If you’re visiting Breckenridge and looking for something different to do between skiing, hiking, shopping, dining, or exploring Main Street, an escape room can add a completely different kind of adventure to your trip.
Escape rooms combine puzzles, problem-solving, teamwork, and immersive storytelling. Your group works together to uncover clues, solve challenges, and complete a mission before time runs out.
And in Breckenridge, the experience doesn’t necessarily have to take place inside a room. At Mountain Time Escape Rooms, you can choose from one of our immersive Breckenridge-themed indoor escape rooms or outdoor escape games that take you around Breckenridge as you solve your adventure.
Never tried an escape room or outdoor escape game before? Here are some tips to help make your first escape room experience a great one.
1. Choose an Escape Room or Outdoor Escape Game Adventure That Sounds Fun
For your first escape room, don’t worry too much about finding the “easiest” option. Instead, choose a theme that sounds fun to your group.
Mountain Time Escape Rooms offers escape room adventures created specifically for Breckenridge, with themes inspired by the mountains, local history, Sasquatch, paranormal mysteries of Breckenridge’s past, magical quests, and even a Breckenridge vacation gone awry.
You can also decide whether you want a traditional indoor escape room or something a little different.
Mountain Time’s outdoor escape games combine elements of an escape room and scavenger hunt with a walk through Breckenridge. Armed with an iPad featuring augmented reality and a bag of tools, your group explores the town while finding clues, solving puzzles, and completing your mission.
It can be an especially fun option if you want your escape adventure to double as a unique way to explore Breckenridge.
2. Listen Carefully to Your Escape Room Host
Before your adventure begins, your host will explain the rules and introduce your mission. Pay attention during this introduction. Something that seems like a small detail may make much more sense once you begin solving puzzles.
Your host is also there to help throughout your adventure. If your group gets stuck, don’t hesitate to ask for a clue.
3. Communicate With Your Team
Communication is one of the most important escape room or outdoor escape game skills.
If you discover a number, key, symbol, object, or unusual detail, tell everyone else. Something that doesn’t mean much to you might immediately connect with a clue another player has found.
Try saying what you see and what you’re thinking out loud. Whether you’re searching an indoor cabin after a simulated Breckenridge avalanche or following clues through town during an outdoor game, sharing information keeps everyone involved and helps your group make connections faster.
4. Search the Escape Room or Your Outdoor Surroundings Carefully
Once your adventure starts, take a good look around.
Indoor escape rooms may incorporate clues into objects, decorations, images, writing, and other elements of the environment. Outdoor games work a little differently – you’ll explore Breckenridge with your iPad and adventure tools as you search for information and solve challenges along the way.
Either way, observation matters. Just remember that you shouldn’t need to force or break anything to solve an escape room puzzle. When in doubt, ask your guide.
5. Don’t Assume Every Puzzle in an Escape Room or Outdoor Escape Game Is Complicated
First-time escape room players sometimes make puzzles harder than they need to be. Start with the most straightforward possibilities. Look for patterns, numbers, words, colors, shapes, sequences, and connections between the clues your group has discovered.
You also don’t need to brush up on Breckenridge history or become a puzzle expert before playing. Mountain Time Escape Rooms designs its games so you don’t need outside knowledge to solve the puzzles.
6. Divide and Conquer
Your entire group doesn’t necessarily need to work on the same puzzle at the same time. If several clues are available, divide into smaller groups and investigate different possibilities. When someone discovers something important, share it with everyone.
This strategy can be especially helpful with larger families, groups of friends, wedding parties, and other groups visiting Breckenridge together.
7. Keep Track of What You’ve Already Done
As your adventure progresses, it can become difficult to remember which keys, clues, and objects have already been used. Keep solved items organized when possible and let the rest of your team know when you’ve completed a puzzle. Otherwise, another player might spend valuable time trying to figure out something you’ve already solved.
8. Ask for a Hint When You Need One
There’s no benefit to spending half your game staring at one puzzle. If your group has tried several approaches and still isn’t making progress, ask for help. A well-timed hint can get you moving again without taking away the satisfaction of solving the rest of the adventure yourselves.
For your first escape room or outdoor escape game, think of hints as part of the experience – not as a sign that you’re doing something wrong. Nearly every group will use at least one or two hints, even really experienced groups!
9. Don’t Let the Clock Stress You Out
The countdown is part of the excitement, but don’t let it make you rush. Mountain Time’s indoor escape rooms give you 60 minutes to complete your mission. For outdoor games groups are given three hours to complete their mission, for most groups this is a fairly leisurely pace and will give you time to stop for a coffee or ice cream along the way!
Stay organized, communicate, and keep moving. If one approach isn’t working, try something different. Most importantly, remember why you’re there. Whether or not you complete every puzzle, the real goal is to have a memorable experience with your group.
10. Dress for Your Breckenridge Adventure
For an indoor escape room, comfortable clothing that allows you to move around easily is your best bet.
If you’re choosing an outdoor escape game, Breckenridge weather becomes part of the equation. Dress appropriately for the day’s conditions and consider layers. Mountain weather can change quickly, even when conditions looked perfect when you started. Comfortable footwear is also a good idea when you’ll be walking around town as part of your adventure.
11. Make Your Escape Room Part of Your Breckenridge Day
One advantage of choosing an escape room in Breckenridge is how easily you can work it into a day downtown. Mountain Time Escape Rooms has three locations along Main Street, and its outdoor adventures begin at the Adventure House at 226 S. Main Street. That makes an escape game easy to pair with exploring downtown Breckenridge, grabbing lunch or dinner, shopping, or enjoying other activities in town.
An indoor escape room can also be a particularly good option when you want a break from skiing or hiking – or when Colorado weather changes your outdoor plans.
12. Have Fun With It!
You don’t need to be a puzzle expert to enjoy an escape room. Some people are good at spotting tiny details. Others recognize patterns, solve word puzzles, think logically, or come up with unusual ideas. One of the best parts of an escape game is discovering the different ways everyone in your group contributes.
Don’t be afraid to laugh at wrong answers, try unexpected ideas, and get into the story. After all, you’re in Breckenridge to have an adventure.
Ready for Your First Escape Room Adventure in Breckenridge?
Whether you want to step inside an immersive themed room or turn the streets of Breckenridge into your game board, Mountain Time Escape Rooms offers options for first-time players as well as experienced escape room fans.
Choose an indoor Breckenridge-themed escape room for a fully immersive experience, or head outside with one of Mountain Time’s outdoor escape games and explore Breckenridge while solving your mission. Bring your family, friends, coworkers, or vacation group, put your teamwork to the test, and see where your Breckenridge adventure takes you.
