What’s in Israel?

Israel is much more than what shown in the media. In fact, it is one of the most surprising and fascinating countries for any traveler, and that is why it’s on the rise as a tourist destination. The day-and-night alive Tel-Aviv, the impressive Jerusalem that leaves no one indifferent, the exclusive sensation of taking a bath in the Dead Sea, beautiful beaches giving access to worldwide recognized scuba-diving destinations, picture-postcard desert landscapes, mountainous panoramas, high quality cuisine, mix of cultures and three big religions, great contrasts, Roman ruins and history, and everything seasoned with the strongest point of Israel: a very kind and well educated population. Ah, and if this were not enough, it has one of the best Cuban salsa scenes in the world. Everything in a less than 22.000 Km2 country (barely 5% of the size of Spain), which makes it very manageable regarding distances.

Great, an excellent tourist destination, but… what about escape rooms?

Well, Israel has more than 700 escape rooms. In a 9 million population country… which places it in the first position in terms of rooms per capita (by far!). Tel-Aviv and surroundings concentrate more than 200 rooms.

Israel is a country with an escape room culture. Most of Tel-Aviv inhabitants know what an escape room is and many have played at least once. It is common to come across escape room advertisements in the streets or train platforms. Not only in the capital, also in other cities.

The scene is wide, growing and competitive. Therefore, it is not surprising that, in events related to escape rooms in other countries, a frequent prize is a trip to Tel-Aviv. Comparatively, the standard is not as high as in Barcelona, but with no doubt Israel offers high quality escape rooms: detailed decorations, good stories and integrated puzzles. Some of the games are very immersive.

There is no problem to play in English, games are prepared for that and people in Israel have a very good level of English. Some escape rooms have not English website, but you can easily translate it with Google Chrome (right click on any part of the webpage and “Translate to English”). It is very common to admit up to 8 players. The adventure theme is well developed: linear games, elaborated decorations, many chambers and not very difficult puzzles. Even so, there are enough games of every type and difficulty. Unfortunately, direct-to-game intros are still not well established.

There exist websites to search for escape rooms by city or area, displaying availability and users’ rating, like escaper.co.il (the most updated and recommendable), room.run, escaperoom.co.il or bookescaperoom.co.il. They show the available sessions in real time and allow to search by availability, very useful for last-minute sessions. Regarding ratings, as it happens with Tripadvisor in Spain, they are not reliable. Then, where to find reliable opinions? Probably the best place is the Room Escape Israel Facebook group, which concentrates most of escapers activity (recommendations, team mates searching, etc.).

Here you have a list of top rooms you should consider if you are in Israel and you are an escaper:

  • KGB (Escape Game). With one of the most original riddles we’ve ever seen.
  • Cube (The Maze). Based on Cube 2: Hypercube, the second movie of the Cube saga.
  • Camp 23 (Brain It). A political prisoners concentration camp in Korea.
  • Grease (Amazon Escape). A great atmosphere room with no difficult puzzles.
  • The Intervention (Escape Center). We can’t tell much more, only that you thought it was going to be a quiet evening…
  • Avatar (Secret Area Escape Room). Based on the movie.

In summary…

Israel is a surprising and fascinating country in every aspect. And it stands at the forefront of the escape room world scene. The combination of a complete touristic offer and a developed escape room culture makes Israel a very, very recommendable destination!