Escape Astoria opened on Commercial Street in March.

Caitlin Sumner moved to Astoria four years ago, interested in opening a business but waiting to decide what gaps she could fill.

“I took my time and I realized there just wasn’t a lot for families to do, or date nights to do here in Astoria,” Sumner said, adding she noticed limited year-round, indoor entertainment options in the area.

Cue an escape room, an opportunity for summer family fun or a way to evade a rainy day with a good mystery to solve.

Sumner opened Escape Astoria on Commercial Street in March. “It’s a little something for everyone,” she said.

‘Immersive experience’

Escape rooms are immersive experiences that last for about an hour. By finding keys, solving riddles and puzzles, visitors unravel mysteries crafted by room designers. Sumner also noted the doors of her rooms are never locked and guests can leave if needed.

“It’s just to create that one-hour, immersive experience where you’re all working together for that end goal,” she said. “It has a whole overarching theme.”

Escape Astoria is still fine-tuning its age ranges, but Sumner said its puzzles might be best for children 10 and older.

Sumner designs all of the puzzles herself. She and her husband together build the props, decorations and other physical components that go into creating the puzzle rooms.

Escape Astoria’s mystery follows a woman who inherited a basement mansion from her great-aunt. The great-aunt was an avid explorer throughout the late 19th century into the early 20th century.

Through some of her travels, she found magical objects, giving her access to portals to other time periods and space.

“Once you open that door, you are back in a 1940s mansion,” she said. “So it’s very, very, immersive right from the get-go.”

The story takes advantage of the building’s historic space, the basement of a building that dates to 1923.

Mobile mysteries

Break Room Breakout and Sibling Shenanigans are two of Escape Astoria’s puzzle rooms, but Sumner hopes that number will soon grow to three or four.

She is also looking to expand into other suites in the building, giving escape room solvers a more expansive time.

She hopes to offer mobile mysteries, puzzles that can be brought to business team-building events, barbecues or other group gatherings.

Above all else, Sumner stresses that Escape Astoria was opened to be part of the community. “We did really want to create a place that families come, friends come, couples come, that would be great for businesses in the area as well,” she said.

And Escape Astoria isn’t the only one of its kind in the region.

Father south is the Cannon Beach Escape Room, located on Spruce street between bookstores and art galleries. Their two featured rooms, Escape from One-Eyed Jack and Escape from Camp Haystack, take cues from “The Goonies” and the local landscape.

At the Cannon Beach Escape Room, groups of two to 10 people are locked in puzzle rooms and given 60 minutes to untangle clues and puzzles to escape.

Coastal escape rooms

Open by appointment, book online

Escape Astoria

1154 Commercial St., Suite B

www.escapeastoria.com

Cannon Beach Escape Room

248 N. Spruce St., Cannon Beach

www.cannonbeachescaperoom.com