Escape Rooms, Axe Throwing, and Unusual Things to Do in Exeter

Why the Best Friendships Are Forged Under Pressure

There is a particular kind of laughter that only happens when you are standing in a dimly lit room, staring at a padlock, and someone in your group says something so spectacularly wrong that the entire team loses thirty seconds to hysterics. It is not the polite laughter of a first coffee date. It is the unguarded, slightly panicked, deeply joyful laughter of people who are genuinely in something together.

Doing something together, at the same time and with a bit of effort, seems to bond people faster than quieter interactions do. It is one reason a single escape room can fast-track a friendship in ways that months of casual drinks cannot.

Exeter is quietly brilliant for this. Beyond the cathedral and the quayside, the city has five escape room venues, a 22-lane bowling alley, an indoor crazy golf course, axe throwing lanes, a trampoline park and laser tag in a Cold War bunker. We checked every venue below was trading in September 2026 against its own booking site and, where it serves food or drink, the Food Standards Agency register. This guide is the result — plus the social angle that makes each one worth trying if you want to turn acquaintances into actual friends.

What Is the Best Escape Room in Exeter?

Our pick is Prodigy Escapes for story and atmosphere, and Locked In A Room if your group wants to compete. Escape Hunt is the easiest to pair with drinks, and Houdini's at Tenpin is the one to choose if you also want to bowl. Red House Mysteries suits groups of up to seven who want a darker theme. All five run the standard sixty-minute format: you are "locked" in a themed room (not really — staff are watching throughout) and have an hour to solve puzzles, crack codes and get out.

Prodigy Escapes — best for story and atmosphere

Location: 26B Clifton Hill, EX1 2DJ

Prodigy is independently run, and it shows. Its rooms are built around proper stories rather than a pile of padlocks. The Wizards of Wyvern casts Exeter as the home of an ancient magical community whose stolen dragon egg you have to recover; The Lost Temple is a jungle treasure hunt. A third room, The Curse of Mount Clifton Manor, is listed on their site as arriving late 2026 — check before you book if that is the one you are after.

Our verdict: if your group has never done an escape room, start here. Prodigy says on its own site that you are never actually locked in and can step out whenever you like, and that if you have not finished after 60 minutes a host will guide you through the rest of the story so you still see the whole room. For nervous first-timers, that removes the two biggest worries: feeling trapped and leaving without finishing. The home-grown Exeter theme of Wizards of Wyvern is another reason to choose it over a chain. It is about a 10-minute walk from the bus station, has limited on-site parking, and publishes an accessibility page worth reading before a mixed group books.

Locked In A Room — best for competitive groups

Location: 83 Fore Street, EX4 3HR

Locked In A Room describes itself as Exeter's largest escape game, with four rooms that let up to 24 people play at the same time and up to four teams race each other. The current rooms are Parallax, where you break into an abandoned military bunker to find a kidnapped time-travelling professor; Timelock, where you search the same professor's study to recover his research; and Wallace & Gromit: A Grand Way Out, made with Aardman, in which you help Wallace remember the code to his workshop before the village science fete. Parallax and Timelock each run in two identical rooms, and all three are recommended for ages seven and up. Details and booking are on lockedinaroom.co.uk.

Our verdict: this is the only venue in Exeter where two teams can play the same room at the same time, and it has two rooms that work that way. That makes it the fairest choice for a group that wants a winner. Being on Fore Street also puts you minutes from dinner.

Escape Hunt Exeter — best for pairing with drinks

Location: Unit 24 & 28, Guildhall Shopping Centre, EX4 3HP (next door to Primark)

Escape Hunt shares its Guildhall address with Boom Battle Bar, which makes it the easiest escape room in the city to roll into a longer night. Its rooms are Blackbeard's Treasure, Alice in Puzzleland, The Last Vikings and The Fourth Samurai, and it also runs virtual reality games and outdoor city hunts played on your phone — Return to Wonderland, Vampire Hunters and Time Cops.

Our verdict: it is the only escape room in Exeter under the same roof as a games bar, and it has the widest range of formats (rooms, VR and outdoor hunts). Pick it when the escape room is the start of the evening rather than the whole of it.

Houdini's Escape Rooms at Tenpin — best for escape room plus bowling

Location: Tenpin, 3–4 Havenbanks Retail Park, Water Lane, EX2 8BY

Houdini's operates inside Tenpin on Haven Banks, with three rooms: Apocalypse: Shelter 23, Temple Raider and Room 13. Tenpin suggests teams of two to six.

Our verdict: the rooms are less distinctive than Prodigy's, but nowhere else in Exeter lets you finish an escape room and walk straight onto a bowling lane. Tenpin runs regular midweek deals, so check its site before you book.

Red House Mysteries — best for bigger teams and darker themes

Location: 4C King Street, off Fore Street

Red House Mysteries runs three games, all for two to seven players: The Queen of Diamonds Heist, a casino robbery; The Shadow Darkens, a 1940s private-detective mystery; and The Danziger Experiment, set in 1981 in an abandoned Cold War laboratory under East Berlin, where one team member starts separated from the others. Details and booking are on redhousemysteries.co.uk.

Our verdict: seven players per room makes it the easiest venue for a group of six or seven to book without splitting up, and the noir and Cold War settings suit adults better than family themes do. There is no on-site parking; the venue points you to Smythen Street or Mary Arches car parks.

Where Can You Go Bowling in Exeter?

Tenpin Exeter on Haven Banks is the city's bowling alley, with 22 lanes on the Water Lane side of the quayside. Under the same roof you will find karaoke rooms, a laser tag arena, the Houdini's escape rooms, interactive darts, pool, arcade games, soft play and a licensed bar serving food.

Our verdict: Tenpin is the most flexible venue in this guide for a mixed group. Bowling needs no skill, nobody is left out, and you can talk between frames — which is exactly why it suits people who do not know each other well yet. The walk along the canal basin to the Quayside afterwards is a good way to keep the evening going.

Where Is the Best Crazy Golf in Exeter?

The crazy golf in Exeter itself is Crazier Golf at Boom Battle Bar in the Guildhall — a nine-hole indoor course with obstacles and trick putts that takes about 45 minutes. Boom lists it as suitable from age 11, and the venue goes over-18s only after 8pm, so families need to book earlier in the day. Boom's own page notes the course is not wheelchair accessible, so call ahead if that matters for your group.

Where Can You Go Axe Throwing in Exeter?

Boom Battle Bar in the Guildhall runs Exeter's city-centre axe throwing lanes, with instructors who teach you the technique and run games while you throw. Axe throwing is 18+ at all times, hair must be tied back, and heels, sandals and open-toed shoes are not allowed. On Friday and Saturday nights, Boom sets a minimum group size for axe throwing sessions, so smaller groups should aim for a weeknight.

Beyond axes, Boom packs in augmented reality darts, shuffleboard, American pool, beer and prosecco pong, karaoke booths and the crazy golf course, with a full bar and street food.

Our verdict: the variety is what makes it work socially. A group can spend a whole evening moving between games, and the competition brings out a side of people that a quiet dinner never reaches.

Also worth knowing: for outdoor axe throwing, the Devon Activity Centre at Escot Park near Ottery St Mary runs it alongside paintball, archery and laser tag. It is a drive out of the city, so it works best as a daytime trip rather than part of an evening.

What Should a Group of Eight Book?

Eight is an awkward number for an escape room. Most rooms in Exeter suggest a maximum of six, and even Red House Mysteries stops at seven, so split rather than squeeze.

• Race each other: book two rooms at Locked In A Room and split into teams of four. Parallax and Timelock both run in two identical rooms, so it is a genuinely fair race, and you can come back for a rematch in the other one.
• Split and swap: book two Houdini's rooms at Tenpin, then meet on the lanes. Eight bowlers across two lanes is a comfortable fit.
• Stay in one place: book Escape Hunt for half the group and axe throwing or crazy golf at Boom for the other, then swap. Same address, one bar in the middle.

Whichever you choose, book ahead for Friday and Saturday nights, and put dinner on the end. Eight people who have just argued over a padlock have plenty to talk about.

High-Energy Adventures

iBounce Trampoline Park

Location: 33 Marsh Green Road West, Marsh Barton Trading Estate, EX2 8PN

iBounce is a warehouse of interconnected trampolines with a giant airbag, a foam pit, dodgeball, light chaser games and stunt zones. It remains on the Food Standards Agency register at this address, inspected in June 2026. It runs regular sessions as well as fitness classes and party packages — see i-bounce.co.uk for current times.

Our verdict: more exhausting than you expect, and one of the best ice-breakers in the city precisely because nobody looks cool doing it.

Laser Tag

Three good laser tag options in and around Exeter: Bunker LaserTag, on the edge of the city, has built its multi-level arena inside a genuine decommissioned Cold War nuclear bunker — no projectiles, no bruises, and suitable from age eight. Tenpin has its own arena on Haven Banks. And Domination Laser Tag at the Devon Activity Centre, Escot Park, near Ottery St Mary, is outdoor, with themed arenas including a crashed plane and a giant castle.

Laser tag works for groups because it forces communication without needing any skill. Nobody is an expert. Everyone is equally terrible at hiding behind a tree. Bunker LaserTag is the one to pick for the setting alone; Tenpin is the one to add to a bowling night.

Climbing: Another Way to Challenge Yourself Together

If you like the problem-solving side of escape rooms but want something physical, try climbing. Boulder Exe offers 940 square metres of climbing across two floors, plus a café and bar. The Quay Climbing Centre on the Quayside bills itself as the South West's largest indoor climbing centre and has a Clip 'n Climb arena that works brilliantly for groups. Both welcome beginners. Also worth knowing: Clip 'n Climb suits a mixed group better, because nobody needs to know how to climb. For more, see our guide to gyms and fitness classes that are great for meeting people.

The Social Science Behind Shared Challenges

In Cohen, Ejsmond-Frey, Knight and Dunbar's 2010 study at the University of Oxford, rowers who trained in sync had a higher pain threshold (a proxy for endorphin release) than when they trained alone. Tarr, Launay, Cohen and Dunbar (2016) found a similar effect for dancing in sync, which also made people feel closer to the group. A puzzle room or a bowling lane is not a rowing eight, but the principle is similar: doing something together at the same time, with some effort, seems to help people bond.

In practice, an hour of axe throwing or puzzle-solving can do more for a new friendship than several evenings of small talk. It gives you an instant shared history. If you have been wondering why saying yes to more things could change your year, this is a good place to start.

Planning Your Adventure: Practical Tips

Group size matters. Most escape rooms work best with four to six. Bowling, Boom and iBounce scale better for bigger groups.

Book ahead. Escape rooms fill up at weekends, and Boom's Friday and Saturday nights get busy. Midweek is quieter and usually where the deals are.

Mind the age rules. Axe throwing is 18+ at all times; Boom is 18+ after 8pm; Locked In A Room recommends 7+; Bunker LaserTag starts at 8.

Dress for it. Closed-toe shoes for axe throwing. Comfortable clothes for trampolining. Layers for outdoor laser tag.

Embrace the awkwardness. If you are with people you do not know well, lean in. You will learn more about someone in sixty minutes of escape room panic than in six months of polite coffee.

What to Do After the Adventure

Exeter is compact enough to combine an activity with dinner or drinks without effort. Escape Hunt and Boom Battle Bar are steps from some of the best cocktail bars in the city. Tenpin is a short walk from the Quayside pubs, and our guide to the best restaurants in Exeter has options for every budget.

If the competitive streak has bitten, a pub quiz in Exeter is the cheapest way to keep a team together week to week, and a board game café is the slower-paced cousin of the escape room. Two of you rather than eight? Crazy golf and bowling both make our list of date night ideas in Exeter. And if you want the same people every week, look at Exeter's social clubs.