Best Escape Rooms in Frederick County, MD

Seeking the perfect activity for a rainy day? It's a great chance to try one of Frederick’s escape rooms - attractions where you can enter a whole new dimension of fun. 

Escape rooms may sound daunting or even a bit scary, but these diversions are an opportunity to live out games and puzzles in real-time. Assemble a team of friends and family and dive into these timed challenges that take you to far-away lands or into fantasy mysteries without ever leaving the City of Frederick. 

Frederick is home to four distinct escape rooms, each offering different scenarios and challenges unique to the game designers who created them. In recent years, these businesses have catered to an ever-growing audience of escape room fans, families, friends, and even groups seeking professional development and team-building opportunities. 

Find out more Frederick's expertly crafted escape room experiences below. 

Surelocked In 

In the heart of Downtown Frederick, you’ll find Surelocked In.  Located in one of the city’s historic banking buildings, you’ll find rooms bringing you face-to-face with outlaws in an Old West saloon, investigating a dinosaur research laboratory, and immersing you in the middle of a ghost story. An hour in an escape room at Surelocked In pairs perfectly with a lunch or dinner at a downtown restaurant or cafe. 

Try these rooms at Surelocked In: 

• Tyrannosolveus Rex & Dinosolveus 

  • When something went wrong at the research facility, you were their first call. Your mission: investigate the site and make things right. Your reward: enough cash to shock a stegosaurus! Seems simple enough, even if you keep hearing something in the jungle...

• Wild Wild Quest

  • ​They shot the sheriff, but thankfully you're the deputy! Hiding in an isolated saloon after being ambushed by outlaws, you need to arm yourself if you want to make it out alive.  The bad guys have the place surrounded, so grab some guns and dupe the desperadoes - that's how the West is won!

• The Great Santascape

  • ​Twas the night before Christmas and the North Pole, Holiday joy was brimming inside every soul!
    When from Santa's room there arose such a clatter, Every elf sprang up to see what was the matter! "The List, it's missing!" Santa said with dismay, "And we simply must find it before Christmas Day!" "Find it - you must," Santa shouted, quite haughty, "Or the only List you'll be on will be 'Naughty!'

• The Witching Hour

  • Ghost stories always seem silly, until the lights go out. Everyone has heard whispers of the once great Maycroft family, especially the story of young Susan Maycroft. Executed for practicing witchcraft, they say Susie still haunts her ancestral home, seeking vengeance on those who wronged her. You laughed when you first heard that story, but you aren't laughing now... Don't be afraid! After all, stories are only stories, right?

Clue IQ 

Step over to Carroll Street and find deeply immersive escape room opportunities at Clue IQ. These rooms take you out of our world and into incredibly detailed environments from Santa Claus’s North Pole flight control center, to a World War II bunker, and a castle with King Arthur’s knights. An afternoon or evening of play at Clue IQ pairs perfectly with a craft beverage at nearby distilleries and breweries. 

Try these rooms at Clue IQ: 

• Operation Jingle Bells
  • ​You were overjoyed to win a private tour of Santa’s home and workshop, but your excitement was cut short when you discovered a Kringle crisis unfolding. During the annual Reindeer Games, Slappy, a mischievous elf, snuck into the North Pole Flight Command and wreaked havoc on the control room. This caused a catastrophic collapse of Christmas Magic across the globe. Do you have what it takes to assist Santa and his elves in repairing the systems and preparing the reindeer for flight before the Christmas Magic fades away? You only have 60 minutes to save the holiday season!
• Crane Manor
  • For decades, Ichabod Crane, a schoolhouse teacher from Sleepy Hollow, was beileved to have been a victim of the Headless Horseman. However, the Paranormal Response Task Force now thinks that Ichabod Crane survived his encounter with the Horseman. Worse, he found a way of controlling the Horseman, by the dark arts. And this knowledge has been passed on through his descendants. Now, they seem to have found the Horseman’s head, used it to summon him, and are controlling him to wreak havoc on the residents of Sleepy Hollow. Can you enter Crane Manor, and find the head, so the Horseman can be put to rest for good? You have 75 minutes.
• Blitzkrieg
  • Travel back to the era of World War II, for what may well be a mission that changes the course of the war. Allied forces’ intelligence has managed to pinpoint the location of a mysterious underground that is believed to hold a powerful artifact that may be critical to the war effort. You have to lead your special ops team to raid the bunker and recover the artifact. You have 60 minutes.
• Excalibur 
  • Go back in time to an era of magic and wizards, and knights and kings. King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table have spent their lives protecting Camelot. Now the time has come for a new champion to wear the crown. Can you lead your team of knights to overcome the challenges, claim King Arthur’s crown, and retrieve Excalibur from its seal? You have 60 minutes.

Escape This Frederick 

Head on out to East Street to find Escape This Frederick. These games will take you into prison breaks, put you at the center of a diamond heist, or set you against your friends in a competition to quickly solve a crime. With so many breweries and restaurants popping up on East Street, any number of dinners or drinks goes down well after solving one of the puzzles at Escape This. 

Try these rooms at Escape This Frederick: 

• The Carnival
  • ​Come one, come all, the carnival is back in town! It has brought the most fantastic contest you have ever seen. That’s right; we are talking about the golden ticket contest! Win the games at the carnival, solve the puzzles, and work together to find the golden ticket in the next 60 minutes to unlock the glorious prizes (recommended for families and novice players).
• Mob Boss
  • ​One of the largest diamonds in the world has gone missing. We know the mob did it, and we know they hid it somewhere in the mob boss’s office... You need to sneak into the mob boss’s office after their routine checkup, find that diamond and steal it back. Sounds simple right?
• Haunted 
  • ​Almost 100 years ago, there was a ghost of an evil witch tormenting the citizens of Frederick. After many failed attempts to capture the ghost, three powerful witches that practice white magic managed to capture the witch’s ghost. Her ghost was entrapped in an enchanted box undisturbed until some teenagers broke into her haunted home and accidentally let the ghost out. Your job as a ghost hunter is to find her ghost and capture her once again. The original banishing spell is hidden somewhere in her home. Your team will need to cast that spell before midnight.
• Cellblock 1
  • ​You’ve taken a tour of the Cell Block 1 experience. The unenthusiastic tour guide tells you about the history of the old cells. However, something tells me your tour guide is not a big fan of your group. He has locked you in the cells during your visit... You need to escape Cell Block 1! This escape room is very difficult when played with only 2 players.

4D Fun Center 

This facility is an all-in-one spot for all things fun and entertaining. 4D Fun Center contains an arcade, laser tag, bowling, and features a restaurant and sizable craft list. Among its attractions are three distinct escape rooms. 

Try these rooms at 4D Fun Center 

• Off the Radar
  • ​You and your fellow comrades are aboard a high tech submarine, The SS Escape, somewhere in The Bering Sea off the coast of Alaska. On the way to your top secret mission, equipment begins to fail and the captain has to make an emergency ascent to the surface. Moments later, you feel a thunderous crash and everyone instantly gets the same panicked feeling… iceberg! The cold is already setting in and oxygen is running low. You must find a way to repair the defrosters, make the hatches operational, and then you and your crew can go topside to use the few flares that you have aboard to signal the Cost Guard. You must hurry; you have only 60 minutes before all oxygen is completely depleted!​
• Zombie Research Lab
  • This isn’t your typical zombie outbreak. The Zombyte virus is infecting mechanically enhanced humans to create a horde of robo-zombie creatures. Your team of scientists is trapped in a lab with a simple goal: find a cure. All other research facilities are infected or unresponsive, so it’s up to you.
• Shafted
  • ​The once thriving Coalcot mining community has set desolate for over a century; an abandoned relic to a bygone era of grit, grime and tough as nails coal men... While conducting research, you find that the abandoned mine may hold the secret to a vast treasure. You and a group of friends decide to explore the old mine shaft in search of the riches. 

One of the beautiful things about Frederick’s escape rooms is that they are constantly adding new experiences. Even once you’ve solved them all, there’s always soon to be a new opportunity to solve the puzzle, answer the riddle, and beat the clock. 

Explore More Things to Do in Frederick County