- You can track your escape room games like stamps in a passport, across cities and countries.
- A simple system with clear categories makes your “escape room passport” useful, not just cute.
- Digital tracking, physical booklets, and hybrid setups all work, if you keep them consistent.
- Good tracking turns random games into a story you can learn from, share, and plan around.
If you love escape rooms and travel, an “escape room passport” is just a structured way to track where you have played, what you played, who you played with, and what you thought about it. That is all. It can be a notebook, an app, a spreadsheet, or a custom-designed booklet, as long as you log the same core data every time. Once you do that, you can see patterns in your play, spot gaps on the map, remember rooms more clearly, and plan your next trips around better games instead of random picks.
What is an escape room passport, really?
Let me be very direct. An escape room passport is not magic. It is not some secret industry tool. It is basically a logbook with a travel twist.
The “passport” idea just adds structure and fun to what you already do: play, remember, talk about, and compare rooms.
Think of it as two things combined:
- A record of every game you have played.
- A travel-style overview of where in the world you have played.
That is it. But when you treat it like a passport, a few nice habits follow:
- You care about location and dates, not just the room name.
- You collect “stamps” in new cities and countries.
- You track your journey as a player, not just your win rate.
And, at least in my experience, this mindset changes how you pick games and how you talk about them with friends. It feels more like a global hobby, not just a random weekend activity.
Why tracking your escape rooms globally is worth the effort
I know what you might be thinking: “Do I really need to track this much? Is this not overkill?” Sometimes it is. If you play one room a year, you probably do not need a system.
But if you are reading a post like this, you are probably not that casual.
1. Your memory is worse than you think
After 10 rooms, you can recall most of them. After 30, it starts to blur. After 100, you remember highlights, but not detail.
And when you travel, it gets even fuzzier. Was that horror room in Prague or Budapest? Which room in Toronto had the crazy rotating wall? Who was on your team that day in Madrid?
Without a record, great rooms fade into “that one game we played somewhere in Europe” and that is a shame for both you and the creators.
A passport fixes that. You do not need pages of text, just enough to trigger the memory:
- Venue and city
- Room name and theme
- Date and teammates
- One or two stand-out moments
Months later, that is usually enough to bring the whole game back to life in your mind.
2. It helps you pick better games when you travel
When you track your games, you start to see what you like and what you regret.
For example, I once did a 6-room weekend in a new country. No tracking, no plan. We just booked whatever was near the hotel. Half the games were fine, one was great, and two were so weak that we left annoyed. If I had tracked style, difficulty, and ratings from earlier trips, I would have known I tend to enjoy more story-driven rooms and avoid pure lockfests.
Your passport can store those patterns. Then, next time you go to a city with 70 rooms, you know what to look for, and which types of games to skip.
3. It turns your hobby into a story
Humans like progress. That is one reason fitness trackers work. You see streaks, badges, milestones.
An escape room passport offers that same feeling:
- Your 10th room
- Your first room outside your home country
- Your first game in a language that is not your native language
- Your first game as a team of two
- Your first non-win
These small markers make the hobby more than “we play sometimes.” It becomes a journey. And you can flip back and watch your tastes shift over the years.
4. It supports the global escape room community
I am not going to pretend that your private passport will change the industry, but tracking your games properly often leads to better feedback for owners.
When you log:
- What you liked
- What you did not like
- How staff handled clues
- How puzzles felt (fair, broken, random, clever)
you remember more detail when you leave a review or chat with the owner. That creates more useful feedback, which helps other players choose, and helps venues improve.
Good tracking improves your memory, and better memory leads to better conversations, reviews, and recommendations.
Core elements of a global escape room passport
You do not need a complex template. In fact, complex systems tend to break after a few weeks.
Here is a simple structure that holds up as you grow from 5 rooms to 500.
Basic identity of the game
- Country
- City
- Venue name
- Room name
- Theme or genre (heist, horror, fantasy, sci-fi, detective, kids, etc.)
- Date played
This is the “stamp” part. It is the travel view: where and when.
Team and language
- Teammates (just first names are enough)
- Team size
- Language of the room (English, local language, bilingual, etc.)
- Private or public booking
You will be surprised how often language and team size affect your experience. Tracking them creates context.
Game stats
Keep this light, or it becomes a chore.
- Did you escape? Yes / No
- Time left or “out-of-time” marker
- Number of hints
- Difficulty rating (your own view, maybe 1 to 5)
Do not obsess over accuracy. You do not need the exact second on the clock. A rough sense is enough.
Quality scores that actually help
Here is where many people overcomplicate things with 10+ categories. I think that is not needed.
Try 4 simple ratings, on a 1 to 5 scale:
- Set and atmosphere
- Puzzles and logic
- Story and flow
- Staff and hosting
These cover the big parts of experience in most rooms worldwide.
Short notes and standout moments
This is the heart of the passport. Two or three lines can store a lot of value:
- What was most memorable?
- What frustrated you?
- Who shined on a key puzzle?
- Any cultural or travel detail that ties into the room?
For example:
“Played with Emma and Luca. Tiny venue on the 4th floor, no elevator. Start was slow but mid-game puzzle with the old radio was clever. Host was shy but kind. Final lock felt random, but we escaped with 3 minutes left.”
That is more useful than a long, polished essay you never have time to write.
Digital vs physical: what kind of passport should you use?
This is where people sometimes go in circles. Do you need an app? A printed booklet? A spreadsheet? My view is simple: use the format you will actually maintain.
Comparison of escape room passport formats
| Format | Pros | Cons | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Physical notebook / booklet |
|
|
Travelers who like writing by hand and treat rooms as memories, not data |
| Spreadsheet (Google Sheets, Excel) |
|
|
Data-minded players, bloggers, or anyone who plays lots of rooms across many locations |
| Note app (Notion, Evernote, Apple Notes, etc.) |
|
|
Players who like journaling, photos, and richer stories per room |
| Dedicated tracking apps / websites |
|
|
Enthusiasts who want convenience and social features and do not mind some limits |
| Hybrid (physical + digital) |
|
|
Serious fans who enjoy the hobby enough to track twice, with different focus |
How to pick your format without overthinking it
Ask yourself three blunt questions:
- Where do you already keep most of your personal notes?
- Will you have internet access while traveling?
- Do you care more about data or about “feel”?
If you keep everything in Google Drive, start with a sheet. If your bag always has a small notebook, use that. If you want badges and maps, look at existing tracking tools and pick one that supports the regions you visit.
The best passport is not the most advanced one, it is the one you still use after your fifth trip abroad.
Designing your own physical escape room passport
Many players like the feel of a real passport-style booklet. It sits between a simple notebook and a custom printed journal.
Size and structure
You want something light and small enough to slip into a pocket or small bag:
- A6 or pocket-sized notebook
- Soft cover, so it bends in luggage
- Numbered pages to help with indexing
You can buy a blank notebook and adapt it, or design your own template and print it as a small batch on a print-on-demand site.
Suggested layout per room
You do not need complex graphic design. A simple two-page spread per room works well:
- Page 1: Structured fields (country, city, venue, date, team, language, stats, ratings)
- Page 2: Free space for notes, sketches, or small printed photos
You can pre-print boxes or draw them yourself for the first few entries and see what you actually use. Remove fields that stay empty. Add fields that you wish you had.
Using stamps and stickers without going overboard
Some players like actual stamps, stickers, or washi tape to mark countries or special achievements. It is fun, but it can also become a chore.
- One small sticker per country on the corner of each page.
- Star icon drawn next to rooms you would recommend to others.
- Different colored dot for “played twice” or “revisited after a redesign.”
If you need to pack an art kit, you went too far. Keep it simple enough that you can update it in a cafe 10 minutes after your game.
Building a digital escape room passport that scales
If you prefer digital tracking, a simple sheet can carry you a long way. You do not need a complex database at first.
Core columns to include
Here is a lean column setup that covers global play nicely:
- Entry ID (just a running number)
- Date
- Country
- City
- Venue name
- Room name
- Theme / genre
- Language of play
- Team size
- Teammates (string field, just names separated by commas)
- Escape result (Yes / No)
- Time left (minutes)
- Hints used
- Set rating (1 to 5)
- Puzzle rating (1 to 5)
- Story rating (1 to 5)
- Staff rating (1 to 5)
- Overall rating (1 to 10)
- Replayable? (Yes / No / N/A)
- Short notes
You can always add more later, like “booking type” (private/public), “price,” or “reservation platform,” but start lean.
How to add a world map view without custom tools
You do not need coding skills to see your play history on a map.
Basic path in a Google setup could be:
- Add latitude and longitude columns for cities as you go (you can find them quickly with a search).
- Use a map plugin or connect the sheet to a simple mapping tool that reads the coordinates.
- Color points by number of rooms played in each city.
It takes a bit of setup, but once the structure is there, you just add one new row per room and the map updates with your global “stamps.”
What to track when you travel for escape rooms
Tracking locally is one thing; tracking across borders needs a bit more detail if you want the passport to reflect your real journey.
Travel context that matters
The same room can feel very different depending on the context around it. You might want to log:
- Trip type: Work trip, holiday, dedicated escape room trip, family visit
- Time of day: Morning, afternoon, late night
- Sleep level: Fresh, tired after travel, jet-lagged
It may seem overkill now, but after a while, you will see patterns. Maybe you always struggle in late-night slots after long flights. Or maybe your best games happen on the first day in a new city, before tourist fatigue hits.
Language and cultural details
Language is a big deal in escape rooms, especially across countries.
Some rooms offer full English support, with translated clues and English-speaking game masters. Others have minimal translation, and some have none at all.
In your passport, note things like:
- Room language vs your team language
- How language affected puzzles (text-heavy vs symbol-based)
- Cultural references that made things harder or funnier
For example, a word-based puzzle that uses local idioms might be tricky if you are not from there. If you track these details, you can decide more clearly whether to book text-heavy rooms in languages where you are not fully comfortable.
Legal and safety context across countries
I will keep this brief. Different countries have different safety norms, building codes, and cultural comfort levels.
In your passport, you might want to track:
- Emergency exits and how staff explained them
- Physical intensity (crawling, climbing, darkness)
- Level of fear in horror rooms (mild tension vs live actors in your face)
Over time, this helps you decide what you are comfortable booking in new regions, especially if you travel with kids or mixed comfort levels.
Examples of useful global passport entries
You asked for better examples than the usual “we did a prison break room in X city.” Let us walk through three sample entries for different styles of travel and play.
Example 1: Business trip bonus room
You are in Singapore for a conference. You sneak out one evening for a game near your hotel.
Your entry could look something like this:
- Country: Singapore
- City: Singapore
- Venue: Quantum Keys
- Room: Skyline Heist
- Theme: Heist / modern city
- Date: 2025-03-12
- Team: You + 3 colleagues (Mark, Aisha, Daniel)
- Language: English
- Escape: Yes, 4 minutes left
- Hints: 2
- Set rating: 4/5
- Puzzle rating: 3/5
- Story rating: 3/5
- Staff rating: 4/5
- Overall: 7/10
- Notes: Short walk from the conference center, very polished lobby. Start felt like a tutorial, but mid-game puzzle with city skyline projections was fresh. One puzzle depended on knowing local mall names, which slowed the team down. Great way to bond with colleagues who had never played a room before.
That brief set of notes helps you remember the context and lets you advise other business travelers later.
Example 2: Dedicated escape room weekend abroad
You visit Athens purely for escape rooms, with a group of experienced players.
- Country: Greece
- City: Athens
- Venue: Mythos Rooms
- Room: The Oracle’s Prophecy
- Theme: Mythology / adventure
- Date: 2025-09-28
- Team: 5 regular teammates
- Language: English with Greek flavor
- Escape: Yes, 9 minutes left
- Hints: 1
- Set rating: 5/5
- Puzzle rating: 4/5
- Story rating: 5/5
- Staff rating: 5/5
- Overall: 9/10
- Notes: One of the most immersive intros so far, with in-character host. Physical transitions between rooms felt like stepping through temple chambers. Language did not block any puzzles. Clue system was diegetic: the “oracle” spoke from a stone mask, which was very thematic. Would strongly recommend to story-focused teams, maybe not ideal for first-timers who expect more obvious locks.
This type of entry helps you remember high-end, travel-worthy rooms and compare them across countries.
Example 3: Family vacation room with kids
You spend a summer holiday on the Spanish coast and squeeze in a family-friendly game.
- Country: Spain
- City: Valencia
- Venue: PlayPort
- Room: The Toymaker’s Workshop
- Theme: Whimsical / family
- Date: 2024-08-15
- Team: You, partner, kids (ages 8 and 11)
- Language: English-friendly, but host explained some steps in Spanish and then repeated in English
- Escape: Yes, with 12 minutes left
- Hints: 3 (all requested by kids)
- Set rating: 4/5
- Puzzle rating: 3/5
- Story rating: 4/5
- Staff rating: 5/5 (great with kids)
- Overall: 7/10 as an adult, 9/10 from kids
- Notes: Puzzles were on the easy side, but tactile and colorful. Staff let the kids trigger most reveals. Good intro to escape rooms for families, but seasoned players should treat it as a relaxed, kid-led session, not a challenge. Bonus: air conditioning during a hot afternoon was very welcome.
You now remember how your kids reacted, not just the puzzle structure.
Turning raw data into a global story
Tracking is step one. The fun part is what you do with the information later.
Highlight cities and countries by play count
Once you collect enough entries, you can start asking simple questions:
- Which cities have you played the most rooms in?
- Which countries offer your highest average ratings?
- Which region surprised you in quality vs your expectations?
In a sheet, this is just a pivot table. On paper, you can tally counts once a year.
This often challenges assumptions. Many players, for example, expect only major capitals to have great rooms. But there are mid-sized cities with very strong local scenes that show up clearly in long-term tracking.
Identify your personal “top 10 rooms” in a fair way
If you log your scores carefully, it becomes easier to pick a top 10 list that is more than a mood of the moment.
You can filter for:
- Overall rating above a certain score
- Across different countries and themes
- Spread over several years, not just recent memory
Then compare your raw numbers with your gut feeling. Sometimes a room you rated “only” 8/10 sticks in your head more than your 9/10 games. That tension is interesting. It can point to unique ideas that did not fit perfectly but still left a mark.
Spot gaps in your global journey
A passport also shows where you have not been, not just where you have.
Maybe you have:
- Played all over Central Europe, but nothing in Asia yet.
- Many games in your home country, but none in neighboring countries.
- Lots of high-tech sci-fi rooms, but almost no low-tech, classic puzzle rooms.
Instead of blindly picking your next vacation spot, you can ask: which region or style would stretch me as a player? That might mean planning a trip to a city known for horror rooms, even if you tend to stick to heists and adventures.
Social uses of an escape room passport
Your passport is personal by default, but it can also be social if you want it to be.
Comparing notes with other players
When you meet other enthusiasts at events or while traveling, shared tracking can jumpstart better conversations:
- You compare ratings for the same room across different visits.
- You swap recommendations in cities you have each covered.
- You see where your tastes differ in a concrete way.
This is more helpful than “I liked it” vs “I did not like it.” You can say “I rated puzzles high, but atmosphere low” and let them judge based on what they care about most.
Sharing selected parts online
If you run a blog, Instagram, or YouTube channel around escape rooms, your passport can feed your content:
- Yearly stats posts: number of rooms, new countries, favorite games.
- Themed lists: best intro rooms for non-players in various cities.
- Maps: where followers have asked for recommendations and what you have already covered.
You do not need to share everything. In fact, keeping some notes private can help you be more honest with yourself about what you liked and what you did not.
Using your passport with mixed-experience groups
Not everyone in your circle plays as much as you do. Some might be on room number two while you are at 80.
Your tracking can help you pick games that match the group without making them feel overwhelmed:
- Avoid rooms you flagged as “punishing for first-timers.”
- Pick rooms where your notes say “great staff support” or “good hint system.”
- Return to a venue you trust in a new city, even if it is not the most hyped spot.
This is where your passport shifts from a personal scorecard to a tool that shapes real experiences for your friends or family.
Common mistakes when building an escape room passport
Before you start designing templates and color codes, it is worth calling out a few traps. I have fallen into some of these myself.
Trying to track everything from day one
If your first template has 40 fields, you will probably stop filling it in after your third trip.
Start with the basics I covered earlier. After 10 rooms, see which fields you skip. Remove them. Then think about what you wished you had captured. Add those slowly.
Inflating your ratings
Many players give their first 20 rooms scores between 8 and 10. It is natural, you are enthusiastic and everything feels fresh.
Later, after you see more variety, you realize that some of those early “10s” were more like 7s. That is fine, but it makes your scale less useful.
To balance this:
- Use the full range of your scale from the start.
- Accept that an average room is a 5 or 6, not an 8.
- Re-score older entries once a year if you want consistency.
Chasing numbers instead of experiences
A passport can create pressure. You might feel like you “should” hit 100 rooms by a certain date, or collect rooms in a new country just to tick a box.
If tracking starts to dictate your choices more than enjoyment does, your passport is driving you instead of serving you.
It is fine to have goals, like “play in 10 countries” or “try every venue in my city.” Just remember that the point is to have good experiences, not just high counts.
Copying someone else’s structure blindly
What works for a reviewer who plays 300 rooms per year might not work for you. Their template may be too detailed for casual play, or too focused on blog content instead of personal memories.
Use other people’s systems as inspiration, not a blueprint. Take what fits, drop what does not, and let your passport evolve with your habits.
How to start your own escape room passport today
You do not need to wait for a perfect printed booklet or the ideal app. You can start in the next 10 minutes.
Step 1: Make a one-page template
Open a notes app, sheet, or grab a notebook page. Add these fields:
- Date
- Country
- City
- Venue
- Room
- Team
- Language
- Escape? / Time / Hints
- 4 ratings: Set, Puzzles, Story, Staff
- Overall rating
- Short notes
That is your “v1” passport structure.
Step 2: Log your last 5 games from memory
Do not worry if you cannot recall everything. Fill in what you can. This will highlight which fields feel natural and which feel forced.
If it takes more than a few minutes per game, you are doing too much. Shorten your notes.
Step 3: Commit to logging within 24 hours of each game
Memory fades fast. Try to log new rooms the same day, or at least within one day. Make it part of your routine, like grabbing a drink after the game and doing a quick debrief while the experience is fresh.
Step 4: Review and adjust every 10 rooms
Every time you hit another 10-room milestone, scan your passport for friction:
- Any fields you always skip?
- Things you keep writing in notes that deserve their own field?
- Rating scale that feels too compressed or too loose?
Adjust the template. Do not cling to the first version out of habit. Your tracking system should grow with your experience, not freeze on day one.
Using your escape room passport to plan future trips
Once you have a bit of history logged, your passport becomes a planning tool.
Build shortlists by city
When you consider a trip, do a quick check:
- Do you already have experience in that country or city?
- Which venues did you like there?
- What type of rooms did you prefer in that region?
From there, you can:
- Return to a strong venue for their newer rooms.
- Contrast your notes with lists from local communities or reviewers.
- Avoid repeating weak venues where your notes say “nice staff, but puzzles were messy.”
Balance “must play” rooms with flexible slots
I know some players who pack their trips with back-to-back games. Others like one room per day and lots of wandering.
Either way, your passport can help keep a good balance across a trip:
- Add one or two “anchor” rooms that scored high for people you trust.
- Leave space for spontaneous bookings based on local recommendations once you arrive.
- Plan at least one room tuned for your group’s least experienced players.
Your log will remind you how many rooms per day you enjoy before fatigue hits. If your notes from a past trip say “room 4 of the day, brain fog,” maybe cap it at three this time.
Use your data to negotiate or connect with venues
If you have a solid track record in your passport, some venues will take your feedback more seriously.
You do not have to brag, but you can say:
“I have played around 120 rooms across 9 countries, most of them outside my home city. In your room, I enjoyed X and Y, but I felt Z puzzle was hard to solve without background knowledge of [local content].”
This is more precise than “I did not like that puzzle.” Your passport gives weight and detail to your feedback without you needing to memorize everything.
A good passport does not just store what you did, it sharpens how you talk about your experience with others.