Page 70 - SLO Visitors Guide Spring 2024

Santa Margarita
New escape room opens in Santa Margarita
The Central Coast’s acclaimed escape room
Getting in is easy—but do you have what it takes to escape? Such is the challenge posed
by Escape!, the Central Coast’s newest and most inventive escape room experience at Margarita Adventures. An escape room is
a “locked” space in which guests work together to solve interac- tive puzzles within a specific time frame to “escape.”
Based in Santa Margarita in San Luis Obispo County, Mar- garita Adventures is renowned for its zipline tours, nature and adventure, and eBike tours. And right in the heart of it all is the escape adventure which is conve- niently located in the main tour building.
Margarita Adventures pro- prietor Karl Wittstrom
credits longtime
Santa Mar-
garita Ranch operations employee Frank Rodg-
ers with
conceiv-
ing,
creating
and build-
ing out the
Escape! room
experience with
instrumental help
from SLO CAPED—Cal
Poly Amusement Park Engineers and Designers.
“Frank is our very own Mr. Gadget,” Wittstrom said. “He has designed one of the most interac- tive escape rooms in California, leveraging computer science, robotics and analytics to create a one-of-a-kind experience.”
“The entire project was all built in-house, which is exciting for us, and we are developing more,” said Rodgers.
70 SPRING 2024
Margarita Adventures escape rooms—true get-away experiences.
Rita’s Relics: the first escape
The inau- gural escape room is titled
“Rita’s Relics,” and is described by creator Frank Rodgers
as “Indiana Jones meets Close Encounters.” The official
description is:
“Rita, our resident librarian,
has gone missing. As you step into her library in search of clues, the riddles will only multiply. You have one hour to find her and solve the mystery. From artifacts of antiquity to technologies from the future, you will use your hands, feet and, most of all, your mind to unlock the key to Rita’s location and become an escape room hero.”
More to come
Rita’s Relics is just the begin- ning. Escape! is set to unveil its next room in the spring of 2024. This new escape
room will be the
first episode in
what will ulti-
mately become a
cosmic trilogy of
experiences.
In the first episode, The
Renegade has
been selected as
the first starship in
the fleet to receive
an experimental
upgrade to its
interactive guid-
ance system. Your team of experts must board the Renegade, update the systems, and confirm they are fully operational.
Stay tuned for this first episode of Renegade. Can you complete the upgrades in time for the Renegade to embark on its next mission?
Rave reviews
So, what makes Escape at Mar- garita Adventures so unique? It’s a blend of classic es- cape room motifs combined with an array of interactive special effects and imaginative chal- lenges.
The room is already drawing rave reviews from
escape room veterans and new- comers alike. Here’s what they’re saying:
“The entire project was all built in- house, which is exciting for us, and we are developing more,”
– Frank Rodgers
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