KTV and art museums, step aside. Escape rooms are our new favorite indoor activity in Taipei! Thanks to our awesome coworkers, this week we tried out Funlock’s 10 person Middle Eastern-themed escape room. And we were blown away!

Having done a couple of escape rooms back in Montana, I thought I knew what to expect. But this place took it to a whole new level. The amount of work that has gone into creating these themed rooms is amazing.  You really feel like you’re stepping into a whole different world as you walk into the escape room. But here’s the thing. It’s not just one room! We unlocked room after hidden room as we played the game.

The variety of puzzles was impressive too.  There were almost always at least 2 if not 3 puzzles being simultaneously worked on. So everyone in our group had something to do. The clues that required reading were provided in both English and Chinese. So it was a perfect activity for a mixed group of Chinese & English speakers*.

If you get stuck, you can call the “angel” (one of the employees) to come give you a hint. And we’ll admit, we called on her more than once! Even then we barely made it out before the 90 minute time limit! Still, we were all immensely proud of ourselves for getting through it. In fact, it was one of the funnest team-building activities I’ve ever been a part of.

But if you don’t have a big group of people to go with, that’s OK too! Funlock also has smaller escape room experiences for groups as small as 2-4 people. It’s certainly the perfect activity if you’re looking for a way to get out of the heat or the rain (depending on the season!) But keep in mind, you’ll probably need to call ahead or make a reservation online.

DETAILS

Website: https://www.funlockstudio.com 

Hours: Everyday 10am – 8pm

Cost:  $400 – $800pp, depending on the room size and # of people in your group (our 10 person group cost $550 pp)

Difficulty: The website notes the difficulty level of each room. Their easiest room is ranked at 2 and their most difficult is a 4.  We did the “Arabian Nights” room which is a level 3 difficulty. And we found that to be just the right combination of challenging but not impossibly frustrating. Although I AM very curious to see how hard the level 4 “Greedy City” really is!

Location: Just a 3 minute walk from the Red Line MRT Station Minquan W. Rd. Station. Follow Googlemaps there. The outside of the building won’t grab your attention so we snapped a picture for you to reference. From there take the elevator up to the 5th floor. 

Making Reservations: you can make reservations online through their website. Click on a room you’re interested in and then check the calendar to see what days and times are available.  Or call to make a reservation (although you might need some help from a Chinese Speaking friend for that!)

Other Escape Rooms in Taipei: Funlock is just one of several Escape Room Companies in Taipei. Although interestingly, Funlock seems to be a bit off the radar. It doesn’t pop up on the googlemaps and trip advisor lists of Escape Rooms (yet). But the ones that do show up on those lists also look great and we’d love to check them out too!* Although our experience was so good at Funlock we might have to return to and do a few more of their rooms first. 🙂 

*UPDATE: We returned to Funlock to try out one of their smaller rooms and had a shock when we discovered that all of the clues were in Chinese without any translation! Thankfully our American expat friends who went with us read and speak Chinese so we were still able to enjoy the experience (again the room designs were incredible and the puzzles varied, challenging and fun). But it would have been impossible to enjoy on our own given our limited Chinese! After Escaping the room successfully, we inquired and learned that the 3 escape rooms pictured bellow are English friendly.

Also, since writing this post we played Limitless Escape Rooms in Taipei and loved their English friendly rooms too (read our full review of them here).