This week I finally got to experience Melbourne’s original Escape Room and let me say it was definitely worth the 3 month wait to secure a booking!

Escape rooms apparently originated in Japan, but it was in Budapest that Melbourne’s escape room founder, Owen Spears fell in love with the concept. Legend has it that Owen and his partner (both psychiatrists) were so enamoured with the escape room experience that they visited 6 different rooms in the Hungarian capital in a single day. They then decided to bring the concept back to Melbourne.

It was certainly humble beginnings for their plan, with Melbourne’s first escape room being set up in a bungalow at the back of Owen’s mum’s house in suburban Flemington. However their idea caught on with adventurous Melbournians and this original escape room is now booked out for three months in advance and Owen is about to open his third location. In addition many imitators have latched on to Owen’s original idea so that you can now visit escape rooms all over Melbourne, all with different themes.

My son and I have visited some of the other escape rooms in Melbourne but we always wanted to try the original one and this week we finally did. You initially enter a dark room with torches and then solve clues to firstly turn the lights on and then figure out what happened to the previous inhabitant of the room. The clues are everywhere and force you to often think ‘outside of the box’. You have 70 minutes to ‘escape’ and you can get hints along the way (if necessary) as your progress is monitored via web cams.

This original room was definitely the best we’ve tried, especially with the incorporation of some ‘retro technology’ but we won’t give away any of the secrets!

If guests would like to try one of Melbourne’s Escape Rooms, please come and see the Concierge Desk to organise bookings. As we said the original room is booked out 3 months in advance but they have kindly provided the We Know Melbourne team with a ‘secret number’ to call and check for cancellations which guests could take advantage of!

Melbourne Ecsape Room; Cost team of 2 – $76. Team of 3 – $105. Team of 4 – $128. Team of 5 – $160, Team of 6 – $192. Location Flemington (exact address supplied upon booking).