Escape Rooms & Team Building Activities | Arlington Convention & Visitors Service

In Arlington, Virginia, interactive games create thrill-seeking fun in specially designed rooms where attendees bond as a team – while also saving the galaxy. From traditional escape rooms like Escape Room Arlington to 5 Wits’ high-tech immersive experience with amusement-park style animatronics, Arlington is the place for your next team building adventure!

Groups employ logic, cooperation, strategy and problem solving in the adventure games, making them a popular choice for corporate team building and for breaking the ice. Choose from these cool concepts in Arlington:

5 Wits

At 5 Wits in Ballston Quarter, “it’s not an escape room, it’s an adventure,” said Operations Manager Dawn Charbonneau. Feeling like you have entered an elaborately decorated theme park, you will discover clues, play games and solve puzzles while traveling through physical environments in a live-action story with your team in the lead role. 5 Wits features three differently themed rooms:

Drago’s Castle is a medieval fantasy
Espionage is a spy story
Tomb is an Indiana Jones-like adventure

The adventures, which each take about 30 minutes, may include total darkness, optional crawling, loud noises, flashing lights, theatric smoke and special effects. The interactive entertainment games feature puzzles and challenges, but the ending of each storyline changes depending on group decisions during the adventure. A narrator provides clues.

“We build relationships here,” Charbonneau said. “It’s just fun, and everybody gets to participate in it. There’s something for everyone to solve and show their talent.”

5 Wits can accommodate groups as large as a few hundred people. The venue has four party rooms with tables and chairs for groups ranging from 25 to 70.

Escape Room Arlington

At Escape Room Arlington in the Columbia Pike neighborhood, four unique escape room experiences pack in “wow” and “aha” moments that lead to a valuable, shared experience of joy for meeting attendees, said Bobby Steele, general manager.

Escape Room Arlington

Guests are on their own to find clues that range from musical snippets to puzzles and pictures, while proceedings are observed in a control room in case assistance is needed. The rooms include “Secret in the Attic," which places visitors in Grandma's house, where the attic has tales of its own; “The Mind Trap," where guests are trapped in their own version of "Clue;" and "Supervillians," which lets you battle the denizens of darkness before it's too late.

Escape Room Arlington

After the problem solving, there’s plenty of space in the lobby to laugh and talk about the puzzle, take team photos and enjoy catering from neighborhood restaurant William Jeffrey’s Tavern.

Escape Room Arlington can accommodate groups of up to 50 people, with each game room holding up to 12 players.

Bond's Escape Room

Bond’s Escape Room

Bond’s Escape Room is located on The Crossing Clarendon's upper level and offers six game rooms. Business coaches with training in organizational psychology guide groups through the experience and provide after-action assessments, said owner Egor Bond.

Steve Chiama, business coach at Bond’s, said escape rooms help to surface “who are the leaders in the group, the real leaders, the people who stop and think and insert themselves in the success of the mission – and see who are the people who just go along for the ride.”

Chiama advises meeting groups to identify areas in which the team needs growth and to name goals before arriving. Meeting planners can encourage attendees to “Step up. Take a chance… and have fun. It’s a game,” Chiama said.

The escape rooms include a variety of themes ranging from “Saddlewood Saloon" and "Elven Forest" to “Sleepover Slaughterhouse.” Each rooms is uniquely and ornately decorated to showcase the theme with clues places strategically throughout. Teams can compete with each other for the quickest solves.

Bond’s will accommodate groups of up to 78 people, with about 50 people playing in the various game rooms simultaneously. There's also a meeting space where groups can gather to coordinate strategy or celebrate their successful escapes.

Immersive Gamebox

Take team building to a new level with Immersive Gamebox. Located in Ballston Quarter, this digital interactive escape room features projection mapping, touch screens, motion tracking and surround sound, all designed to help you enjoy a hyper-immersive gaming experience.

Immersive Gamebox offers a variety of 30 to 60-minute games for a minimum of two players and a maximum of six. Playing is as simple as entering the interactive digital room, donning a colorful motion-tracking visor, and waiting for instructions. Their games range in theme and difficulty, with everything from classic arcade-style games to collaborative adventures with more intricate storylines.

In "Alien Aptitude Test" it’s 1984, and aliens have taken over Britain. As part of their invasion, they're evaluating humans to see who's worth keeping around, therefore players have to participate in a variety of challenges and be graded by the extraterrestrials. Once the game concludes, Immersive Gamebox sends you home with a parting gift: a fun short video of your group celebrating your victory after completing the game!

For more information about private group bookings at Immersive Gamebox visit their website linked here.