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The Hideaway

H
Jun 18
2 min read

Riddle Room (Canberra, Australia)

Time limit: 60 minutes

Age limit: None (age 14 and under requires adult)

Player limit: 3-7 (3-5 recommended)

Difficulty: 4/5

Date visited: June 2025

Straight after The Hotel, we headed straight into our fourth and final room of the day, The Hideaway. We had actually also wanted to book The Nightmare as well, but Riddle Room was severely short staffed that day (many workers were apparently "sick" during the long weekend break), and they were unable to accommodate our request.

The Hideaway revolves around a detective theme — a police officer investigating an illusive criminal has disappeared without a trace, and it is up to you to save her before it's too late.

The theming of the room was very solid. We started off in what looked like a back alley, and had to find a way into the eponymous hideaway where the secret info is stashed. The decor and vibe reminded me of Social Escape's Ransom, another fantastic room. While there's nothing particularly fancy about its appearance compared to other top-tier rooms, you can tell everything has been professionally made, with plenty of attention to detail.

What made The Hideaway stand out was its puzzles, which were highly diverse and required thinking outside the box more than your average escape room. It had your typical padlocks, which are always a welcome sight for me, as well as several tech-infused puzzles, audio clues, and tasks that required physical movement/exertion. A few of the puzzle ideas and concepts were things I had not encountered before. There were many fine details you had to pay attention to, sometimes even having to get down and real close, and it helped that the room was spotless and well-maintained.

I originally planned for The Hideaway to be our last room because it's considered Riddle Room's most difficult room. The reviews on Morty seemed to echo this sentiment. But for some reason — perhaps because of the way our brains are wired — we found it easier than The Mine and The Hotel, and breezed through in a little over 38 minutes, needing just one clue on the final puzzle because we didn't pay enough attention to what was right in front of us. I'd like to think we would've solved it without help, but the kids were getting hungry and we decided to finish early so we could go to dinner!

Escape time: 38 minutes and 11 seconds