There are three very imaginative games at PLAY! – and we’d recommend you do the lot. The first requires you to solve the murder of an archaeologist who belonged to an ancient society alongside Leonardo da Vinci. In the second, teams battle to prevent Doctor Frankenstein from resurrecting Dracula. And in the third? You have the simple task of trying to save the last victim of Jack the Ripper. The rooms are stylishly designed, interactive and demand that players think logically. Only the Dracula-Frankenstein room is available in English, however. Prices vary from 8,000 HUF (around €24) to 24,000 HUF (€72) per game.
Whether you’re an escape room devotee or simply looking for something fun and adventurous to do while you’re here, Budapest offers a wealth of choice. ‘There are so many empty cellars in Budapest, and there are already a million bars, so it’s natural that escape rooms took off here,’ says Tünde Máté, an escape game enthusiast who works at E-Exit.
So where should you start? Many of the more established escape rooms in Budapest are based on prison breaks, bank robberies or pirate sorties. However, as the games have gone global – Scavenger also operate rooms in Doha and Mumbai, and PaniQ-Room has launched in the US and even Iran – a ‘new generation’ of more sophisticated rooms is emerging. These increasingly high-tech games often drop players into sci-fi or sword-and-sandals scenarios, while others are historical, transporting visitors to ancient Egypt, Victorian London or Chernobyl.
Best of all, all the venues listed here offer games for non-Hungarian speakers. ‘People get hooked,’ Tünde told us. ‘Loads of people come for a weekend and play seven or eight a day – the escape rooms here are better quality and much cheaper.’ And what’s more, the more friends you bring, the cheaper it gets.
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