each location there is a clue to solve or a puzzle to complete.
Amazingly, apart from one clue – and to be honest we had a few attempts on some before we got them right – we solved everything and this felt really good, not least as we’d all told each other en route to town that we were individually rubbish at solving clues.
We didn’t however make it back in the ninety minutes; despite some last minute running (fast walking for me) we just didn’t arrive in time to complete the final puzzle in the Escape Hunt itself. I think we’d had a false sense of security with solving the clues that we forgot to walk fast, definitely no running is needed but a bit of a shuftie is our advice for future players.
We had a great morning. We were outside, in town but seeing it differently, and other than some bickering about whose turn it was to hold the ipad no one fell out! And second week into Easter holidays you can’t put a price on that kind of success.
We would strongly recommend Escape Hunt’s Return to Wonderland; we loved solving clues in town. Being outdoors suits us! That said, I think we will be looking at their indoor Escape Rooms too since we weren’t completely hopeless on the clue solving front. Now if we could just move quicker….
Return to Wonderland is available at Escape Hunt Birmingham Central and Resorts World. It’s suitable for all ages and you can book here. We strongly recommend you do!
