The School trips are, for many people, the finest memories of their school years. Whether we are talking about primary or secondary school, the class trip is one of the defining events in a student’s life, binding them to their own school and class.
That is why it matters so much to organise class trips somewhere that memorable, brilliant programmes are possible. Budapest counts as one of Hungary’s most popular destinations for school trips, which is hardly surprising. Our historic monuments, the wonderful museums, the Fisherman’s Bastion, Heroes’ Square and Buda Castle can all host a memorable excursion. Another argument for a trip to Budapest is that alongside the important academic, historical and cultural sites you can fit in plenty of other interesting activities — and that activity is, of course, an escape room. Időcsapda is the perfect place to add colour to the programme of a one-day or a multi-day class trip.
What makes the venue special?
Időcsapda is a great escape room: across our seven differently themed rooms even a class or group of 40–45 children can play at the same time. Splitting into teams of four to seven, they can test themselves and their classmates, and find out which team is the most inventive and cunning.
An escape room tests students’ logic, dexterity and problem-solving, among other things. It is also well suited to developing and testing social and communication skills. The games are played in small groups, and in every team one of the most important factors is cooperation — making sure information reaches all the team members. Without proper communication the game is less successful, because the team cannot work together towards the shared goal.
Teachers can join the game if they wish, or watch from outside how the individual teams are getting on. After the game there is also a chance to review what happened together and draw conclusions as a group.
Időcsapda’s spectacular rooms offer teams — students and, for that matter, adults — exciting and unusual settings. Across the various Magic World locations they can fight the basilisk in the Chamber of Secrets, help Sirius Black escape from Azkaban, or help Harry Potter at the Burrow. You can also prevent a nuclear disaster in Chernobyl, or try to escape from the Killer’s house, or find out what your chances would be of breaking out of a maximum-security prison. Beyond that you can uncover the Butcher’s secret, helping Budapest’s special investigators work out who the serial killer might be.
The right place at the right time
Another big advantage of Időcsapda is its very central downtown location at 17 Erzsébet körút. It is easy to reach on metro line 2 from Blaha Lujza tér, and the 4–6 tram stop is directly in front of the building. For those arriving by train, both Keleti and Nyugati stations are a 15-minute walk away.
Beyond the excellent rooms and the location, the way escape rooms develop logic fits neatly into the framework of an educational trip. Working in groups and solving logic, dexterity and association tasks, students develop their own and their team’s problem-solving skills. At the same time it doesn’t take long, yet playing together delivers an enormous experience. From check-in to departure, in roughly an hour and a half they can take part in a brilliant, exciting programme that makes a very welcome splash of colour in the trip. Game time averages 60–75 minutes, so there is still room for plenty of other interesting activities.
That time can be multiplied on request: by swapping rooms you can build a half-day or full-day programme. With several rounds, teams can also compete against each other and a champion can be crowned at the end.
