XX The twentieth edition
Saturday 5 – Sunday 6 December 2026
Every year before Christmas, for twenty years. This year: an escape room, bowling, a Nepalese dinner with the gift exchange, a pub quiz on foot, and a sauna on the beach.
The map needs a connection. Every stop below has a Google Maps link.
Secret Santa
Everyone buys for two of the others, £10 each. Tap your own name to see who you’ve got.
9:30am – 12:15pm
Two ways down. Pick one, and be in Margate in time for the escape room.
Either way: outside The Escapement by 12:15pm.
12:30 – 2pm
A locked door and a clock. One of the best-reviewed escape rooms in the country, and the first thing we do off the train.
“The undoubted highlight was the brilliant escape rooms at Escapement, in Margate. Really immersive, original and well thought out.” Dara Ó Briain
2 – 4pm
Lunch, then the rest of the afternoon. Burgers in the diner first, then we split across the lanes, the darts and the shuffleboard table.
From 3pm
Home for the night: a seafront flat on Palm Bay Avenue, with the sea across the road. Bags down, beds picked, changed for dinner.
6:30 – 8:30pm
Nepalese dinner next door to the bowling: momos, curries and things off the grill. Secret Santa gets handed over at the table.
Bring your two Secret Santa gifts£10 each, wrapped, and with you at dinner — not left at the flat. See who you’ve got
8:30pm – late
Four bars, one quiz, and every question is about us: the trips, the people, twenty years of evidence. A round at each stop along Northdown Road.
STHosted by Jason and Sam
The map needs a connection. The four stops are listed below.
1
DIY arts club behind an old shopfront, with a serious sound system.
276 Northdown Road ↗
2
3
4
9 – 10am
Straight to the beach. Heat until you can’t, then the cold plunge — with the sea right there if you want it colder.
10:30 – 11:45am
Proper coffee and brunch once we’ve thawed out. Margate’s own roasters, ten minutes’ walk from the sauna. Then home.
