16 of the Best Travel Board Games for Kids 2024

Travel Board Games 2

If your family loves travelling, then having some of the best travel board games for adults and kids at home is brilliant for keeping the passion alive between trips.  Not only do the best travel games for kids, keep the whole family entertained, it’s also a fun way to teach the kids about the wonderful world we live in and its people, particularly right now if you’ve stuck at home and looking for things to do.

So if you’re looking for some fun ways to keep the entire family entertained during these periods of world travel bans, then I highly recommend you check out this list of fun travel themed board games.  In this travel games for children guide– I’ve listed a range of great travel games for kids of all ages.  Whether you’re after the best travel games for toddlers or the best travel games for adults and kids to enjoy together, this guide covers it all.

Luckily for us, we love to travel AND playing board games, so it was actually heaps of fun putting this guide together and I may have even found some great ideas for our next board game purchase.

This post may contain compensated links.  Please refer to my disclaimer here for more information.

Best Travel Board Games for Kids 

To come up with this list of travel board games for family, I’ve asked for recommendations from our followers, other family travel bloggers as well as researched the best selling travel games on Amazon.  I have no doubt there are a million other fun travel games, but this is a pretty good list to get you started.

Comparison Table: Best Travel Games for Kids

Don’t have time to read the entire review on the best travel board games for adults and kids to play together?  Below is a handy table of all the games in this guide with some brief information and a link for where you can buy the games online.

Keep reading below for further information on these games.

NameAge RangeNo of PlayersTime RequiredCheck Price
Ticket to Ride

8+2-51-2 hoursCheck Price
Countries of the World II Card Games
7+2-830-45 minutesCheck Price
Explore the World
7+2-61 hourCheck Price
Pandemic

8+2-445-60 minutesCheck Price
Passport to Culture
10+2-630-45 minutesCheck Price
GeoBingo World
4+2-810-15 minutesCheck Price
Flags Around The World
8+2-645-60 minutesCheck Price
The World Game
7+2-530-60 minutesCheck Price
The Continent Race
7+2 or more30 minutesCheck Price
BrainBox – The World

8+2 or more10 minutesCheck Price
Around the World
8+2-545-60 minutesCheck Price
Backpacker – The Ultimate Travel Game
12+2-61 hourCheck Price
The Scrambled States of America
8+2-420 minutesCheck Price
Great States
7+2-630 minutesCheck Price
Travel Blog
8+2-630-45 minutesCheck Price
Monopoly
8+2-61-2 hoursCheck Price

How to Find Great Travel Games

Before we get into the reviews on popular travel board games for kids, I want to give you some tips on how to go about finding the best board games everyone will love.

While going through this guide, think about the following factors:

Skip this section if you just want to see our list of recommended travel games.

Age Appropriate – Difficulty

Obviously the best travel games for 3 year olds, is not going to be the same as the best board games for teens.  While most board games have an age range on them, I think parents need to consider their children when determining if the game is age appropriate for them.

Some of the top board games for older kids involve a lot of critical thinking.  However depending on your child, even younger children may still enjoy the challenge of playing these games. 

On the other hand, even if the game says its age appropriate for your child, perhaps they have a short attention span (like my daughter), or simply don’t have the necessary skill set to play the game and therefore won’t enjoy it.

When it comes to age, I’d also consider the ages of all your children and see if you can find at least one game that kids of all ages will enjoy.

How Many Players

Before purchasing a game, consider how many players are likely to play at any given time.  There is no point buying a game that is best played with four people if you’re a family of three.  Alternatively, if you have three children, you’re going to want to buy a game that can accommodate at least three players.

Make sure you read reviews – some games are just best played with larger groups, while other games are better suited to smaller groups.

Time to Play

When it comes to the best board games toddlers will love, you’ll probably want to look for games that don’t take long to play or games where you can play in rounds.  Whereas if you’re looking for the best board games, teenagers will enjoy – then games that take at least an hour or more to play are probably going to be more enjoyable for them.

Mind you as they say “a quick game is a good game” – sometimes it’s good to have a game that won’t take long to play – so consider this when purchasing.

The Fun Factor

Of course when it comes to board games for kids, they’ve got to be fun!  I had so much fun playing board games with my brothers and sisters when I was young.  Gosh, I remember us being in fits of laughter half the time (and then of course there were times when we almost killed each other)!

When it comes to fun kid’s board games – there is so much choice – you’ve just got to think about what will suit your children.  Younger kids will appreciate games that make them laugh, while older children might enjoy the more serious types of games.

Top Travel Themed Board Games 2024 Reviews

Let’s get into it and in no particular order, check out some of the best travel themed board games currently available!

Ticket to Ride

One of our newest games that we like to play as a family is Ticket to Ride.  This is a brilliant family game, particularly for families looking for fun travel games adults and kids will enjoy together.   

There is a range of different versions of Ticket to Ride with each version set up as a continent or country such as Europe, New York, India, Germany, Japan and other.  Across the board, there is a range of train stations with routes in between.

Each player has a range of routes that they must complete.  Points are provided for completing the routes (you lose points if you don’t complete your routes), as well as building the routes along the way.  There are bonus points also given out for the longest route across the board.  The aim of the game is to be the player with the most points at the end.

If you’ve played this game for a while and want to add some new challenges, you can also buy an expansion kit which changes it up a bit.  Also if you have younger children there is also a junior version called Ticket to Ride – First Journey which is suitable for kids 6+.

For families with older children or who are looking for fun board games, definitely get yourself Ticket to Ride – I’m a big fan of this one.

Number of Players: 2 to 5 players

Age Range: 8+

Time to Play: At least one hour

Click here for more information or to buy now

Travel Card Games: Countries of the World II Card Games

Countries of the World II Card Games one of the cheap and easy travel card games that the family can play anywhere, anytime.

This card game has 30 cards each with three hard and three easy questions – so a total of 180 questions.  Each player takes it in turns to roll the die, which determines which question on the card they are asked.  The questions are true or false and multiple choice style trivia questions.

If the player gets the answer correct, they win the card.  If they get the answer wrong, the card goes to the bottom of the pile.  Once all the cards have been won, the player with the most cards wins. 

Number of Players: 2-8

Age Range: 7+

Time to Play: 30 -45 minutes

Click here for more information or to buy now

 

Explore the World

For the young curious traveller, Explore the World is a great game to learn more about the world.  It’s a simple game to play, without any complex rules and suitable for children from around age 7.

Each player takes it in turn to spin the wheel and depending on where it lands players are asked a range of questions or asked to complete a fun challenge.  Questions are about cities, animals or flags.  Get the question right and move along.

The winner is the first person to make a round trip.

Number of Players:  2-6

Age Range: 7+

Time to Play: Around an hour

Click here for more information or to buy now

 

Pandemic

With what’s going on the world right now, perhaps Pandemic is a little too close to home – or perhaps not – I’ll let you be the judge of that one.  Whatever your thoughts Pandemic is one of the most popular games currently around.

If your kids aren’t great at playing competitive games together, Pandemic is great as it requires players to work together.  With Pandemic, players must work together to stop four different life threatening diseases that are spreading across the world.  Players must work together as a team to find cures and save the world.  So with this game, either all players succeed, or all players lose.

The way this game works is each player is assigned a character, such as a Medic, Research, Quarantine Specialist or scientist.  During each player’s turn, they choose between different actions, including travelling around the world, build research centres, share information, treat infections and work towards finding a cure.  However while this is happening, the diseases spread and so it’s a race against time and also about how the players work together.

This game certainly is a little challenging, and younger kids will benefit from playing with their parents. The thing I like about this game is that you can make it a bit more of a challenge if you have older children as you can add more diseases on the board.

Number of Players: 2- 4 players

Age Range: 8+

Time to Play: Around 45 minutes

Click here for more information or to buy now

 

Passport to Culture

For families with older children and looking for something a little more challenging – Passport to Culture is a good one to consider.  Like the previous game, Explore the World, players must travel across the globe and answering questions about world culture as they go.

Each player starts at the airport and then takes it, in turn, rolling the dice and moving around the globe.  As players travel around the board, they are asked multiple choice questions relating to different cultures around the world.  If you get the answer right, you get a stamp in your passport.  The aim of the game is to collect all ten stamps in your passport.

Given the questions are multiple choice – this makes the game enjoyable for kids of all ages.  Even if they don’t know the answer, they can at least have a guess and the more times they play, the better the chance of getting the questions right.  Plus they are learning things about the world too.

Number of Players:  2-6

Age Range: 10+

Time to Play: 30-45 minutes

Click here for more information or to buy now

 

GeoBingo World

If you’ve got some tiny ones, then a good game for the family to play is GeoBingo World.  Like the name suggests this is a simple bingo style game based on geography.  There are 8 bingo boards with 25 countries on each and the first player to get to five countries in a row wins.

This is an excellent way for kids to learn about different countries around the world. It would also be a good one to pack if you’re looking for travel toys for a road trip as it’s reasonably compact.

Number of Players: 2-8

Age Range: 4+

Time to Play: 10-15 minutes

Click here for more information or to buy now

 

Flags Around The World

Another trivia style game, Flags Around The World, has players learning to recognize flags as well as learn other information about countries around the world. 

In Flags Around The World, players take it in turns to choose a flag, which they then must say which country it belongs to and what the country is capital is.  If the player is correct, they score points.  The aim of the game is to collect flags from each continent.

What I like about this game, is there is the option to play using multiple choice questions, which makes it easier for the young ones to join in.  Plus as they get more familiar with the game, you can remove the multiple choice answers. 

Number of Players: 2-6

Age Range: 8+

Time to Play: 45 – 60 minutes

Click here for more information or to buy now

 

The World Game

The World Game is a geography card game, where you score points by competing in a range of geography based challenges.

To start the game every player receives 20 country cards.  Each country hard has four facts about the country on it, with each fact allocated different points.  Players take it in turns comparing facts, and the player with the highest scoring fact wins.  When a player wins, they take their opponent’s card.

Along the way, there are also challenges where players are tested on their knowledge about flags, locations, capital cities and continents.

The game ends when one player has won all the cards.

What’s good about this game, is that the entire game is not based on answering questions, so kids of all ages can get involved. 

Number of Players: 2-5

Age Range: 7+

Time to Play: 30-60 minutes

Click here for more information or to buy now

 

The Continent Race

Can you believe that The Continent Race was created by a bored 6 year old!  Young Byron created this game as he has a passion for geography which he wanted to share with other kids.

Players race around the globe collecting country cards – you can either play at the beginner level and collect cards from 3 continents or the advanced level and collect country cards from 5 continents.  For each continent, players are required to collect a certain amount of country cards.

Each player starts with seven country cards.  Players then take it in turns taking a card from the deck and discarding one in their hand.   Once the player has the correct number of country cards from a continent, they can put those sets of cards up and continue play.  The winner is the first player to collect the required number of country cards from each continent.

This is an excellent easy to play game and given there are no trivia style questions to answer it is, suitable for kids of all ages.

Number of Players: 2 or more players

Age Range: 7+

Time to Play: 30 minutes

Click here for more information or to buy now

 

BrainBox – The World

If you’re after a simple, quick and easy travel themed game, then check out BrainBox – The World

This is a memory type game where players take turns drawing cards, having ten seconds to memorize its pictures and facts.  The player then passes the card to another player, rolls the dice, and the other player will ask them the question that corresponds with the number on the dice.    

If the player gets the question right, they keep the card, if not the card is returned to the BrainBox and it’s the next players turn.  The winner is the player with the most cards after 10 minutes.

This is a straightforward game to play with no complex rules and given it’s a card game, it can be played anywhere at any time.

Number of Players: 2 or more

Age Range: 8+

Time to Play: 10 minutes

Click here for more information or to buy now

 

Around the World

Around the World is a great game to teach kids all about people, places, cultures, geography and languages of the world.

Players are each provided with scorecards which have 12 spaces with different colours.  The different colours represent a different category of questions.  Each time a player answers a question correctly, they can add a token to the corresponding category on their scorecard.  The aim of the game is to be the first person to fill up their scorecard.

To play, players take turns in rolling the dice and moving along the board accordingly.  Depending on where you land, you will need to pick up the appropriate card and answer the question.  If you’re correct, you will receive, token for your scorecard.

This game is easy to learn, but it does require children to answer trivia questions, so it is best for older children.  It’s a great way for everyone in the family to expand on their world knowledge. 

Number of Players: 2 to 5

Age Range: 8+

Time to Play: 45 – 60 minutes

Click here for more information or to buy now

 

Backpacker – The Ultimate Travel Game

Another great card game about travel, Backpacker – The Ultimate Travel Game is based on a backpacker travelling the world.

The idea of the game is that you travel around the world, visiting different countries and taking photos as you go.  Along the way, you may have special experiences which lead you to take more photos.  The winner of the game is the person who has taken the most photos. 

Each player starts with five cards and then takes turns drawing a card and playing a card.  There are two types of cards – a country card and an event card.  Country cards show how many photos you took at a particular country, while event cards are special cards that combined with the right country card can earn you bonus photos or may even cost you points.

This is a really great game as its quite different from the usual trivia type travel games.  Plus given its just a card game, it’s small and easy to take travelling with you.  Perfect for playing on the plane or while waiting for a flight. 

Number of Players: 2-6

Age Range: 12+

Time to Play: 1 hour

Click here for more information or to buy now

 

The Scrambled States of America

For families living in the USA or have a particular interest in the states, then The Scrambled States of America is a fun game to play.

Each player starts with a map of the USA and five state cards.  The remaining state cards go in the centre next to the red deck of cards.  Players then take it in turns flipping over the card from the red deck of cards and reading what the card says. 

Each of the cards provides some sort of challenge that all players must compete in, and the first person to complete the challenge correctly wins the card.  Challenges could be, for example “find a state with a capital city starting with S or T”.  In this case, if one of the player’s state cards have a capital city starting with S or T, then they can complete the challenge and get an additional state card.

The game ends when all the state cards are gone, and the winner is whoever has the most state cards.

This is a fast paced game – think snap – but the rules can be a bit complex to understand at first.  Once you get the hang of it though, it’s a pretty fun game for the whole family. 

Number of Players: 2-4

Age Range: 8+

Time to Play: 20 minutes

Click here for more information or to buy now

 

Great States

Another game for families with an interested in the USA –Great States is a little more trivia based, so is a great game to play if you’re headed to the states for a trip and want the kids to learn a little more about the country.

Players take it in turns flicking the spinning wheel and then picking whatever card the wheel lands on.  The player is then required to answer the question on the card before the 60 seconds timer runs out.  The answers to the questions can be found on the board game, which makes it great for young players learning about the USA.

If you answer your card correctly, you get to keep it.  The aim of the game is to be the player with the most cards at the end of the game. 

Number of Players: 2-6

Age Range: 7+

Time to Play: 30 minutes

Click here for more information or to buy now

 

Travel Blog

If you want something different from standard travel trivia games, Travel Blog is a good to consider. 

With Travel Blog, basically you are a travel blogger who needs to find the cheapest ways to travel to the various destinations for your assignments.  The aim of the game is to be the player with the most money at the end of the game.

To start, you need to decide if you’re going to use the USA or the Europe map and then place the chosen map face down, so you can’t see it.  Each player then chooses a colour and gets the travel cards and tokens to match.

Players must then analyze the starting cards and decide which two states to visit, based on the fewest number of border crossings.  Players are then required to pay the bank according to the number of border crossings.

Travel Blog is placed over seven different rounds, and while each round is similar, they do change slightly. 

This is quite a unique game, and the rules are a little complicated, so does take a bit of getting used to.  Nevertheless, it’s great to have a travel themed game that isn’t based on answering trivia based questions. 

Number of Players: 2-6

Age Range: 8+

Time to Play: 30 minutes

Click here for more information or to buy now

 

Monopoly

Perhaps you’re a little surprised to see the classic board game Monopoly on the list, but think about it, with stops on the board like Kings Cross Station and Trafalgar Square, this would have to one of the original travel themed games. 

While you’re all probably familiar with the original Monopoly board – there are plenty of other versions too.  Versions available you can get are National Geographic, Melbourne, New Zealand, Sydney, Adelaide, Brisbane, Perth and even a World Edition.

I’m sure you’re all familiar with the concept of Monopoly, but in case you’re not – Monopoly is all about going through life, buying and selling real estate, paying taxes and even winning the odd beauty contest along the way. 

Players start at GO and move around the board by rolling the dice.   You can purchase vacant properties as you land on them, or if they are already owned, you will need to pay the owner rent for landing on them.  As your real estate portfolio expands, you have the option of building houses and hotels on your land, which then allows you to charge players more money when they land on your property.  The game ends when all players but one are bankrupt. 

If your little one is a bit too young for Monopoly, there is Junior Monopoly.  Junior Monopoly is suitable for kids around age 5, although it’s really simple to play and we had Myla playing it probably from around age 4.

Number of Players: 2 to 6 players

Age Range: 8+

Time to Play: At least an hour or more

Click here for more information or to buy now

I hope you found this guide on the best travel themed board games useful to see another amazing resource about board games, be sure to check out Board Game Friend.  If you’re looking for more things for kids that love to travel, check out guide on travel themed books here or our kids gift guide here.  

Disclaimer: Disclaimer: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

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