For some people, blowing off steam at the end of the week or relaxing on holiday means having a drink somewhere cosy and stress-free.
But for a growing portion of the population, paying to be locked in a room for an hour and having to solve sometimes fiendishly difficult puzzles is the leisure activity of choice.
We're talking of course about the rising popularity of escape rooms, with Belfast offering some great options.
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For those who are not aware of how they work, teams of usually around three to six people are locked in a room with a standard deadline for an hour to try and solve the room's puzzles in order to 'escape'.
"Probably the vast majority of people I speak to sort of raise an eyebrow when I say 'escape room' as they just don't know what it is - now that's good and bad," said Timescape escape rooms operator Justin Milligan.
"It's good that all these people eventually can be exposed to this and they're potential customers but bad if the awareness isn't there."
If you walked down Castle Street in Belfast, there's every chance you might miss the entrance to Timescape, but behind its unassuming door, there are immersive adventures to be had.
He said his own immersion in the world of pressurised escapes had a lasting impact.
"I started playing escape games six years ago, we went to a stag party in England the organiser said we were doing an escape room," he said.
"I was sort of laughing that off but honestly when I played it I was all for sacking off the drinking and doing another one right away.
"And that's the general attitude of people who've never played them.
"They generally have a preconception of what it's like and that's totally shattered by playing their first room, they realise that these are a lot of fun and they get hooked and start looking for every room in their local area."
Timescape has sought to capitalise on Belfast's strong visitor attraction potential, carefully tailoring its first ever offering with that international market in mind and so their Titanic-themed room was born.
"Being in Belfast and that being such a cornerstone of our history, and a world draw, people come from all over the world to hear about Titanic, so we thought without being crass or disrespectful, we wanted to make a game that was true to the history," said Justin.
"So a lot of the artefacts in the game are replicas of Titanic artefacts, the names, the dates and times that we use are historically and factually correct, but we add in a fun element to make it an enjoyable experience.
"That is a huge tourist draw, I'd say we get about 40% of our players on that game and they wouldn't be from here, so it's massive for us."
Part of the fun of escape rooms is trying to make logical decisions when adrenaline is running and Justin said it provides just as much fun for the staff as those taking part.
"The less said here, the better I think!", he laughs.
"You lose a bit of faith in humanity sometimes watching what people do in escape games, no word of a lie.
"You do have a wee giggle about it but people are unique and individual, so you've no idea what way people will react to things in a room.
"It also means we have to design and plan our rooms with that in mind, so you have to make sure these rooms appeal to everyone."
Timescape is operating three games currently, with a horror-themed game coming in the summer and Justin says there are big plans for the future.
"We'll get the lay of the land after we've filled these premises, but if things are still going good, we'd look to continue expanding, maybe down to Dublin or even across to England," he said.
"If you could see the amount of wires etc that goes on in the background, it would blow your mind and the room we're working on at the moment is costing just shy of £100k.
"We take great pride in making sure the games are immersive, it's about what you can see, hear and sometimes even smell.
"Each game that we've built has been progressively more expensive because we've done more with electronics and set design.
"We actually had a prop designer that worked on The Hobbit movies working on the props in our rooms, so that gives you an idea of the level of production that we try to achieve, we're always wanting to push the boundaries."
About 15 minutes away, on Shaftesbury Square, a similarly nondescript entry hides the more horror-themed offerings of the Forbidden Quest escape rooms.
Stephen Crawford and his partner are the brains behind its two rooms, which incorporate live actors into the experience to add to the thrill.
"You're always nervous but whenever you see groups in and it clicks for them, it's so rewarding for us, seeing people happy and excited with something you created," he said.
"For me, nothing beats the escape rooms as indoor entertainment, that's just my personal opinion but I think if it's done correctly, you should feel like you're the main character in a video game or movie.
"Our rooms do have actors and things, so you're interacting with characters and because we're more horror themed, you're increasing the scare factor.
"We're even looking at how long you spend in a room, so the standard is 60 mins but we're doing 75 minutes now and the Pennywise one will be 90 minutes, so it's constantly evolving."
He said the challenge for them was to adapt to the fact that more people are playing escape rooms, while also trying to keep it accessible to new players.
"You can go and play a poor escape room and still have a great time if you don't know that it's relatively poor, so it's about getting the public to play a few games and trying to make ours as exciting as possible," he said.
"Definitely one of the challenges is making a game that's suitable for everyone - if you have a group that's played 50 rooms, they could get out in 20 minutes, so it's got to be a game that challenges them.
"But at the same time, if you've got a family coming for the first time, it can't be so challenging that they hate it.
"That's where your actors and the game masters come in, they can help a bit more when people are struggling, but if you design it properly, you can overcome that."
Forbidden Quest is recovering after the setbacks posed to the business by closures during pandemic restrictions and Stephen says they are looking to invest in the future.
"The coronavirus period was obviously tough, but we used the time to add upgrades to all our games during that time, because we knew people would want to get out and get playing together when it was done and that has proved to be the case," he added.
"We've got two games and we're just developing a third one for the summer, called Time to Float, which is a horror one based on the Pennywise universe.
"You're talking about £40-50,000 for one game, so that's the level of investment you're talking, at least it should be that if you're doing a high-end one."
For both of the escape entrepreneurs, the passion for the game and the industry remains as strong as ever and Belfast's escape artists look set to benefit for years to come.
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