What is the Chania outdoor escape game?
The Chania outdoor escape game is an escape room carried out into the open: the puzzles sit at 10 landmarks of the old town, and you work through them on your phone using logic and whatever is in front of you. Set aside roughly 2 hours, of which 41 minutes go on walking 3.2 km, and choose the day yourself.
Venetian walls, Ottoman domes and Orthodox churches stand within a few streets of each other here, which is what makes the format work: a puzzle at the Sabbionara Bastion, another at the Firkas Fortress above the harbour entrance, more at the Etz Hayyim Synagogue, the Trimartyri Cathedral and the Küçük Hasan Mosque. Each one is self-contained, with no storyline tying them together, and up to three levels of hints if a puzzle refuses to give way.
- Durationabout 2 hours
- Walkingabout 41 min · 3.2 km
- Stops10
- LanguagesEnglish, German, French, Italian, Dutch, Greek
What you do on the escape game
Solve
Every landmark holds one puzzle, cracked by reading the surroundings and reasoning. Nothing has to be known in advance.
Look closely
Answers hide in carvings, inscriptions, towers and harbour details rather than in a guidebook.
Walk
Google Maps leads you from one landmark to the next, about 41 minutes on foot across 3.2 km of mostly pedestrian lanes.
Set your own pace
Nothing counts down. Ask for a hint, stop for a frappé at the harbour and continue later or on 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
Groups of friends
Arguing over a puzzle in Splantzia beats trailing behind a guide, and nobody needs to know Chania first.
Couples
One screen, two heads, a harbour to walk along between puzzles and no clock pushing you on.
Colleagues
Teams of up to 5 each play on their own phone, so a company outing splits into several teams on the same route.
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 the Air Force Memorial to the Küçük Hasan Mosque
10 stops · about 41 min walking · start: Air Force Memorial · finish: Küçük Hasan Mosque
Puzzle one is set at the Air Force Memorial, the last at the Küçük Hasan Mosque on the harbour front. Along the way you reach the Sabbionara Bastion at the corner of the Venetian walls, turn into Splantzia for Agios Nikolaos Church, carry on past the Old Archaeological Museum, the Trimartyri Cathedral and the Etz Hayyim Synagogue, come out at Talos Square, then take the Firkas Fortress and the Museum of Ancient Shipbuilding in the vaulted Venetian shipyards. Daylight is the better choice, since all of it happens outdoors. Google Maps handles navigation, the app lets you reorder the stops, and no entry tickets are needed.
Open the route map ↗
1Air Force MemorialStart
This memorial honours the airmen of the Greek Air Force who lost their lives in service. Chania has a special link to the history of air warfare: in May 1941 the Battle of Crete began here with one of the largest airborne invasions in history, as German paratroopers landed around the city.
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2Sabbionara Bastion
The Sabbionara Bastion guards the north-eastern corner of the walls the Venetians built around Chania in the 16th century to defend it against the Ottomans. Its name comes from the sandy beach that once lay in front of it, and its thick, sloping walls were designed to withstand cannon fire.
3Agios Nikolaos Church
Agios Nikolaos on Splantzia Square began as the church of a Dominican monastery under the Venetians, became a mosque under the Ottomans and has been an Orthodox church since the early 20th century. It is one of the few churches anywhere with both a bell tower and a minaret.
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4Old Archaeological Museum
The Venetian church of St Francis, once part of a Franciscan monastery, is one of the largest Venetian churches in Chania. The Ottomans turned it into a mosque, and an Ottoman fountain still stands in its garden. For decades it housed the city's archaeological collection, which has since moved to a new museum.
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5Trimartyri Cathedral
Chania's Orthodox cathedral, dedicated to the Presentation of the Virgin Mary, was built in the mid-19th century on a square in the old town. Locals call it Trimartyri, the church of the Three Martyrs, and its bell tower rises above the shops and lanes around it.
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6Etz Hayyim Synagogue
Etz Hayyim stands in the former Jewish quarter and was originally a Venetian church, converted into a synagogue in the Ottoman period. In 1944 the Nazis deported Chania's Jewish community, who died when the ship carrying them, the Tanais, sank. The restored synagogue reopened in 1999 as a place of prayer and remembrance.
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7Talos Square
This open square on the western edge of the old town, close to the sea, is a meeting place for locals and a venue for open-air events. It is named after Talos, the bronze giant of Greek mythology who was said to circle Crete three times a day, hurling rocks at approaching ships.
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8Firkas Fortress
The Venetians built the Firkas fortress to guard the entrance to the harbour, across the water from the lighthouse. On 1 December 1913 the Greek flag was raised here to mark the union of Crete with Greece, one of the most important moments in the island's history.
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9Museum of Ancient Shipbuilding
Housed in one of the vaulted Venetian shipyards, the Neoria, on the harbour, this museum belongs to the Maritime Museum of Crete. Its centrepiece is Minoa, a full-size reconstruction of a Minoan ship built with ancient techniques, which sailed from Chania to Piraeus in 2004. It shows how the Minoans crossed the Aegean thousands of years ago.
10Küçük Hasan MosqueFinish
Also known as the Mosque of the Janissaries, this domed building on the harbour front was built soon after the Ottomans captured Chania in 1645 and is considered one of the oldest Ottoman buildings on Crete. Its large central dome is surrounded by smaller domes, and today it is used for exhibitions.
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Tolle spiel!