It’s Elementary
Want to Solve a Mystery in the Gables? Start with a Great Escape
By Karen F. Buchsbaum
Summer 2018
The first mystery you must solve when going to The Great Escape Room Miami is finding the entrance. Don’t be confused by the red herring in the name “Miami.” It’s actually in Coral Gables. And even though the address is on LeJeune, you need to enter via a flight of stairs in the back of the building, off Aragon Avenue.
Once you find it, you are in for a solid hour of confusion, chaos, frustration, satisfaction, and plain old fun – all in the quest to satisfy your inborn passion to solve puzzles. In this case, it’s a set of clues you must uncover to find the key to escape the room.
There are four rooms and three scenarios, all of which depict Sherlock Holmes themes (although the nuclear bunker option is a bit of a time stretch). Each room has a maximum number of players, ranging from 8 to 14. You can bring your own gang, or join others at the scene of the crime. The game is part scavenger hunt, part teamwork, and part brain-teaser. A monitor stays in the room to offer a bit of help, should you get completely stumped.
On our evening in Sherlock Holmes’ Library we shared the search with a senior couple, a Gables family of five, and a group of University of Miami student leaders fresh from a day of planning workshops. One clue for readers: having team players like those students is a plus.
This group of diverse players, ranging from millenials to septuagenarians, quickly came together to divvy up areas to search, brainstorm, share details and commiserate. We searched for keys, numbers, and messages, we looked under drawers, behind books, on the backs of furniture, and in the end – with just 5 minutes to spare – we cracked the case, all in a day’s work, Dr. Watson.
The Great Escape Room Miami
Open Thurs.-Sun. till 10 p.m., 11 p.m. Sat., 6 p.m. Sun.
Sessions hourly starting at noon $28 plus tax, $5 less on Thursday
www.thegreatescaperoom.com/florida/miami