What is the Honolulu outdoor escape game?
The Honolulu outdoor escape game is an escape room taken out into the city: you play on your smartphone, and at each of the 10 stops a puzzle waits that you solve by looking carefully at the surroundings and reasoning it through. Allow about 2 hours, with 37 minutes on foot over 2.7 km, and start on a day that suits you.
The puzzles are independent, so no storyline links them, and up to three levels of hints are available if you get stuck. Honolulu lends itself to this format: the civic and royal sites of downtown sit within one walkable route, and looking at the outside of each building is part of the game, from the Gothic facade of the cathedral to the palm-shaped columns of the State Capitol.
- Durationabout 2 hours
- Walkingabout 37 min · 2.7 km
- Stops10
- LanguagesEnglish
What you do on the escape game
Solve
Work out the puzzle at every stop by observation and logic. No knowledge of Honolulu is needed beforehand.
Look around
The clues sit in the surroundings of each landmark, from the monuments themselves to the layout of the grounds.
Walk
Follow Google Maps from stop to stop: about 37 minutes of walking over roughly 2.7 km in total.
Take your time
There is no countdown. Take a hint when you need one, stop for a coffee and resume 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
Friends
Everyone in the group can weigh in on a puzzle, and nobody has to know the city beforehand.
Couples
A shared task that keeps you talking as you walk from one landmark to the next, with no clock running.
Team building
Teams of up to 5 play on their own phones, which keeps the game simple to organise for colleagues.
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 Saint Andrew's Cathedral to Aloha Tower
10 stops · about 37 min walking · start: Cathedral Church of Saint Andrew · finish: Aloha Tower
Your first puzzle is at the Cathedral Church of Saint Andrew and the last at Aloha Tower, with eight stops in between: Capitol Modern, the Hawaii State Capitol, ʻIolani Palace, Honolulu Hale (City Hall), Kawaiahaʻo Church, the King Kamehameha Statue, Aliʻiōlani Hale and the Aloha ʻOe hula dancer statue. Start in daylight if you can, since the game is played outdoors. Google Maps guides you between stops, you can reorder them in the app, and no entry tickets are needed.
Open the route map ↗
1Cathedral Church of Saint AndrewStart
The Cathedral Church of Saint Andrew is the seat of the Episcopal Diocese of Hawaii, begun under King Kamehameha IV and Queen Emma. Its cornerstone was laid in 1867 by Kamehameha V, and London architects designed the French Gothic building, which was shipped from England in prefabricated pieces and consecrated in 1902.
2Capitol Modern
Capitol Modern, the Hawaiʻi State Art Museum, is on the second floor of the Capitol District Building in downtown Honolulu. Dedicated in 1928 in Spanish Mission style, the building stands on the site of Hawaii's first hotel, which opened in 1872.
3Hawaii State Capitol
Completed in 1969, the State Capitol was designed by Belt, Lemmon and Lo with John Carl Warnecke and Associates. Its perimeter columns are shaped like royal palm trees, the two cone-shaped chambers recall volcanoes, and the reflecting pool around the building stands for the Pacific Ocean.
4ʻIolani Palace
King Kalākaua had ʻIolani Palace built, with its cornerstone laid in 1879 and the building completed in 1882. It is the only royal palace in the United States, and it served as the seat of government until the monarchy was overthrown in 1893.
5Honolulu Hale (City Hall)
Honolulu Hale, the city hall, was completed in 1928, and its inner courtyard, staircase and open ceiling were modelled on the Bargello in Florence. It is the seat of the city and county government of Honolulu.
6Kawaiahaʻo Church
Built of coral stone between 1836 and 1842, Kawaiahaʻo Church is popularly known as Hawaiʻi's Westminster Abbey. Kings of the Hawaiian Kingdom took their oaths of office there, and King Lunalilo is buried in a crypt near its front courtyard.
7King Kamehameha Statue
The statue of King Kamehameha I, who unified the Hawaiian Islands, was sculpted by Thomas Ridgeway Gould. It was erected in 1883 in front of Aliʻiōlani Hale.
Read the full story →
8Aliʻiōlani Hale
Aliʻiōlani Hale received its cornerstone in 1872, and from 1874 it housed the government offices, the legislature and the courts of the Kingdom of Hawaii. The Kamehameha statue stands in front of the building.
9Aloha ʻOe hula dancer statue
The bronze statue Aloha ʻOe shows a hula dancer and stands in front of Aloha Tower, near the entrance to the Aloha Tower Marketplace. It was commissioned in 1994 and made by Pegge Hopper of Honolulu and Leo Rijn of Los Angeles, and its name comes from the song by Queen Liliʻuokalani.
10Aloha TowerFinish
Completed in 1926, Aloha Tower stood 184 feet tall and was the island's tallest building for four decades. Its lighthouse served as a navigation landmark for ships, and its clock was one of the largest in the United States.
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