Alaska Escape Rooms

Every now and then in Alaska—where the weather can change quickly—a great indoor activity comes in handy. But this unique year-round attraction, where a family or a group of friends solves a mystery while “locked” indoors, makes a fun diversion even when the skies are clear outside.

A Weatherproof Adventure for Your Mind

“Escape rooms” challenge people to think and collaborate their way out of a mystery that plays out in a group of rooms. These experiences get everyone engaged with one another—talking and using different thinking styles—and make a nice break from traditional passive entertainment.

The experiences at Alaska Escape Rooms are designed to accommodate groups of at least 4 people (8 for a private group), and up to 10 total. While most people book their adventures ahead of time, there are often walk-in options. It’s located in a downtown Anchorage building that has shops and restaurants, so it’s easy to combine some lunch, shopping and a seriously fun and unique experience.

Fun That’s a “Lock”

Expect to spend about 90 minutes on your adventure, which starts when you get “locked” in a room (don’t worry: you’re not really locked). You don’t necessarily have to solve the adventure in order to “escape,” but either way you’ll have fun trying—encountering things like secret passageways, odd booby traps and even strange creatures along the way.

You can choose from two different customizable adventures:

Raven’s Eye

The original room at the attraction, comprised of a multiple room layout, is one of the biggest of its kind in the state. It revolves around the story of a kidnapped girl, whom you try to save. Because there are choose-your-own-adventure elements built into the escape, based on different puzzles, the outcome is not a set storyline by any means. The room tends toward a PG-13 rating, but can skew more to the PG side if you like.

Conjured Kingdoms

In this room, which also has a choose-your-own-adventure element, you get involved in the story of a little girl who has created magical doors to all of her favorite stories—but she has also accidentally made a “bad” door, and it’s your job to rally the three magical kingdoms and with their help reseal the door.

A Legacy of Puzzles

The story of this small family business is fun, too. Founder and owner Graeme had always found clever ways to entertain his daughters, with creative games and treasure hunts, and word got out and friends, and then friends of friends, asked him to come up with games, riddles, puzzles and events for their kids too. Alaska Escape Rooms took off from there.

Afterward, people say that this was both a great mental workout and a lot of fun—like the best board game, but on steroids. Some people say they had the most fun when paired with folks they had only first met at the attraction. Indeed, it’s a great bonding and relationship-building experience, which is just one reason that the attraction often caters to business groups and multigenerational families. It’s also good all-ages fun, having won over 8-year and 84-year-olds alike—anyone looking for adventure.