Escape rooms have become a popular pastime in recent years. They offer an immersive experience where players must solve puzzles and riddles in order to “escape” the room within a set time limit. Escape room themes can range from prisons to haunted houses and everything in between. Many escape room operators like to incorporate riddles into the games to challenge players’ critical thinking skills.
Riddles can be incorporated in a variety of ways. Some may reveal clues towards solving larger puzzles while others may need to be solved in order to open a locked box containing a key item. Good riddles engage players’ problem solving abilities in creative ways. Here are 55 fun and challenging riddles about escape with answers to include in your next escape room design or just to share with fellow puzzle lovers!
Escape Riddles
Riddle 1
I have holes in my top and bottom, my left and right. But I still hold water. What am I?
Answer: A sponge
Riddle 2
What has a neck but no head, two arms but no hands?
Answer: A shirt
Riddle 3
What has to be broken before you can use it?
Answer: An egg
Riddle 4
What gets wetter the more it dries?
Answer: A towel
Riddle 5
What goes up and down but does not move?
Answer: Stairs
Riddle 6
You throw away the outside and cook the inside. Then you eat the outside and throw away the inside. What did you eat?
Answer: Corn on the cob
Riddle 7
What has hands but can not clap?
Answer: A clock
Riddle 8
What is full of holes but still holds water?
Answer: A sponge
Riddle 9
I have cities, but no houses. I have mountains, but no trees. I have water, but no fish. What am I?
Answer: A map
Riddle 10
What gets broken without being held?
Answer: A promise
Riddle 11
What has four fingers and a thumb, but is not living?
Answer: A glove
Riddle 12
What has a head and a tail but no body?
Answer: A coin
Riddle 13
What can run but never walks, has a mouth but never talks, has a head but never weeps, has a bed but never sleeps?
Answer: A river
Riddle 14
What belongs to you, but other people use it more than you?
Answer: Your name
Riddle 15
What gets wetter as it dries?
Answer: A towel
Escape Room Riddles
Riddle 16
What has a thumb and four fingers but is not alive?
Answer: A glove
Riddle 17
What has a neck but no head?
Answer: A bottle
Riddle 18
What has keys but no locks and space but no room?
Answer: A keyboard
Riddle 19
What is seen in the middle of March and April, that can’t be seen in the beginning or end of either month?
Answer: The letter “R”
Riddle 20
What tastes better than it smells?
Answer: A tongue
Riddle 21
What gets broken without being held?
Answer: A promise
Riddle 22
What does man love more than life, hate more than death or mortal strife; that which contented men desire; the poor have, the rich require; the miser spends, the spendthrift saves, and all men carry to their graves?
Answer: Nothing
Riddle 23
What goes through towns and over hills but never moves?
Answer: A road
Riddle 24
What has a head, a tail, is brown, and has no legs?
Answer: A penny
Riddle 25
What runs around a backyard, but never moves?
Answer: A fence
Riddle 26
What starts with E, ends with E, and only contains 1 letter?
Answer: An envelope
Riddle 27
What can fill up a room but takes up no space?
Answer: Light
Riddle 28
What goes up and down but doesn’t move?
Answer: Stairs
Riddle 29
What has hands but cannot clap?
Answer: A clock
Riddle 30
What has words but never speaks?
Answer: A book
Escape Room Brain Teasers
Riddle 31
What has a ring but no finger?
Answer: A phone
Riddle 32
What has a neck but no head?
Answer: A bottle
Riddle 33
What has four wheels and flies?
Answer: A garbage truck
Riddle 34
What can you catch but never throw?
Answer: A cold
Riddle 35
What goes up but never comes down?
Answer: Your age
Riddle 36
What has many keys but cannot open a single lock?
Answer: A piano
Riddle 37
What has a face and two hands but no arms or legs?
Answer: A clock
Riddle 38
What is broken every time it’s spoken?
Answer: Silence
Riddle 39
What building has the most stories?
Answer: The library
Riddle 40
What gets wet while drying?
Answer: A towel
Riddle 41
What is so fragile that saying its name breaks it?
Answer: Silence
Riddle 42
What comes once in a minute, twice in a moment, but never in a thousand years?
Answer: The letter M
Riddle 43
What belongs to you but others use it more than you do?
Answer: Your name
Riddle 44
What gets bigger the more you take from it?
Answer: A hole
Riddle 45
What goes through cities and fields, but never moves?
Answer: A road
Challenging Escape Room Riddles
Riddle 46
What can travel around the world while staying in a corner?
Answer: A stamp
Riddle 47
What is always in front of you but can’t be seen?
Answer: The future
Riddle 48
What can you break, even if you never pick it up or touch it?
Answer: A promise
Riddle 49
What belongs to you, but other people use it more than you?
Answer: Your name
Riddle 50
People buy me to eat, but never eat me. What am I?
Answer: A plate
Riddle 51
What is always coming but never arrives?
Answer: Tomorrow
Riddle 52
What is full of holes but can still hold water?
Answer: A sponge
Riddle 53
What goes up and never comes down?
Answer: Your age
Riddle 54
What comes down but never goes up?
Answer: Rain
Riddle 55
What starts with P, ends with E, and contains thousands of letters?
Answer: The post office
Conclusion
Riddles serve many purposes in escape rooms. They engage critical thinking skills, provide clues, and offer a fun challenge for players. The riddles above range from easy to quite challenging – ideally you want to include a range of difficulty levels throughout your escape room experience. Just be sure the riddle solutions align with your room’s theme and overall puzzle solving flow.
You can incorporate printed riddles with answer keys hidden in locked boxes, display visual riddles for players to decipher, or even include spoken riddles as part of interactive elements. However you choose to use them, riddles are an excellent way to enhance the puzzle solving adventure in your escape room!
