Ottawa’s newest escape room adventure is opening in the Byward Market.
And this one comes with a sparkling twist – a city-wide scavenger hunt and the chance to win a real diamond.
The Mystery Motel is the latest location by Ottawa’s Escape Manor. It brought the first escape room adventure to town back in 2014. Since then the game has grown in popularity. A team of players is locked in a room filled with cryptic clues and puzzles, each one unlocking another step to eventual freedom. The puzzles can be hidden in, around, or a part of any object in the room. The team has 45 minutes to try to figure out how to escape.
Escape Manor’s Steve Wilson describes it as an emotional roller-coaster. “When you come to an escape room you have the fear of the unknown. And then you have the adrenaline rush of actually trying to escape,” he says.
The game has become so popular that the challenge now is keeping the rooms interesting. Escape Manor changes their rooms on a regular basis.
At the Mystery Motel they’ve upped the stakes. If you complete all three rooms, you receive clues to a scavenger hunt in the city and a chance to win prizes, including a real diamond.
“"We've partnered with a few local businesses,” says Wilson. “Our big sponsor is La Maison D'Or. And they're actually furnishing four diamonds that we'll be giving out. So we're going to give out a diamond each quarter of the year."
It’s the latest chapter in what has become a local success story. Since opening its first location in downtown Ottawa, Escape Manor has expanded to three local locations. It also runs “Escape the Diefenbunker” at the Diefenbunker Museum in Carp. It recently opened a location in Regina, Saskatchewan. And soon it will launch its first international adventure in Brisbane, Australia.
The Mystery Motel is located at 41 York Street in Ottawa’s Byward Market.
