Escape Manor - Hintonburg

SUCH a fun place to spend a unique night out with friends! Tucked right in the heart of Hintonburg, this spot has really cool vibes, as well as a bar (with snacks), board games and escape rooms. We got to BETA test their new Carnival escape room and it was such a good time 🤡 Loved getting a box of popcorn with us in the room, and we really enjoyed the puzzles within the games. Will definitely be back to play other games! Shoutout to Talia, who was an AWESOME host ☺️ We got to meet Angelica and Kay, who designed the rooms and hear a little bit about their process. SO COOL!

Amazing! Just amazing! Great staff! Great atmosphere! Worth the visit! Talia was an amazing host! Super polite and helpful! We got out in time! We got HOOKED!!! Can’t wait to try other rooms! 5 star! 💛💛💛💛💛 Syl

4 of us did the "Final Viewing". It was our first experience doing an escape room, and we had a lot of fun. The staff was great, and although we didn't figure things out well or get out, we asked for help and got some clues so we could move along. The only feedback would be for more cleaning to be done in the rooms (especially since we needed to lie down) and perhaps some sterilization of items handled by various gamers throughout the day.

Went with my family over the holidays, we had a great time! Our escape room was well thought-out and appropriately challenging, and the staff was cheerful and extremely helpful. We’re super excited to come back and attempt another room in the future!

Great atmosphere. If you're into board gaming, go a little early. The waiting room has tall tables with board games, puzzle games, and a bar and snacks. You're allowed beverages in the escape rooms. My first escape room in Ottawa (I'm from Vancouver, BC) There is no locker to put your stuff in. Possibly due to the number of oversized wet/snowy jackets expected? You bring it right into the room and use their coat rack. We had 5 adults with winter coats, so it did reduce visibility for a couple of clues. There's are also some dust bunnies brewing in some floor corners. The puzzles themselves were incredibly smooth and clever and well thought out. We had a great time! We did apothecary.

I had a lovely experience here with friends. We arrived a bit ahead of our a lot, so we appreciated the many card games we could play while we waited. Tons of seating options as well. The staff were very helpful and graciously helped us whenever we needed hints. Parking can be a bit tough to find, but there is free street parking on the weekends.

Nice waiting room with snacks, drinks and games. We did "Hooked", a pirate themed room. Nice puzzles, nothing illogical or really hard. I didn't give 5 stars because the room is worn out. Some puzzles didn't work on our first try even though we had the right solution, causing us to waste time and ask for clues we didn't need. It was still fun and we made it out in time. I will probably go back. They have some room that can be played in french, if you let them know when you reserve.

First time went in this escape manor and second time in my life to escape room. We enjoyed a lot and it was so much fun. I don’t remember which one we did but would definitely like to go again and try to escape in different room. Must go. The staff was nice and pace is great.

I've been here so many times and have done all of their rooms more than once. We still go here when they open new rooms. We love this location so much. Everyone is just so friendly. They're entertaining. The staff is attentive and helpful. We go there every year around mine and my fianaces birthday. We bring out of towers here. Newbies and experts. We have an annual tradition to come here with my fiancé's daughter to do a different room each christmas. I've had work events and team building exercises here with my team and had them evaluate us on our team cohesiveness and provided tools to help us work better together. Lastly, my favorite experience here is when I got engaged here in one of the room with all my friends. They let my fiance come early to get them to hide the ring and when he proposed they played his song for me over the speakers. This is my all time favorite place to go and I've made so many people addicted to escape rooms bringing them here. I wish they had loyalty points for frequent visitors. Lol!

A fun and challenging escape room, conveniently located in Hintonburg, where there are a number of cool restaurants and breweries to visit as well. We hung out at Tooth and Nail around the corner before we did our room (The Recruit). The room was well set up, with three different areas to work through, and hints were available if needed. There was only two of us, which made the number of tasks more difficult, but we still had fun. If I had other feedback to give, it's that there was too much "acting" at the beginning--I would rather not be called on to play a role in an escape room. I would also add there are many stairs up to this location. I was surprised how many places in Ottawa are inaccessible to many because of stairs.

Came with a party of 4 to do Hooked! Met Regan who was the absolute best! I will definitely be coming back! Wow!

My friend & I came to Escape Manor Hintonburg on a Sun 01 Sep 19 and did two rooms back to back: "The Tomb" and "Psycho". Booking a time for any of the rooms via the Escape Manor website was very easy. The street level entrance on Wellington immediately leads you upstairs into a well furnished, clean and beautiful lounge. The lounge includes a bar, a living room area with plenty of seating a various small puzzle games scattered about. There are two gender-neutral restrooms and nearby is a secondary lounge. There were two hostesses running the bar/reception and bringing groups in and out of the escape rooms. Both hostesses were fantastic! Both "The Tomb" and "Psycho" looked and feel very authentic. We were very impressed with the level of effort invested in building the rooms. Both rooms were allotted a par time of 45 minutes for completion. The puzzles were all "obvious" after the fact, they were unique & challenging. We never once felt any one particular puzzle mechanic was duplicated between "The Tomb" and "Psycho". Both rooms were very entertaining! Am very much looking forward to coming back again.

Escape manor is a great event for team building or even hanging out with friends for a challenging evening. I have tried 2 different ones now and both have been extremely challenging. The first one I tried was during a team building event and it was the Escape The Diefenbunker. The story line was great and it took place in a large area which added to the challenge. You are split up in smaller groups at the beginning and have to work for the overall task of stopping an attack. Unfortunately we did not escape, but came super close. The second one was Back To The Fossils which takes place at the Museum of Nature. This one was incredibly difficult and we were close as well, but probably needed another 5 mins to escape. I will definitely be trying more of these in the future

I've personally done at least 5 of Escape Manors rooms, and have enjoyed each experience. We have escaped 3 rooms, "The Extraction (The Bunker)", "Beau's Brewery", and "Psycho". When doing "The Gallery" our group had a few hardships, the room was dark and it made it hard to see some things without any supply of flashlights/lights, we told the people working there this and they apologized and we heard later that they had fixed it so the lights go on after a few minutes. They also mentioned to us that if a room is particularly dark we can ask for flash lights before going in so as to enjoy the experience. The employees have always been helpful and pleasant, I remember the first time going when we got out of "The Extraction/Bunker" the hostess got super excited when she watched us get out from the screening room and it really added to the energy and excitement of getting out, not saying that to expect that kind of energy for every escape because that was really the only time that happened with our group, but with that and them listening to our requests it just shows that they have good customer service. Escape Manor also has a cool promo that if you escape your room in the given time with no more then 1 hint they take your photo that they post on Facebook and you get a percentage off the merchandise, which is cool because then you can get a souvenir of your escape, when we all got sweaters on our first escape! Enjoy your escape!

Escape rooms are always pretty fun and this place is no exception! Despite having never successfully completed a room yet, my girlfriend likes to make this her birthday outing and it's always a great way to spend an evening. This is in a nice location in the city and the staff is quite accommodating and the building clean. Nothing negative to say here so if your looking to have some fun and test your brain then this is the place for you.

Third escape room experience and I have to say that I really had a great time. Upon arrival, we were greeted promptly by all the staff member. They were even willing to negotiate a better discount than the coupons that a friend had from a previous visit. Everyone just seems happy to work here! I liked the set up; our hostess give us a great introduction and was genuinely into her character. They also monitored us and popped in when we asked for a hint and were super stuck. The puzzles were quite clear, fairly linear, but at a level that were sufficiently challenging and would be hard if you had a small, inexperienced party. We were even tricked into believing a security feature was just a security feature ... Oops, probably wasted 10 minutes of our own time making silly assumptions! Great experience, very professional and highly recommended. Would love to check out the other location closer to downtown but Hintonberg means that you can just pop across the street and grab a beer at a reasonable price in a quiet chic neighborhood that isn't flooded with tourists.

Visited: November 2019 I've never had a negative experience at Escape Manor. This was my first experience, and it definitely set the bar high for future escape room visits. The Room: We tried out 'Psycho' and actually managed to complete it with seconds to spare! I would rate the difficulty as moderate-high (8/10), as the room starts off low-moderate and really ramps up the difficulty drastically in the last part of the experience. One thing that I really enjoyed about this room is that (as spoiler-free as possible) the room incorporates clues from outside the actual room. There is also a very clever puzzle involving water which we had a blast in solving. All in all, it was a great experience and we will (and have!) definitely visit again.

My friend and I did two rooms here, 'Psycho' and 'The Tomb'. Both were challenging but very well themed. This was a really enjoyable day.

I've played escape games across the globe and always think about how well designed these ones are. Some of the best rooms i've played.. they are both unique and complex enough to keep you engaged the entire time, and leave you wanting to play more. Can't say enough good things about the staff, atmosphere, complexity and components within Escape Manor and it's games.

Escape rooms are fun! But these ones are literally so hard. Maybe I'm dumb, I have no idea. I have done two of the rooms and it's always incredibly hard. The first one I did was fun and challenging and I came out with a smile on the face. The second one I did was straight up math and decoding stuff. It wasn't so fun. We literally got bored and wanted to leave because none of us were math people. It was def fun the first time and had a great atmosphere but the second time I just wanted to get donuts across the street. They also didn't have air conditioning at the time so it was HORRIBLY hot. I love these fun team activities but there is a line I draw between fun and just annoying and frustrating. Regardless, i would recommend it for a company outing or something but I think they should def label the rooms by difficulty! A plus is that you can totally get a drink after when you're done and all frustrated!

For our summer vacation this year (July/Aug), our family of three decided on a stay-cation and did a bunch of Escape Rooms in Ottawa. We completed 15 "escapes" in 10 days, and had a blast! While discussing our vacation with family/friends, I was asked to rank the rooms in terms of which were our favourites; this is difficulty as each "room" had different elements that were cool or unique. I'll review them chronologically and try my best not to give too many details that will spoil the fun of the puzzles/room. (The overall ranking was based on the gestalt of atmosphere, puzzle quality and fun factor. The lower the number the more we liked it. eg. Rank 1 out of 15, means this was our favourite. Rank 15 of 15, means this was our least favourite.) Escape Manor Hintonburg - The Tomb - (5 stars) This was the fifth escape room we did on vacation. This room was amazing! It was very open & the decor/set dressing was very realistic. It looked like it could have been off the movie set of the Raiders of the Lost Ark! The room was well lit. The puzzles were varied and of good quality. There was only one puzzle in the room that we could have used 1 more person, but we managed with just the three of us. This room would be suitable for families with children, young and old. I'd even consider taking out-of-town visitors to this one again just to soak in the atmosphere! It is definitely one of our favourite rooms in Ottawa. Our team of three managed to complete the room with 11 minutes to spare. Rank 1 out of 15. Escape Manor Hintonburg - The Gallery (5 stars) This was the sixth escape room we did on vacation. The room was large and had the feel of a real art gallery. It started off dark, but the lights were turned on within a few minutes. The last secret room was a bit dark as well, and I didn't quite get a good look at it as we were racing to complete the final challenges before time ran out. I would say that this would be a family friendly room and that kids as young as 7 or 8 could help out a bit. There was one puzzle we particularly enjoyed because it got everyone involved. Our team of three managed to complete the room with about 8.5 minutes to spare. Rank 3 out of 15. Escape Manor Hintonburg - Psycho (5 stars) This was the seventh escape room we did on vacation. I had originally ruled out doing this room based on its title, however, because The Tomb and the The Gallery set dressings were so amazing, we decided to try the other two rooms at the Hintonburg location on a second day. This room was very bright and wide open. I liked the balance of the physical and mental/problem-solving puzzles in the room. This room is family friendly, but I'm not sure if young kids would be entertained for 45 minutes by it. Our team of three managed to complete the room with about 8 minutes to spare. Rank 9 out of 15. (Aside: Thanks to Martin @ Hintonburg who recommended that we try this room. He was right, we did enjoy the challenge of the puzzles in this room!) Escape Manor Hintonburg - The Extraction (1 star) This was the eighth escape room we did on vacation. We were very disappointed with the quality of this room. It did not match the standards of the other rooms at this location. It was very dark. The flashlights provided were insufficient lighting especially since they dimmed during the experience as the batteries died. The mechanism for getting from one part of the room to the other room did not work well/smoothly. It was very claustrophobic and uncomfortable; it felt like an unpadded coffin. The mechanical puzzles were rather finicky, and the directional lock was sticky and didn't open despite having the correct combination entered three times! (The lock had to be pried open!) If this had been our first escape room attempted at Escape Manor, we probably wouldn't have done any others offered at this location. I would not recommend this room for families with young children, anyone who dislikes the dark or is claustrophobic. That having been said, the last puzzle was very cool, and we appreciated being allowed to complete it. There is always great satisfaction in finishing a puzzle and seeing how everything fits together. Our team of three did not escape the room within the 45 minute limit. Rank 15 out of 15.