Overview
Collect coloured train cards and claim railway routes across Europe to complete your destination tickets. Longer routes score more points — but your rivals may block you before you get there.
Featured on: Best Gateway Board Games for Beginners
Kaitlyn’s Review
Likes
- Perfect starter game that remains fun with experience
- Underground routes add risk and extra challenge
- Ferry routes require locomotive wildcards — satisfying mechanic
- The board is beautiful and immersive
Dislikes
- Not many long destination cards (only 6) — experienced players get a big edge
First Impressions
This game holds a special place for me. Early in our relationship, Ryan and I travelled Europe together and he bought me this game for my birthday afterward — because so many of the cities we visited are on the board. That trip became the start of our collection of strategy board games.
First impressions: not overly complicated to learn. I knew how intense strategy games could be and I love that this one made me want to try more, not less. Two players can go after a lot of routes — once we started playing, we realised you don’t need to be as conservative as you’d think.
Thoughts
The board is well crafted. Cities are written in their native language (Brussels is Bruxelles, etc.). Some people find this harder to read — I think it adds to the atmosphere.
Underground routes are the best addition over the original. When claiming an underground tunnel route, you flip 3 extra cards from the deck. For each one matching your route colour, you need to play an additional matching card from your hand. This adds genuine risk — do you have enough cards to guarantee completion, or are you gambling?
Ferry routes require at least one locomotive. This creates scarcity around wildcards and makes them feel more meaningful.
Train stations save lost routes. If someone claims a track you needed, you can place a station in that city to use their route segment. You score bonus points for stations you didn’t use — so saving them is smart, but having the safety net is reassuring.
The long route shortage is a real flaw. With only 6 long route cards, players who’ve played before know the routes and can anticipate competitors. The Europa 1912 expansion addresses this, and is worth buying once you’ve played a few times.
Conclusion
Ticket to Ride Europe is the game we’ve recommended most to friends starting out with strategy games. It’s approachable, visually beautiful, and genuinely strategic without being intimidating. Works well with 2 players; gets more competitive and chaotic with 4–5. A must-own for any collection.
