A brand new Escape Room experience has opened on the Central Coast – just in time for the summer holidays – and we highly recommend you check it out! Named “Escape Reality – Escape Rooms Central Coast” and located in Tuggerah, this new escape-room facility has four experiences, including a family-friendly room that caters to kids as young as 6!
But what is an escape room you may be asking! Well, it’s a little like being inside a board game where you and your friends have just 60 minutes to solve a series of puzzles and challenges to escape from a movie-inspired set! Sounds pretty awesome, right? And it is.
Playing in Puddles visited last week to experience their family-friendly room, and all of us – from the age of 6 to 41 – had a tonne of fun.
The room we tackled is called “Jungala” and it’s aimed at children aged 6+. I say “+” rather than a top age, as while this room is aimed at kids, us adults were quite stumped by some of the codes too, and despite our best efforts, we didn’t manage to crack all the clues and escape within the 60 minutes.
If you’re an ’80s or ’90s kid, you’ll be familiar with the premise of “Jungala”, as it’s uncannily similar to the original Jumanji film! And this here is your chance to experience it!Â
The aim of the game is (seemingly) simple: escape from the room. But it’s not as easy as opening one lock. The room is packed with puzzles, codes and clues and it’s up to you to crack them. As you work your way through the codes, new clues will be revealed, new keys discovered, and new rooms will be opened. AND that’s what makes this experience SO much fun: you get to move between multiple rooms. We’ve been to other escape room venues where the entire experience took place within the one room, but not here. In the Jungala experience, we had to make our way out of not just one but four spaces. And, as our 8-year-old son said, “walking into each new space was my favourite part”.
In the Jungala experience, you enter a labyrinth of rooms that range from a nostalgic Robin Williams Jumanji-style living room complete with game board to a Star Wars-like hyperspace tunnel. The different realms added a new element of fun to the experience and really made you feel like you were moving towards “escaping”.
Our group of detectives included two kids aged 6 and 8 and two adults, and I’m happy to admit that even us adults were quite flabbergasted as to where to start for a good few minutes. After lots of false starts and dead-end code-cracking attempts we used the experience’s Ipad to get a hint and that got us off on the right track. You can also call on a staff member at any time to enter the room and give you a clue or you can simply scan various QR codes throughout the room to provide you with little hints should you get stuck. You can ask for clues or choose to get none – it’s up to you how much assistance your group gets.
Once you crack the first couple of clues, things really start to roll as you suddenly get an idea of what’s required of you.
We don’t want to say too much as that would clearly ruin the experience for any would-be detectives, but we will say this, “DO IT!”.
If you like cracking puzzles, reading detective novels, Rubik’s cubes, coding, Sudoku or anything else that gives your brain a little tease and makes you think outside the box, DO IT. It was fascinating to see how our kids’ brains ticked, how they worked through problems, how they worked together as a team, who took the lead and who was happy to follow. More interesting still was the realisation that us adults were not much better at working through the problems – we all genuinely had to work together to crack the codes.
This activity is fun. It’s different. It’s challenging. It’s something your whole family can do together and – importantly – equally enjoy. And that in our books is absolutely awesome. Get there soon and have a blast!
Escape Reality – Escape Rooms Central Coast
The Rooms: At “Escape Reality – Escape Rooms Central Coast” there are four experiences to choose from, and each room is designed to be tackled by groups of 2-6 players.
+ “Jungala” is aimed at families and groups of kids/teens. Note: Players aged 15 and under must be accompanied in the room by a paying adult over the age of 18.
+ “The Iron Kingdom” is great for groups of adults and will appeal to Game of Thrones fans.Â
+ “Legend of the Mummy” is a more difficult experience and is recommended for groups of adults who have attempted Escape Rooms before.
+ “Sinister” is purposely creepy to enhance the experience for those who love a good scare and is reserved for people aged 16+. Teens and young adults will LOVE it.
Price: 2 Players $45 per person; 3 Players $43 per person; 4 Players $41 per person; 5+Players $37 per person. Gift vouchers can be purchased. Players aged 15 and under must be accompanied in the room by a paying adult over the age of 18.
Open: Thursday and Friday 1pm to 9pm;Â Saturday and Sunday 9am to 10pm.Â
Website: www.escapereality.com/centralcoast
Phone: 0480 488 338
Email:[email protected]
Address: 4/15 Anzac Road, Tuggerah, NSW.
