Room Escape Artist

When we came home from Escape Immerse Explore: Montreal in 2023*, we couldn’t stop talking about the amazing rooms we had played. Our children were furious. They were so jealous, and moaned so dramatically every time we mentioned The Forgotten Cathedral that we finally decided to go back to Montreal with the kids, so they could experience these rooms.

However, we planned to do a lot of rooms in Montreal. Could our kids handle the load–especially because many of the Escaparium rooms are longer than an hour? It was time to figure out…

How far could we push our children?

Our kids are older now (17 and almost 13); we wouldn’t have tried this two years ago. That said, last year we went to City 13 in Milwaukee (RIP) and played Save the City, a four-hour experience combining all four of their rooms with a fifth overarching story. It was awesome, but we got horribly hangry in the middle and almost killed each other. Thankfully, a lunch break revived us. 

Learning from that experience helped us prepare for this one! We wound up doing 17 rooms in five days, and the only time tears were shed, it was because the trip was over.

Here’s some tips to help your family nerd out marathon-escape-style on your next vacation.

Test Limits Ahead of Time 

At the very least, find somewhere close to home and do two rooms back-to-back. This will give you some insight into your family’s stamina. Also figure out your kids’ biorhythms—for instance, a kid might struggle with a 10-minute break between rooms; thrive with a 45-minute break between rooms; and get squirrelly during a 4-hour break between rooms.

Knowing where the breaks need to be is critical to scheduling your marathon.

Ramp Up

Before your big trip, do some mini-marathons! If your kids can do two rooms in one day, can they handle three or four over two days? On your big trip, we advise against doing 6 rooms the first day. Start with one or two, which hopefully will leave your kids wanting more, which is the mindset you want heading into a long day!

Build in Other Kid-friendly Activities

If your vacation budget allows it, combine the usually adult-leaning escape rooms with another kid-leaning activity. Gurnee, Illinois, contains both the excellent 60 to Escape and also a Great Wolf Lodge, just saying.

Respect Bedtimes

This is the most important thing we learned! On day 2 of our recent Montreal marathon, we finished our third and final room of the day, and our 12-year-old literally jumped up and down begging to do one more. We didn’t.

That night, unbeknownst to us (he had his own room in our AirBnb), he stayed up way too late reading. The next day, he was toast after one room. Make sure everyone gets enough sleep!

Snacks are not Enough!

In David and Lisa’s previous marathon articles, they stress the importance of bringing snacks to keep energy up in between rooms. With kids, that might not be enough, especially if your schedule overlaps your usual mealtimes. Pack a lunch if you can. More substantial food will be a better reset for your kids than just a bag of chips.

Debrief

Your schedule should include some time for short family meetings to make sure everyone is having a good time. Siblings can get frustrated with each other, and kids are sensitive to issues of “fairness.” So, have some check-ins where praise can be given, grievances can be aired, and feedback can be offered (hopefully constructively). 

Focus on Fun!

Finally, remember that the point of this trip is to have fun experiences together! Try to coach your kids not to put too much emphasis on “beating” every room. It’s ok if you don’t quite make it!

Use this focus when you schedule, too. On day four of our trip, we scheduled four rooms total. After the first two rooms, our 12-year-old was exhausted. Then we had some downtime in the AirBnB, and he did NOT want to go out again. Our third room was not a barnburner, and he was on the edge of collapse. Thankfully, though, because he loves the show Stranger-Things, we had scheduled a Hawkins-focused room deliberately as the last room of the day. The second he saw the Christmas light alphabet on the wall of the Stranger Things-inspired room, he was back on board! And at the end of the night, he was happier than he’d been all day!

Destination: Escape Rooms

We mostly fell into marathoning with our kids because we would hear about a great set of rooms in a farther-away location. It made more sense to do most of the rooms a place had to offer in a day or two than traveling there over and over again. And once we started, we realized our kids could handle several rooms in a day. Now escape rooms are a cornerstone of our family vacation planning. Not every family is going to want their spring break dominated by escape rooms, but if your crew is into puzzling, consider giving family marathoning a try. 

Escape Room Marathoning Guides

• A Player’s Guide to Escape Room Marathons – This is Room Escape Artist’s original guide from 2017. It still holds up.
• Packing for an Escape Room Marathon – Kids or no kids, you’ll need the right gear.

*Editor’s Note: The REA team is recently back from running this event again in 2025. Here are the tour survey results and an updated Top Escape Rooms of Montreal for 2025.