Despite hearing many people raving about escape room games challenges, I have never been to one myself. It was only recently when I discovered this real escape challenge that had its website in both english and korean language that I got to play for the first time!

After choosing the time slot and corresponding room, I headed down to the physical shop in Hongdae with much anticipation.

Behold, a new challenger!

Followed the directions on their website which was pretty straightforward! If you are coming by train. Once you have reached HONGIK UNIV. STATION:

1. Come out from exit 8 2. Turn right at the first road and walk straight down till you see a CU convenience store on your right. 3. Turn right slightly at CU convenience store and walk diagonally straight till you see the 7-11 convenience store at the street corner on your left 4. Walk into the alley next to the 7-11 convenience store. 5. Continue straight down the alley till you pass another 7-11 convenience store on your left. 6. Just continue down the road for a few more buildings and you should be able to see our logo on the 4th floor on the right. 7. Come on up! :)

First sight of the escape room! I think this was the lady who emailed me after my booking to confirm the time slot. After you have made a booking, R.E.C contacts everyone who booked that day for booking confirmation. They have a booking system, so if you did not reply 1 hour game start OR registered wrong information on booking, it would be cancelled, so do take note!

Five different unique rooms suitable for all groups: friends, couples, colleagues, families and companies! The room I chose was the cupid challenge, which really emphasized alot on communication and seeing things from other's perspective.

There are recommended number of players for each room and each type of room had its own level of difficulty which they would display on the website. If you are afraid that it would be too difficult for two people to solve, bring more smart friends along! Hahaha.

After payment made by credit/debit card or cash, the staff would allocate a locker for you to place your belongings.

Depending on the number of players, the price per person will be as follows:

2 Players - 23,000 Korean Won 3 Players - 20,000 Korean Won 4 Players - 19,000 Korean Won 5 Players or above - 18,000 Korean Won

We were handed an agreement to sign and we were good to go! It was to ensure the safety of both the customers and the shop, just in case someone got frustrated enough to break random things while trying to escape. Hahaha. All their games are designed to be safe and engaging, so no worries about having a psychological breakdown inside (which I actually feared at first like what if I got stuck inside forever lol!) During the game experience their staff monitored the room so when we actually reached our peak frustration level they were nice enough to give us free hints!

Each room also has a call button so if you have any problem at any time, you can press the call button to alert them.

When the time was up (1 hour), my friends and I went to a nearby cafe to have coffee. It was a shop owned by a Singaporean in Seoul! How apt to call it Dessert Merlion Singapore Cafe. Because the ambiance and food were authentically Singaporean, (they import their coffee powder and some other ingredients from Singapore!) it really made my friends and I miss Singapore alot.

I enjoyed the day, both the food and the real escape room challenge game that I went back to the escape room challenge again! This time, I chose another game called Lost, the stranger's warning . (Yes, I paid for it because it was really fun!) I would recommend it to anybody that comes to Korea, you definitely do not want to miss this awesome and mind boggling challenge of brains and smarts.

Real Escape Challenge

Mapo-gu, Seoul wausan-ro 27-gil

Wookoo Building 4th floor (339-5 Seogyo-dong)

Opened Monday to Sunday

10:00-24:00

#travel #Korea