Milestones - Escape Rooms Heraklion
#Our story
All significant events will be renewed in this column!
09/05/2020#End of 2014
A fresh idea started “unlocking” and its name is EscapeRooms.gr, established on the first floor of the neoclassic building on 6 Perdikari street, in the center of Heraklion.
01/10/2014#January 2015
#January 23 2015 the gates of the first escape rooms in Heraklion, as well as in the whole of Crete open with two first generation rooms named “Explosion” and “Game Room” created by Eleni and Yiannis who had no special experience, but had an unlimited interest and great love for the people of Heraklion with a target to create a new entertainment in town.
23/01/2015#Explosion
A 45 minute escape time room with a time bomb ready to explode as soon as time was up…
A small (one room) and clever room where all the clues were really in front of everyone inside! With riddles, history, scenery and planning of a creation exclusively of our own (Yiannis, Eleni), with the intention of putting you in the thinking process under the pressure of time, as well as of the stressful sound of the bomb ticking… Who locked you in this room? Would you have time to escape before the bomb clock went off? Or maybe the key to the door was beside you all the time? Thousands of players, millions of memories of this “starter” (an option for new players), a room that initiated groups and groups of the Escape Rooms fans… The “bomb” stopped… ticking after about 2 years, on March 2017.
23/01/2015#GameRoom
The room of an addicted person to games! Monopoly, domino, trills, hangman, playing cards, arrow targets, sudoku, chess(!) and many other puzzles that you have to “solve” in order to win the Game Master in his own room! Group enigmas based on logic and observation in 60 “playful” minutes…
One more exclusive creation of the EscapeRooms.gr group (Yiannis, Eleni) – (riddles, history, scenery and planning), apart from the much discussed last riddle with the 8 queens, a “famous” thoroughbred riddle of logic and probabilities that puzzled a lot of groups and made their escape difficult! “The Room of Games”… was over after about 3 years on December 2017.
23/01/2015#March 2015
KRITI TV and the show “kalo messimeri” offer a tribute to the escape rooms in Heraklion, showing exclusive shots of the rooms “Game Room” and “Explosion”.
01/03/2015#June 2015
Something different and metaphysical appears in EscapeRooms: The first interactive story by the name of “Ouija live experience”, a police event with live performance of limited duration!
01/06/2015#OUIJA live experience
A quiz game with roles! A murderer, many suspects… What happened that night? Who is not telling the truth? Even an experienced detective could not solve the mystery. The only way out would be the help of a “psychic” who could bring you in touch with the victim himself!
Mystery and intrigue in a seasonal game with an unexpected end, exclusively our own creation (Yiannis, Eleni, Menia, Thanassis A.) of a 3 month total duration (June – August 2015) and a one week re-performance (December 2018).
02/06/2015#October 2015
#October 31 2015, on the day of Halloween at 6 Perdikari street in the EscapeRooms.gr the first scary room in Crete “Madhouse” appears… Its name, even today, haunts the souls of hundreds of players…
31/10/2015#MadHouse
The story starts in Dr. Wilson’s Psychiatric Clinic office, where he was seen for the last time… Is he still there? Has he left any traces? Only you –his team- have access to his office! The door is locked behind you and you are asked to discover what has happened, but.. you are not alone anymore!
The first escape room that combines riddles, horror and a unique story of our own creation (Yiannis, Eleni, Thanassis A., Menia, Nikos). Even though we had little experience in the layout of escape rooms and no knowledge at all of scary rooms, MadHouse came out first in the public’s preference in Crete since the first moment and up to today; it was loved infinitely and this gave us the strength to continue to create and dream, since a while later it brought us to the first place of escape rooms in Greece in TripAdvisor!
Four years after, MadHouse continues to run successfully and “gives the baton” to the new scarier room “MadHouse 0 (the beginning)”, a few years before Dr. Wilson.. disappeared!
31/10/2015April 2016
The first award from the TripAdvisor is a fact!
— Certificate of Excellence 2016 —
Thanks to the love and support of the people of Crete!
04/04/2016April 2016
EscapeRooms.gr after douzens of excellent reviews in TripAdvisor are now in the 3rd place of escape rooms nationwide following Great Escape (Athens) and LOCKED (Thessaloniki)!
05/04/2016#November 2016
#November 16 2016 it’s time for adventure! The world is ready to accept a high difficulty room with physical tests, traps and penalties. Its name: “Mission: White Diamond”.
16/11/2016#Mission: White Diamond
The mission named “White Diamond” must not fail! Everything is planned accurately and if something goes wrong, the alarm will be activated in Mac Gregor’s vault.
“Mission…possible”!!! The whole mansion is monitored 24 hours per day by guards. Our technician will manage to “freeze” the cameras. The laser beams will make it difficult for you to reach your goal. The traps may put you in a difficult position. In your kitbag you will find all the tools you need. You are sure that the explosives will help you escape since you have the right diamond in your hands!
A room that combines thinking, quick perception, interactive riddles, as well as physical fitness, has made it difficult for thousands of players, with the result of low success rates and until today it is considered one of the most difficult and demanding escape rooms in Crete! It is one more room of exclusively our own creation (Yiannis, Eleni, Thanassis A., Nikos) with the element of actual escape being original!
16/11/2016#November 2016
EscapeRooms.gr wins the 1st place nationwide in TripAdvisor with 300+ reviews competing with the top Greek escape rooms in Athens, Thessaloniki, Heraklion, Chania and Rhodes.
18/11/2016#December 2016
An original Christmas event for both young and old persons has taken place in the foreign language institute “Gnosotopia”! All students helped to “save” Christmas through interactive tests and Santa Claus managed to distribute for one more year his gifts throughout the entire world!
25/12/2016#March 2017
EscapeRooms.gr was the only escape rooms business in Crete in cooperation with the first electronic platform of escape rooms EscapeAll.gr .
Ever since, EscapeRooms.gr has succeeded in gathering over 850 certified reviews with an excellency rate of 4,8/5!
16/03/2017
#April 2017
A new challenge and something pioneering for the time comes in collaboration with Mitsis Hotels Group.
In one of the most impressive complexes, the Laguna Resort & Spa in Anissaras Hersonisos we created two rooms in a space of 250 square meters.
This was a decision of particular importance by the EscapeRooms.gr group who used the ideas of the first rooms that had already been created and were about to be withdrawn, the “Game Room” and the “Explosion”. In their renewal they are named “Game Room – Expension” and “Explosion – upgraded”. Their size increases by 2 and 3 spaces respectively, also, their stage of difficulty increases and it is open for all ages, both for the Laguna guests and for visitors in the area. In 1-2 months it has risen to the 1st place of preference in activities in the whole area of Hersonisos, while in the total period of 6,5 months it has managed to collect 56 excellent reviews in TripAdvisor!
10/04/2017#June 2017
A second continuous award from TripAdvisor!
— Certificate of excellence 2017 —
People continue to love and support our effort and reward us for one more year with hundreds of positive comments… helping us remain in the first place among hundreds of Greek escape rooms’ companies!
01/06/2017#December 2017
A second Christmas event is taking place in the foreign languages institute “Gnosotopia” with our little friends helping one more time to “save” Christmas!
15/12/2017#December 2017
EscapeRooms.gr “travel” to South Crete… An new original room is created in one of the largest hotel units, Ostria Resort and Spa in Ierapetra! The Christmas village in Orstria reflects a fairy tale scenery with beloved heroes, theatrical shows, creative workshops that keep the children busy sparking their imagination and unfolding their talents! It becomes known for its events organized every day, since people visit from every part of Crete.
The EscapeRooms.gr group (Yiannis, Eleni, Menia) has prepared a Christmas escape story for the whole family… Santa’s crimson uniform.. has become tiny, since the naughty elves hid in his laundry! Only you would be able to help the elves through riddles, thinking and cooperation with your group to find a solution so that Santa can be able to wear his uniform and have the time to distribute the gifts to all the children in the world!!!
The Christmas room lasted 18 days, 20/12/17 to 7/1/18 and hosted groups that visited this Christmas interactive place in Ostria Hotel Resort and Spa!
23/12/2017#January 2018
#January 23 2018 exactly 3 years after the EscapeRooms.gr opening, a new room takes the place of the two first rooms, a room of third generation, without padlocks, with the presence of an actor with an active role and with the comic element dominating over science fiction. The “TimeTrapped” or the “Time Machine” came to make the change in the escape rooms philosophy…
23/01/2018#TimeTrapped
It is said that: “If at some point a time machine is manufactured… then it has already been manufactured!” Thus, the great scientific mind, the “monster” of intelligence, professor Dr. Francis Martinelli, too, has finally built it!
Of course, we are afraid very much that … “Murphy’s law” is going to be verified again: “whatever could go wrong… will go wrong!” Your professor’s wish was to start for the first time the time machine which he has just completed, together with you, his favorite students… Naturally you should not be late, especially this day, because, if you are, your professor may start the time machine by himself! Are you quite trained and bold to use the time machine by yourselves, taking the risk to stay trapped in the space-time, so that history is not… falsified? But, maybe a surprise is expecting you… or has it already happened? Past, Present & Future are entangled with each other in a crazy story with “End, Beginning & Middle” and an even “crazier scientist” who will literally “travel” you into a different experience!
One more room of exclusively our own creation (Yiannis, Eleni, Menia, Marianthi, Antonis, Thanassis A, Evi) with a subversive scenario, with an original way of alternative rooms, with an active role of a comedian who guides the group through interactive riddles without any padlock! Creating a theatrical show, joining it with the escape element, the TimeTrapped room has written its own piece of history nationwide as unique in its kind!
23/01/2018#April 2018
For the 3rd consecutive year EscapeRooms.gr are again awarded by TripAdvisor!
— Certificate of excellence 2018 —
Always with a top score of 5 stars, EscapeRooms.gr remain in the first place of evaluation of games and escape rooms in all of Greece!
03/04/2018#April 2018
A new start, in a new environment, to take escape rooms to a higher level! A new site, only a few meters away from the first building of EscapeRooms.gr, a beautiful, two-story, neoclassic building, on 12 Daidalou street, will host new ideas and new rooms! The second building, has been renovated completely, in order for us to continue to “make new memories”, to create new emotions for the players making the stories we had in our minds… come true!
The truth is that we have been doing this thing from the very start, only now we know the answer to the question:
“What exactly have you been doing?”
“We are MEMORY BUILDERS!”
Strong memories cannot be lost, of course, so, after about 3 years (on September 2021) the building on Daidalou street with its rooms that have won awards (MadHouse 0-The beginning & Holy Secret), as well as the outside game (HangOver) changed ownership and Locked has taken charge, thus the rooms that you all loved so much have stayed “alive”!
19/04/2018#October 2018
#October 27 2018 What was missing from our collection? But, of course, a mystery room… Dark, but not scary, bright, but not at night, “Holy Secret” creates dilemmas to the “visitors” of this strange monastery…
27/10/2018#Holy Secret
This monastery hides a very well hidden secret… Rumor has it that Pope Benedict who is buried in the crypts of this strange monastery, has the holy scepter with him! Nobody has not confirmed this yet. The monks, even though quite friendly and polite, “swear” to the contrary! Naturally the Pope’s body is guarded against any visitor… We have a way for you to enter the monastery and “fool” the monk who is eager to guide you!
The largest in areas and total space room (even today) in the whole of Crete, exclusively our own creation (Yiannis, Eleni, Marianthi, Antonis, Thanassis A., Spyros, Panagiotis, Thanassis K., Nikos), with a subversive story and, for the first time, with the possibility to choose the sequel with the corresponding “effects”, is also the first escape room with a semi-outdoor space, with an actor’s guiding essential role and interactive riddles, as well as a more intense role playing element by the players themselves!
27/10/2018#December 2018
Everybody has a right to live, as well as a right to play! So, we thought of creating a game for these children, too, in their own space!
A Christmas event took place in the disabled care center “Dikeoma stin zoi” for children and adults with a disability at Ano Kalessa.
19/12/2018#December 2018
A challenge that Mindtrap of Heraklion accepted for a soccer match of 5×5… The score is humiliating (therefore we will not mention it); what matters is fair play and a noble competition.
The following persons of the EscapeRooms.gr group took part in the match:
FORTENSTEINER(+2goal), HOSTIAN(GK +1goal), HOSTIC, KUKOC, MARTINELIC, PORPHIRINHO, IVΑΝIS(+1goal), PORFYREZ.
21/12/2018#January 2019
The review in TripAdvisor overcame the 600 and EscapeRooms.gr continue to be in the first place of escpape rooms nationwide.
01/01/2019#January 2019
EscapeRooms.gr celebrate their 4 years of operation and create an online and half-interactive riddle game in Heraklion, the LOOP Game which was available completely fee for all of you who support us all these years!
23/01/2019#The LOOP Game
A personal envelope has arrived at your address, with coded data in it, in order for you to help us discover the person who “stole” some very important items from all the EscapeRooms.gr: the Queen out of Game Room, the bomb out of Explosion, the cut finger out the MadHouse, the white diamond out of Mission White Diamond, the time machine notes out of TimeTrapped and the holy scepter out of Holy Secret. The thief/ves had no hope at all, since the hundreds of so zealous and strong players that participated and supported this innovative effort of ours. The game was divided into 4 rounds! In every round the players, individually or in groups, had to solve the internet riddles and locate the lost items in various parts of the center of Heraklion. At the end of all the rounds, the score was announce with many winners, all the lost items were returned, but the thief/ves were not “arrested”… under the probability of “striking” again some time!
The story and the creation of the game was also of exclusively our making (Yiannis, Christos, Vicky, Spyros, Thanassis A., Marianthi, Eleni, Maria A.) We have also to thank Mr. Barber & shop, Beer o’ clock, 1 euro shop, Up 92,9FM and Mindtrap Heraklion for their impeccable collaboration in conducting the LOOP Game! The game lasted about 5 months (February – July 2019) and, who know, … maybe will take place again with a new cycle in the future!
01/02/2019#April 2019
The time has come to make another huge step, this time in “homeland”, in our dearest Thessaloniki!
The Thessaloniki escape game “LOCKED” was incorporated in the EscapeRooms.gr family for 2 years until April 2021. The first live escape rooms game that opened in Thessaloniki in September 2014 (with the rooms: “CSI Thessaloniki”, “Virus”, “Jack Travis and the Lost Statues”, and “Who Killed John Monroe?”) with top partners (Vodafone, Coca-Cola), an escape rooms game which was considered the first among many large escape rooms businesses in Thessaloniki, according to TripAdvisor!
Located in the center of the city, on 21 of St. Sophia pedestrian street , the heart of LOCKED keeps beating, with 5 escape rooms (Who Killed John Monroe?, Pirates – The Wicked Ship, Spooky Room 479, The Alchemist’s Secret and MadHouse), as well as 3 outdoor games (City of Witches, The Missing and Amnesia).
01/04/2019#May 2019
For the 4th continuous year TripAdvisor awards us with the certificate of excellence for 2019 with a top score of 5 stars!
– Certificate of excellence 2019 –
EscapeRooms.gr remains in the first place of the Games and escape rooms evaluation nationwide!
08/05/2019#June 2019
#On June 15 2019 the first sequel, or rather… prequel escape room is a fact! Based on the story of the successful MadHouse, an even scarier room appears in Heraklion…
We are carried a few years back, in the beginning of the story, in order to realize how it all started! Its name could not be anything else but MadHouse 0 (the beginning).
15/06/2019#MadHouse 0 (The beginning)
Why are we in this psychiatric clinic? What we see, what we hear, what we feel, are they real, or are these all hallucinations due to the medicine that was given us? We have to cooperate so that we can leave this place… It is not possible to do experiments on little girls… Who is this Dr. Wilson, after all? Or, maybe, are we, too, his next experiments… Adrenalin hits red… when you “feel” hunted! You have to escape before it’s too late…
One of the largest in rooms, total space, as well as in duration, escape rooms in the whole of Crete, exclusively our own creation (Yiannis, Eleni, Marianthi, Antonis, Thanassis A., Spyros, Panagiotis, Iro, Thanassis K., Menia, Maria A.), with a subversive story, with the element of role playing being essential, with interactive riddles and tests, in a creepy atmosphere, facts and reports that connect directly to the first room MadHouse, as well as the “Easter-eggs” elements, with a major emphasis to psychological terror, all of these composing the ultimate live thriller!
15/06/2019#August 2019
August 2019, or else the month… of video clips! During August, two awesome professional video clips were shot in the second building of EscapeRooms.gr on Daidalou street, in the rooms “Holy Secret” & “MadHouse 0”.
Crisis Call – Zer0 premiere September 8 2019
Vaggelio Fasoulaki – VEGAN premiere January 24 2020
08/08/2019#October 2019
#October 31st 2019: A historic date for us, not only because of its connection to Halloween, but because of the opening of our first horror room MadHouse, in 2015 in Heraklion…
This time MadHouse goes north! Where else? … to LOCKED escape game in Thessaloniki. Dr. Wilson’s office and his “secrets”, after the hundreds of excellent reviews MadHouse received these years, travelled to the co-capital to become the first scary riddle-room of LOCKED, together with the atmospheric Spooky Room 479.
31/10/2019#November 2019
During all these years of our operation, maybe the percentage of success in escaping was not very big, but in marriage proposals the percentage reaches 100%! 10 proposals in total have concluded successfully:
3 in White Diamond, 3 in Holy Secret and 1 in MadHouse 0 (in EscapeRooms.gr in Heraklion) and
1 in Spooky Room 479, 1 in City of Witches-outdoor game and 1 in The Secret of the Alchemist (in LOCKED in Thessaloniki).
And, naturally, an amazing “next day” wedding shot (in the rooms Game Room, MadHouse and Mission: White Diamond) could not be missing..
11/11/2019#December 2019
For the second year EscapeRooms.gr “travel” to south of Crete…
This time with a different room for both young and old! In Ostria Resort and Spa, in one of the largest hotel units, in Ierapetra, the “magic room” Magic Cabin in the Woods is created! It’s a game which is formed according to the ages and the groups that the strange “magic” will attract… because nothing is easy when a Witch succeeds in trapping you…
In the Christmas village “Christmas in Ostria” the EscapeRooms.gr group (Yiannis, Eleni, Iro, Antonis) prepared a Christmas magic escape “story”… The Christmas room lasted 17 days (20/12 to 6/1) and hosted groups that visited the Ostria Hotel Resort and Spa Christmas interactive place!
20/12/2019#June 2020
After the first 3 months of the Lockdown, imposed in all of Greece, EscapeRooms.gr makes a dynamic come back, more refreshed than ever, with innovative ideas and, for the first time in Heraklion, with two new outdoor games!
The first one with comic elements: HangOver (based on the same name movie) and the second one with an educational character: Candia Archeological Challenge (based on true historic facts) that take place in the center of Heraklion.
15/06/2020#HangOver
The wedding day is here… As custom goes, the previous night, the groom with you (his childhood friends) go out and have fun until next morning! Alcohol flows abundantly and the party does not seem to end. Who would expect that we would wake up so dizzy in the middle of the street without the groom? In one hour and a half he is getting married and none of us remembers where he might be…
The game starts with the “signs” and the “accessories” of crazy last night that can be found on you at the moment you just woke up! Trying to remember what happened and where the groom might be, you follow the route to the center of Heraklion you took the previous night; the route that gradually comes to your memory, remembering exactly what you did the previous night.
The first outdoor game created in Heraklion has managed to offer laughter through the roles that you have to play, maybe also a dose of embarrassment, since you have to speak to people in particular shops, so that you arrive to the solution of the riddles and, consequently find the groom, after you remember which was the last time you saw him…
One more game that the group of EscapeRooms.gr (Giannis, Eleni, Thanassis A.) has designed with riddles and clues in several parts of the center of the city, together with an automated assistance system during the duration of the game.
15/06/2020#Candia: Archeological Challenge
Two pieces of an old map were found in the hands of our team. They contain some coded messages and we assume they have to do with an archaeological treasure of Crete. That’s why we addressed directly you – the experienced archaeologists – in order to find the rest of the pieces of the map, so you discover what is hiding…
But the news is not good; unfortunately we have not managed to save both pieces! One of them has been stolen… We think a gang of antiquity robbers is involved in this! Will you be able to gather all the pieces of the map in the center of Heraklion before the other group will?
The first game in Crete created as a “challenge edition” (against another team group) by the EscapeRooms.gr group (Giannis, Eleni, Antonis) with an educational approach, since all the historic elements of the game are based on true facts and since the particular route (of about 1,5 – 2 hours totally) includes the most well known historic monuments and worth sight seeing parts of Heraklion, combining play and knowledge for persons of any age!
01/07/2020