What is the Central Park outdoor escape game?
The Central Park outdoor escape game is an escape room taken out under the trees: a puzzle waits at each of the 10 landmarks on the route, and you play them on your smartphone. Set aside about 2 hours, of which 43 minutes are spent walking 3.5 km of park paths, and choose whichever day suits you.
Every puzzle is anchored to something you can stand in front of: the Egyptian obelisk behind the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the lookout terraces of Belvedere Castle, the Imagine mosaic at Strawberry Fields, the much-polished Balto statue and the tiled arcade below Bethesda Terrace. The puzzles are independent of each other, with no storyline linking them, and the park's paved loops keep the walking easy between them.
- Durationabout 2 hours
- Walkingabout 43 min · 3.5 km
- Stops10
- LanguagesEnglish, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Dutch
What you do on the escape game
Work it out
A puzzle waits at every landmark and is solved from what stands around you. Logic and a careful eye are enough, with nothing to look up.
Read the details
Answers sit in carvings, inscriptions, bronze figures and the layout of the terraces themselves.
Walk the park
Google Maps points you to the next landmark: 43 minutes of walking spread across 3.5 km.
Set your own pace
Nothing counts down against you. Take up to three levels of hints, stop on a bench by the Lake and carry on later or another day.
See the route and attractions →
How it works
- Book online Choose the number of players. Your booking reference arrives by email straight away.
- Get the app Download the World City Trail app from the App Store or Google Play and enter your booking reference.
- Play when you like Start whenever you are ready, walk at your own pace and pause any time. No guide, no fixed schedule.
Who it suits
Friends out for the day
Everybody has a theory at the next statue, and nobody has to know the park in advance.
Couples
A shared puzzle to argue over between the Lake and the Mall, with no clock pushing you along.
Team building
Teams of up to 5 play on their own phones, which makes it workable for colleagues on a free afternoon.
Good to know
- Bring a charged smartphone with mobile data; a power bank helps.
- Best started in daylight, so you can see the details the puzzles ask about.
- No entry tickets needed: everything happens outside the buildings. Going inside is optional and paid separately.
- Family friendly; children must be accompanied by an adult.
- Not suitable for wheelchair users and difficult with strollers.
- Teams of up to 5 work best; bigger groups split into several teams, one ticket per player.
- Every purchase helps support stray cats and dogs in Greece.
Puzzle route: from Cleopatra's Needle to Alice in Wonderland
10 stops · about 43 min walking · start: Cleopatra's Needle (The Obelisk) · finish: Alice in Wonderland
The first puzzle is set at Cleopatra's Needle behind the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the last at the Alice in Wonderland group by Conservatory Water. On the way you climb to Belvedere Castle, pass the Delacorte Theater and the Swedish Cottage Marionette Theatre, cross to Strawberry Fields, head south by the skaters' circle to the Christopher Columbus statue, then reach the Balto statue and Bethesda Terrace. Daylight is the better start, because every puzzle is solved outdoors. The app lets you reorder the landmarks, and no entry tickets come into it.
Open the route map ↗
1Cleopatra's Needle (The Obelisk)Start
This granite obelisk was carved in Egypt around 1450 BC for Pharaoh Thutmose III and stood at Heliopolis before the Romans moved it to Alexandria. Egypt gave it to the United States, and it was raised behind the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1881. Look for the bronze crabs at its corners, copies of Roman supports.
2Belvedere Castle
Calvert Vaux, co-designer of Central Park, created this small stone castle on Vista Rock as a lookout, completed in 1869 and never meant for defence. From its terraces you look over Turtle Pond and the Great Lawn, and since 1919 weather instruments here have recorded Central Park's official readings.
3Delacorte Theater
This open-air theatre beside Turtle Pond opened in 1962 as the home of Shakespeare in the Park, the free summer performances of the Public Theater started by Joseph Papp. Outside the entrance, bronze statues show Romeo and Juliet and characters from The Tempest.
4Swedish Cottage Marionette Theatre
This wooden schoolhouse was built in Sweden and shown at the 1876 Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia, then moved to Central Park the following year. Its carved timber and steep roof stand out among the park's stone buildings, and today it is home to a marionette theatre with puppet shows for children.
5Strawberry Fields and the Imagine Mosaic
Strawberry Fields is the memorial garden to John Lennon, who lived in the Dakota building across Central Park West and was killed outside it in 1980. Its black-and-white mosaic with the single word Imagine was a gift from the city of Naples, and the garden was dedicated in 1985.
6Skaters' Circle
In this paved circle between Sheep Meadow and the Mall, roller skaters have gathered for decades to dance to music. On warm weekends you may see them spinning and gliding in pairs and lines, a Central Park tradition that grew out of the roller disco era.
7Christopher Columbus Statue
At the southern end of the Mall stands a statue of Christopher Columbus by the Spanish sculptor Jerónimo Suñol, unveiled in 1894. Nearby, the elm-lined Literary Walk is guarded by statues of writers such as William Shakespeare, Robert Burns and Walter Scott.
8Balto Statue
This bronze by Frederick Roth honours Balto, the sled dog who led the final stretch of the 1925 relay that carried diphtheria medicine to Nome in Alaska. The statue was unveiled the same year with Balto himself present, and children climbing on it have polished his back and ears to a shine.
9Bethesda Terrace
Bethesda Terrace, designed by Calvert Vaux and Jacob Wrey Mould, links the Mall to the Lake with grand staircases and an arcade lined with Minton tiles. Its fountain is crowned by the Angel of the Waters by Emma Stebbins, unveiled in 1873 as the first public sculpture commissioned from a woman in New York City.
Read the full story →
10Alice in WonderlandFinish
This bronze by José de Creeft, unveiled in 1959 near Conservatory Water, shows Alice sitting on a giant mushroom with the Mad Hatter, the White Rabbit, the Cheshire Cat and the Dormouse. The publisher George Delacorte gave it in memory of his wife, and children are welcome to climb all over it.
Read the full story →
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Maurice Razniewski (verified owner) –
Anonymous (verified owner) –
Great !