As a recent escape game enthusiast from the Bay Area, imagine my surprised when I found out there's an escape room inside the Palace of Fine Arts?! Then imagine my surprise to hear Palace Games hosts 2 of the top 50 escape rooms in the world!! Say whattttt???! Yep, so we did The Edison Room, and The Attraction. The Attraction is their newest room that opened last September. First, let me say that Palace Games it is not cheap. Usually at other escape rooms you pay per player. Here, you pay for the whole room. The cost per room here is $410. If you had 4 players in your group it's about $100 per person. 6 players is about $70 per person. That said, it's also longer than a typical escape room. You have 100 mins to escape. So you're definitely paying a premium for this experience. And I have to say, it is very much so a unique experience. I don't want to spoil much, so I'll just say this: the level of tech involved in the rooms is absolutely amazing! There were puzzles with tech that I've never seen before. There was probably 2 locks the whole game. Everything else are triggers to get to the next step. The Edison room in particular is extremely cooperative. Your team's communication skills better be up there or you'll have a hard time. It's more physical than other rooms I've played. If you can pass 6th grade PE then ya got this. I will say two thing that I wasn't particularly fond of is repetitiveness of some of the puzzles. And there were several times which felt like the room was over or coulda ended at that point but only to find out there were more puzzles. I'm not saying there's too many puzzle, I'm just saying at the completion of certain puzzles there's a false sense of celebration. Again, I like the rooms are totally unexpected wonders. It's more of an experience than an escape room (especially true for The Attraction) It's expensive, but if you can round up enough people I say do it! It's definitely a place to remember! I'm coming back to do the Houdini and Rosevelt for sure. Just need to save up first.. hah read more

See all

If you have not done an escape room here, it is safe to say that you're missing out! They are elaborately designed and the themes are so fun and interesting! We had a group of 12 so we split into 2 groups, I was in the group for the Roosevelt and the other group did the Great Attraction I can't give away any clues but the games are very interactive! We had to crawl, climb up stairs and go down a slide at some point! The workers here were very nice and helpful! They assured us that we were safe and we could get out if needed. I would definitely recommend this place for a fun group event! We came here as a part of a bachelorette party read more

See all

Today, I and five friends did the new room, The Attraction. I've experienced (it's the correct word) all four of the Palace Games rooms now, and they are 100% worth experiencing. Of all the games I've done up and down the Bay Area, they have the best tech/mech/electric stuff. Parking: Normally, there is a lot of parking pretty close to the event door, which is this weird creepy side door near a dumpster. When the gate is closed, the neighborhood parking is free (although there was a warning about people smashing windows and stealing stuff, so be careful), or you could park a little further away and walk there. Bathroom: They have gendered bathrooms there, with many stalls. They also have a water fountain if you need some water. Staff: The staff are wonderful and lovely. Please plan to arrive early to save them some trouble. :) The games: If you've never done an escape room before, but have a lot of patience, I think The Attraction was actually a fairly good one for that. It's a long experience, but the puzzles were a bit easier. In my personal opinion it was a little too meme-y, but I understand that as a personal opinion. (And as a note to the creator, is there a way to recline or add pillows to make the neck situation less strenuous? We were all programmers who already have back issues haha.) The technology in this one was amazing and I can see why it took so long to create. I do think that one is much more of an "experience", though, and our gamemaster did warn us about that. It's worth going into that particular one knowing it's not as escape room-y as the other three games. The other three games are definitely much more like a normal escape room, where the puzzles are cryptic and plentiful and there's a lot of work that requires parallelization. The theming is also very fun and excellent, and the best part of these rooms is definitely the physicality of it- that things are delightful to touch and play with! They can be a little difficult (I think in order of difficulty is Houdini, Roosevelt, Edison), so it might help if you have at least one person who is a little more experienced in escape rooms. Or... do a couple of escape rooms and then come here to blow the rest out of the water! :D (One thing to be careful of: Because the rooms are so technologically complicated, some things in them are occasionally fiddly. If you have very strong reason to believe what you're doing is correct, be a little patient with it. :) ) ALSO. If you're not used to escape rooms, it's worth knowing that this is both pricier than average (although the tech is well worth the cost, imo) and longer than average-- the shortest game is at most 80 minutes. Plan accordingly! (Definitely use their bathroom!) read more

Palace Games - We did it! (We had masks on the whole time except the minute we took this picture.) - Escape Games Near Me - San Francisco, California

The Palace Games was such a fun and HIDDEN place to go to for Escape Rooms! It was a mission just to get to the location! The door is located OUTSIDE of Palace of Fine Arts, so don't be like us who walked inside the actual Palace of Fine Arts and walk on the outer side of it. Once inside, the lobby is super fun and I really love that there is HUGE theme in it. They really think about what they have in there. I loved the escape room we did, "The Attraction" it had a lot of components to it and was super interactive. It has a time limit of 2 hours to complete it. It's ranked harder but not the hardest. We cannot wait to come back and finish the other ones! Too bad I'm not living in SF or coming each weekend. I'd be here to finish the other 3-4 rooms! read more

Palace Games - Lobby - Escape Games Near Me - San Francisco, California

See all

My very first experience with Escape Rooms and this experience piqued my interest to visit more escape rooms. I hope i get to visit Palace Games again and experience the Roosevelt & Edison Rooms. read more

Amazing. I've done escape rooms all over the world, and every single one of the escape rooms at Palace Games is better than every escape room I've done elsewhere. So good! Also a great staff that keeps everything working, which is different from most escape rooms. read more

I've done 30+ escape rooms and Palace Games are the unqualified best. By a wide margin. The puzzles are clever but not unsolvable. The special effects are amazing. Just when you think you're done, something amazing happens and then there's more. The only barrier to doing more of these is the relatively high price. They are the best, and they charge accordingly! Even so, the games are worth every penny. Recommended without hesitation. read more

Located right by the Palace of Fine Arts, parking is plentiful. There's free parking right in front of the entrance. Our party of 6 made the mistake of going to the paid lot. The entrance is a little difficult to find as it's a single door that's closed and requires a phone call to be made. We did the Houdini themed room. The puzzles were challenging but very exciting, even as most of us were first time escape roomers. We were pretty close to finishing within the 80 minute time limit. The kind employee did offer some help once our 80 minute time limit was over so that we could at least finish the escape room. Overall, Palace Games is quite a fun experience. I had a good time there. read more

Just an incredible room, full of curiosity and mystery. The actual puzzles were very well put together and it was thrilling when your team would solve a very difficult problem. I'd highly recommend it for teambuilding. I would totally do it again :) thanks, Palace games read more

My first escape room was at palace games and it was very memorable! It was hard to find (in the back of palace of fine arts) and we were late to our reservation but the staff was understanding. All the workers were nice when it came to us asking for hints. We did the Edison room and the whole experience was so cool! My bf says this is one of the better escape rooms in the Bay since it's more high tech from his previous experiences. Definitely recommend as a bonding experience and something to do with a group of friends! We had a group of 9 and they had rooms big enough for us. read more

LOVEDDDD the experiemce here!! very detailed rooms and amazing themes to choose from. The staff was very nice and helpful as well. I will definitely be returning and recomending this place to my friends and family who also enjoy escape rooms! read more

Did the Edison room with my work team. Production was truly amazing and required a lot of team work. Very cool room, we'll certainly schedule our next team event here. read more

We heard great things about Palace Games newest escape room- The Attraction- so we literally planned a SF trip with the main purpose of playing this room. We are a group of 5 escape room enthusiasts with 100+ rooms under our belts and we were WOWed by The Attraction! This room is so unique and the puzzles are SO GOOD. We didn't need a single hint because we were able to reason and logic our way through the 2 hours worth of puzzles, which is such a good feeling! The game was intuitive and yet mind-blowing at the same time. So many new puzzles we've never seen before and so many times we laughed out loud! We all agreed this was one of our favorite rooms, we loved the ingenuity, the quality of the puzzles, the story and the set design. Palace Games can do no wrong. Play The Attraction! read more

Palace Games - Palace Games escape room - Escape Games Near Me - San Francisco, California

See all

My friends and I (group of 6) booked the Edison, and 4 of us (including me) had never done an escape room before. The Edison (100 minutes) was a great choice for our group with relatively limited escape room experience. We managed to escape with 1 minute 20 seconds to spare! Time zooms by when you are inside. And for this one, there were a LOT of puzzles--just when we thought we'd reached the end, there would be more! It made it so much more interesting though. There were many times in which good communication with the whole team was necessary. But also sometimes, we had smaller teams working on different puzzles at the same time, so I feel that if I did the room again, I would get a different experience. The details and technology of the Edison was also phenomenal. Apparently there are about 34,000 lights in this particular room! Overall we had an amazing time and really appreciated how well done the escape room was! Will definitely be back for another escape room experience. read more

Palace Games - Escape Games Near Me - San Francisco, California

We played The Attraction tonight and were completely blown away!!! The room was so beautifully & cleverly built--we appreciated every single detail. Our game master was so sweet & patient as well, it made our experience even more memorable!! Highly recommend Palace Games and their wonderful staff!! read more

The Edison room has an insane level of cool technology with a mix of good old puzzles, cryptography, secret doors and moving panels, and games. Very fun and impressive. They let the middle school kids finish even though it took an extra 8 min. Middle school kids can do it with a little extra time and a chaperone. But not elementary school kids. Major bonuses: the phones are consistently answered, booking is easy, cancellations are fair, parking is easy, waivers can be completed online before attendance, group photo provided at the end via email. read more

I need to give more than 5 stars. This is, BY FAR, the best escape room we have ever been to. The technology is amazing. There are so many things I want to say but I don't want to give anything away but I will say that you haven't experienced anything like this before. The clues and instructions are straightforward enough without being too easy. Like, you feel like you've solved a clue without feeling like it was a giveaway. This was the most expensive escape room that we have ever been but it was also the longest (100 minutes) and it seems these rooms can accommodate quite a few people so it's a better value if you max out on the people in the room. We were so thrilled with this place that we are going back again today! read more

Palace Games - Escape Games Near Me - San Francisco, California

My first escape room and I've been spoiled! We were a group of 10 in the Roosevelt escape room and it took cooperation from all of us (as well as hints every 15 minutes or so) to successfully escape, and just in time! The room was large and complex and extremely satisfying to work through. I'd love to come back to try their Edison room! read more

Palace Games - Entrance - Escape Games Near Me - San Francisco, California

This company has ruined all other escape room companies in the world!!! The rooms are well made and the themes/mysteries are innovative. Tough but solvable. Yes, it is expensive, but well worth it split between the max amount of people. Also, the time limit for each room are well over the usual hour. You will not regret paying for their amazing rooms! read more

The Edison Room was amazing super challenging and a great experience with a big group.

I've heard about this place for a while but with the steep price tag, you need a large group which never happens to me when I visit SanFran. But as luck would have it, I had a large group with me and I wasn't going to let this opportunity get away! So I booked the Edison Room for 8 of us! First, the building itself, the Palace of Fine Arts is gorgeous and Palace Games was smart to grab a corner of this beautiful landmark. The room itself starts out in "typical" fashion and progresses to get more complex as you go from room to room. But this isn't an ordinary escape room and the room "changes" as you progress through the experience. Its non-linear so there is something for everyone to do. I wasn't a fan of one of the puzzles (periodic table) that was made harder by our larger group (yes, you get penalized for having more players). But the final room, the final puzzle was among the best finishes I've ever experienced in an escape room. Everyone was cheering, screaming, sweating, running, and universally, everyone LOVED that final room! It quickly made us forget about any shortcomings the room may have had prior to that. The Edison Room ranks 21st out of the 425 rooms I've done to date. Highly Recommended! read more

GOAT escape room status Palace Games does it again with The Attraction The phase shift from hardware to software is category-redefining for this "Escape Journey." No one can walk into that experience and not leave with their jaw on the floor. I loved the Edison Room, Roosevelt Room, and Houdini Room (in that order), but The Attraction stands out as the most entertaining experience yet. Palace Games clearly put their brains to work during the pandemic and has raised the bar to the #1 best room out of over 80 I have done internationally Hats off to the creators and I give my highest recommendation to any groups of 4-8 people immersing themselves in this choose-your-pace adventure. read more

Palace Games - The Attraction - Escape Games Near Me - San Francisco, California

Went through the Attraction... one of the most stimulating, entertaining, technologically advanced escape room I've gone through (probably have done 10-15? Not sure)... out of all I've done, this rates in the top three at the top of my memory! I don't think it was the hardest I've done but definitely a ton of fun especially with team work of a bunch of friends (7 of us) Don't remember his name, but our host even gave us a behind the scenes look at how they operated the rooms, and we were very very impressed... I'm considering a change of career, it was so much fun hearing how they put it together from concept through construction!! Only drawback: Though it didn't take away too much from the active experience, just felt that the narrator was a little verbose, which caused it to drag a bit. And ending video spiel also was too wordy and dragged (basically a long epilogue to say "come back soon!") Warning for those with flashing light/motion sensitivities (like myself)... i wish I took a Tylenol and maybe even Meclizine beforehand... felt dizzy and had to sit down a couple times with eyes shut. Oh, and bring a water bottle, the room takes on average 2 hours (we did in 1:53!!) and it's kinda warm in there and there's quite a bit of activity, so you'll get thirsty But overall, definitely recommending this escape room!! read more

Palace Games is one of the most innovative escape companies I. The world. Each game that they make has a distinctive feel and their use of technology feels magical - especially the Edison Room. These games are expensive, but they are worth it for their quality and novelty. read more

The Attraction was the second room we tried at Palace Games and like the first, the Edison Room, it was a great challenge with lots of amazing technical effects. The puzzles were interesting and as a mixed group of young folks and elders, we each had areas of knowledge/interest that were tested. Themed around classical poetry, literature, Sci-fi, and video games, it kept us engaged for the whole time. I have mobility issues (walking/balance) and they went out of their way to accommodate me so I could enjoy all segments of the game and root for my team when the physical challenges were difficult for me. read more

First off, this venue is in the Palace of Fine Arts, which is an incredible site and tourist destination SF. It's just gorgeous. Palace Games is in the back, a little bit hard to find, but incredible location. We booked the Edison Room and private game room for my daughter's birthday party. The whole experience was outstanding. The escape room itself was super interesting and challenging. While the kids were in the escape room, the parents were in the game room watching them work via CCTV. It was super entertaining and fun for us to watch them work out the clues and work together. It was an awesome bonding experience for them, and super fun. A few of my daughter's friends told me that this was the best escape room that they've done. The staff was truly exceptional. They were so accommodating, easy to work with and nice. AND the game room! Fantastic room: nice decorations, a sink, microwave and ice machine, plenty of table space and seating. It was very comfortable. The party was a smash success. We will be back to try their other rooms, and a few other parents/ families also want to come back. Thank you Palace Games for an awesome, memorable experience! read more

Absolutely loved this game. One of the few escape rooms that has thought through multi player games. Can't say more. Don't want to ruin it. Don't miss this one. read more

We did the Houdini Room with 7 people and escaped with just under 10 minutes to spare. It covered many different fields but was mostly solvable with some general knowledge and logic. The puzzles were quite creative, and the premise was quite coherent. If there's one thing that could be better, I wish less of the time could be spent on finding pieces of the puzzle and more time on more challenging thinking. read more

Great place for an escape room experience. Edison and Houdini rooms are fantastic - did them several years ago and we had a blast. So definitely 5 stars. Recently did the newest The Attraction and it was disappointing. The story was all over the place - the initial story had nothing to do with the subsequent puzzles... not sure how all the puzzles helped to solve the objective. The puzzles were hit and miss - 1/2 were great and the other 1/2 had very poor game play. These games also seemed to be more individualistic and didn't rely on team work as much as the other escape rooms there. Anyways, go to Edison and Houdini, skip the Attraciton. read more

Fantastic game in Rosevelt Room. Definitely captures the WWI vibe and very complicated passage ways, clues and ending!!

We had a wonderful time solving The Attraction. We particularly enjoyed how unique the experience was: no time clock to race against, not a single padlock to open. The puzzles were very engaging and got all six of us involved in getting to the solution. We will are already planning to come back to try another room. read more

We competed with a party of 5 people in the Edison room. AMAZING. The theatrics and surprises were unlike any room we'd done before. We've done about 20 rooms across the country, but this is the best one yet! They adjust some of the puzzles based on the number of people in your party, so don't worry about not bringing a complete 8 person team. read more

A fun and enjoyable experience! My first time so I was a bit unsure but found it to be a great family/friend bonding time! Joaquim was a great host! read more

Very helpful and friendly staff. We booked the attraction. It was absolutely amazing. We are relatively experienced escape gamers and this room was definitely different and highly interactive. It had multiple rooms and kept us busy. Would come back for other rooms. read more

Writing this feels a bit redundant, given all of the overwhelmingly positive reviews that have already been posted, but suffice to say - Palace Games is really, really awesome. Even though I've (technically) done an escape "room" before, it was actually at AT&T/Oracle Park, so it was really more like an "escape stadium". Irregardless, my first experience wasn't even close to the real thing. So, given my rating, you can probably imagine how awesome of a job Palace Games did to make my first real escape room a fantastic one! Even if we couldn't get out in time... After finding the fairly nondescript entrance (it's on the right side of the building, around the corner from the main entry when the Exploratorium used to be here), we were greeted by one of the workers who helped us get set up in their "lobby". As tiny as the room was, it was kind of cool how it was adorned with a bunch of decorations to help get you in the mood. From there, because our team was too large to stick together, the twelve of us split in half - some of us ended up in the Houdini room, while the rest of my coworkers ended up in the Roosevelt room (Edison is the third room). Now, I obviously won't give away any specific details about the games or puzzles, but I will say this - the amount of thought and work that went into putting the entire room/experience together is mighty impressive. What's more, the production quality of everything is awesome. No dinky, cheap props or stuff haphazardly thrown together; everything is well thought out and ties together thematically. As far as the puzzles/games go, they were quite varied. Some were pretty straight forward (just gotta go through the process to unravel) while a couple definitely had us stumped. Thankfully, there's a host who keeps an eye on the game via cameras in the room, so you can always go to them for tips to get you going in the right direction again. In our case, we resisted going to him for help as much as we could, but there was one puzzle in particular that we may not have been able to solve without his help (according to my coworker, at least). Sadly, we weren't able to solve everything in the allotted amount of time (80 minutes?), but they were nice enough to let us keep going since we were the last group of the day. In all, it took us about 90 minutes to get out, but I blame part of that on this one thing not registering even though we did it correctly. Still, this was a TON of fun, despite losing a bet to the other team that we wouldn't need as much "extra" time as they would to get out. While I admittedly don't have much else to compare Palace Games to, I feel confident in saying that Palace Games is one of the best in the Bay Area, especially if you enjoy escape rooms as much as I do. The one thing I will say, though, is that the experience may not be as enjoyable if you are thrown into a group with strangers. However, that's true for any escape room, not just Palace Games; if you're here with a group of friends or coworkers, it only just adds to the fun! That is, assuming you have a set of coworkers as fun as mine. You know, in case any of them are reading this right now...ha! read more

Our small team of six tried out Palace Games for a team building activity day. None of us had ever tried an escape room before, so we weren't sure what to expect. There was plenty of parking on the back side of the palace where Palace Games is located. We were able to all park close to the entrance. The workers there were friendly and explained how it works. We played the Edison Escape room (we were told there are 3 types of escape rooms), and everyone had a great time. It's a little pricey, but it's definitely a team building activity that requires all to participate in order to escape the room. I would definitely recommend Palace Games. read more

Great experience in the Edison room with my son's DnD friends and parents. Kids at 12 were a bit overmatched but a fun and memorable experience. read more

A pretty solid 4-4.5, but I think we got really annoyed because the puzzles starting getting a bit repetitive in nature. Once you get the hang of how to do something, it's just a matter of racing against time! Parking: lots of parking spaces around the area, but still recommend carpooling since this is SF. Cost: you pay for the entire room, so highly recommend getting more people together to split the cost (and split the puzzles)! Service: staff here were really nice! The only thing was, we got stuck in a section because they had forgotten to lock one of the doors...tripped us up for a bit. Highly recommend asking for hints if you need it, since there are more layers of the escape room than you think! read more

I have done over 100 escape rooms across the country and the Edison Room ranks among the top of them all. We had 8 people in our group and typically I find that to be too many in an escape room but it worked out to be great for this room. All 8 people were needed, everyone participated and there was plenty to do for everyone. I loved the theming of this room, the puzzles were very unique, and most mechanisms worked very well although there was some signs of wear and tear with the technology. The only downside with this escape room company is the price. They charge far more than any other company. I want to do their other rooms but it will be a long time due to cost. read more

Palace Games - We finished with 2 minutes to spare! - Escape Games Near Me - San Francisco, California

This was a last minute adjustment for my daughter's 16th birthday. Original plans got canceled. One of her friends suggested the idea of an escape room experience. Daughter still wanted her day to be in the city so we found the Palace Games! Called immediately and Amy came to the rescue. Luckily we got the last booking... on to the city after all! Girls had a great experience and learned to work together! Definitely a plus with teenagers these days Thank you, Amy and Palace Games for a fun, unique afternoon. We will be back. read more