Escape rooms, city by city

Five cities, walked and re-walked by our small team. Each guide follows the same shape so you can compare: an at-a-glance box with the typical per-person price, common durations, how far ahead to book and which transit line gets you there; then the neighbourhoods where the rooms cluster, what the local scene favours, how the calendar and the weather bend the bookings, how to choose, and where the money goes.

The price bands are pre-tax and in Canadian dollars, because that is how operators list them. Tax is the quiet variable: 13% HST in Ontario, about 15% in Québec, 5% in Alberta and 5% in British Columbia, where PST does not usually apply to admissions. A $40 room is therefore a $42 room in Calgary and a $46 room in Montréal, and the guides say so.

We cover the five metros where the scene is deep enough to generalize about. Halifax, Winnipeg, Edmonton, Québec City and Victoria each have a handful of good rooms and a guide in our notebook; they will follow as we get to them. If you run a room in one of those cities, please do not write to ask for coverage — see our editorial policy — but if you are a reader with a tip about a neighbourhood we have missed, we would like to hear it.