School Holiday Activities in Melbourne
School holidays and running out of ideas? An escape room is a proper adventure the whole family can do together, 60 minutes off screens, solving a story as a team. We have all-ages rooms across four Melbourne venues, and the holidays are our busiest family window, so book ahead.
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A school-holiday plan that is not another screen
An escape room turns an ordinary holiday afternoon into an adventure, kids get to lead the hunt for clues, open locks and crack codes, and everyone plays together. It is active, hands-on and fully indoors, so it works whatever the weather is doing during the break.
Under-16s play with a participating adult, and there is no strict minimum age, though the puzzles land best from about primary-school age up. A game master watches over the session and helps if the group gets stuck.
The best rooms for the school holidays
All-ages and not scary, gentlest first:
- The Nine-Nine (Hawthorn) — a comedic Brooklyn detective heist, all-ages and a favourite for younger kids
- Cluemanji (South Yarra) — a Jumanji-style jungle adventure, playful and not scary
- Monsterz (South Yarra) — a friendly monster world, great for little ones with an adult
- Treasure Island (St Kilda) — a pirate ghost-ship hunt, fun rather than frightening
- Da Vinci Down Under (Chadstone) — an all-ages treasure hunt and a proper brain-teaser for older kids
Holiday birthdays and bigger groups
School-holiday birthday coming up? An escape room is a party the kids remember, and a bigger group splits across rooms at one venue and races. See our birthday and celebrations pages, or email enquiries@rushescapegame.com.au.
Kids' birthday parties → Celebrations & group bookings →Book at any of our four venues
We have 16 rooms across four Melbourne venues, so there is usually one close to you. South Yarra is our six-room flagship; Hawthorn is home to the original HackSaw; St Kilda has our most advanced sets and effects; and Chadstone (Oakleigh) holds our two hardest puzzle rooms. Pick your nearest and check live times.
Frequently asked questions
- What age suits the school-holiday rooms?
- Our family rooms suit about primary-school age and up. Under-16s play with a participating adult, and younger kids can join the group.
- Which rooms are best for kids?
- The Nine-Nine at Hawthorn, Cluemanji and Monsterz at South Yarra, and Treasure Island at St Kilda are our gentlest, all-ages rooms.
- Do the holidays get booked out?
- The school holidays are our busiest family window, so book ahead for the times you want.
- Is it indoors?
- Yes, fully indoors, so it is a reliable plan whatever the weather does over the break.
- Can we do a holiday birthday party?
- Yes, larger groups split across rooms and compete. See our birthday and celebrations pages for group bookings.
More for the holidays
Keep the break sorted.
The problem is never the first Monday
Two weeks off looks manageable when it starts. There is a sleep-in, there is a friend's house, there is a day where nobody leaves the property and that is fine. The trouble arrives somewhere around day six, when the novelty has gone, the weather has done something unhelpful and the phrase "I'm bored" starts arriving hourly.
That is the actual job this page is for. Not filling a fortnight, which nothing can do, but having two or three real outings held in reserve for the days the break falls apart.
When the Victorian school holidays fall
Government school dates. Catholic and independent schools usually sit close to these but can differ, and individual schools add their own curriculum days, so check yours before you book anything that matters.
- Spring 2026 Saturday 19 September to Sunday 4 October
- Summer 2026 to 2027 Saturday 19 December, students back Thursday 28 January
- Autumn 2027 Friday 26 March to Sunday 11 April
- Winter 2027 Saturday 26 June to Sunday 11 July
- Spring 2027 Saturday 18 September to Sunday 3 October
- Summer 2027 From Saturday 18 December
Four breaks a year, and each one behaves differently. Autumn carries Easter and Anzac Day. Winter is the fortnight where outdoor plans are least likely to survive. Spring is short and busy. Summer is six weeks with Christmas in the middle of it and the heat doing its own damage to whatever you had planned.
What the holidays do to availability here
This is worth understanding because it runs opposite to the rest of the year and it catches people out.
In term time, weekday daytime is the quietest part of our week by a wide margin. Walk-up availability on a Wednesday morning is close to guaranteed. In the holidays that inverts completely. Weekday mornings and early afternoons become the busiest family window we run, because every parent in the state has reached the same conclusion at the same time.
Three things follow from that.
- Book in the first week for the second week. The days you will most need an outing are the days that fill first, and by then everybody else has worked it out too.
- Late afternoon is the underused slot. Families cluster in the morning. The later sessions stay open longer through a break and often suit teenagers better anyway.
- The weekends inside a break are the hardest of the lot. Normal weekend demand plus holiday demand landing on the same two days.
Which of the sixteen a family can actually book
Age suitability is published for every room, and the split across the network is worth knowing before you start looking.
Nine rooms rated all ages
The family poolSeven of those nine carry no fright element whatsoever. The other two, Strangest Thing at Hawthorn and Alice in Wonderland at St Kilda, are rated spooky rather than frightening, which most primary-age children enjoy and a few do not. Worth a look at the ratings first if yours is one of the few.
Three rooms rated teens and up
The older-kid poolTense rather than terrifying, and usually the right answer for a fourteen-year-old who finds the family rooms beneath them. Our page on escape rooms for teenagers goes through these properly.
Four rooms rated 16 and over
Not for the school holidaysOur genuine horror. Not a matter of taste or parental discretion, these are age-restricted and they are not a family holiday outing.
Under-16s play with a participating adult in every case. Room by room, gentlest first, is on escape rooms for kids and families, and every fright rating sits on the scare scale.
What it costs during a break
One thing here matters more than the rest, because it is the opposite of what people assume about school holiday pricing.
Our weekday price runs right through the school holidays. Monday to Thursday, all day, $50 an adult once 3 adults are playing, no code. It is not suspended for the break and it is not surcharged.
Children are charged separately. A player aged 9 to 13 is $42, added to what the adults pay, and children do not count toward the adult minimum.
The one exception. Cheap Tuesday is the offer that does not apply in the holidays. Victorian school holiday periods are excluded from it, along with public holidays.
Weekends inside a break. Ordinary weekend rates, $74 a player down to $70 at six.
For anything not covered here, see prices and deals.
Holiday questions from parents
How much of the day does it actually take?
The game runs an hour, and about ninety minutes on site once you count the briefing and the photo at the end. It is a solid half-day once you add getting there and eating somewhere afterwards, which is usually the right size for a holiday outing.
We have cousins visiting and there are nine of them.
Two rooms at the same venue, starting together, with the times compared afterwards. It converts a difficult number into the best part of the day. South Yarra and St Kilda have the most rooms to work with.
Will my seven-year-old cope?
There is no minimum age, and the puzzles land best from around primary-school age upward. Younger children usually enjoy the hunting and the physical mechanisms more than the codes, which is fine, that is a real contribution. A game master is watching the whole time and will help before anyone gets frustrated.
The forecast for the whole break is terrible.
Good news for us and bad news for your original plan. Everything here is indoors and climate-controlled. Rainy day activities covers the wet-weather version of the problem in full.
There is a birthday in the middle of the holidays.
Common, and we run a lot of them. Kids birthday parties has the group format, or write to enquiries@rushescapegame.com.au and we will put the rooms and times together for you.