Who isn’t desperate for a proper holiday next year? Despite talk of further restrictions, quarantine and Covid-19 vaccine passports, we’ll all be daydreaming of sun, sea and Aperol spritzes as soon as Christmas and New Year celebrations are over.
Here are a few classic games that could help your four walls feel a little larger and get your in the mood to choose your next holiday. And yes, they make great last minute Christmas presents.
1. Catan
A world-building strategy game in which players traverse a world of their own making, Catan is one of those games that can be played at any level – up to and including semi-pro. The goal is to earn points by building settlements, a process mired in as many layers of strategy as your mind is willing to entertain. Catan has achieved near-messianic status in some board game playing circles, and its pop culture empire includes a biennial world championship.
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2. Who Knows Where?
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A bit like Trivial Pursuit with only geography cards, Who Knows Where? features a map of the world, and players must race around by guessing famous locations, answering questions about capitals, and recognising iconic landmarks. Perfect for pub quiz nerds and novice globetrotters alike, if you don’t know much world geography, you will soon.
- The Ultimate Global Location Guessing Game.
- This brilliant, award winning board game has over 1000 questions in 5 categories, including capitals, major cities and towns, events and facts, famous tourist sites and beautiful images of many iconic...
- Quick and simple inclusive quiz game, where everyone puts pyramid on the world map to guess every answer, so there’s no waiting around.
Last update on 2024-04-24 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API
3. Ticket To Ride
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If you’ve ever been interrailing, Ticket To Ride is basically that with counters and cards. A pleasingly simple game, players assume the roles of railroad magnates attempting to dominate the routes between major cities on a map. Editions range from the steam locomotives of the Industrial Revolution and the sprawling railways of India, to the ultra-modern bullet trains of Japan.
- STRATEGY GAME: Build your tracks across the United States in this fast-paced and strategic board game. Connect iconic North American cities across a map of the 20th-century USA and build your train...
- FUN ADVENTURE GAME: Ticket to Ride is a cross-country train adventure game in which players collect and play matching train cards to claim railway routes connecting cities through North America!...
- MULTIPLE WAYS OF SCORING POINTS: Players collect train cards that enable them to claim railway routes connecting cities throughout North America. The longer the routes, the more points they earn....
Last update on 2024-04-25 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API
4. Terraforming Mars
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Definitely the most aspirational entry on our list, this multi-award winning strategy game released in 2016 may not simulate travel as we know it, but will still transport you to a land far, far away from lockdown. Visually similar to Catan and nearly as popular, Terraforming Mars players compete to colonise the red planet by establishing settlements with liveable water levels, oxygen levels, and temperature. Otherwise, expect the usual mechanics of tabletop strategy: rounds, cards, and counters.
- Terraforming Mars is a fun tactical board game for friends of family
- This is the base game. Expand your gameplay with the exciting expansions
- This strategic card-drafting board game is driven by gathering resources that aid in habitating and colonising Mars
Last update on 2024-04-24 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API
5. GeoGuessr
GEOGUESSR CHAMPION OF 2020 pic.twitter.com/jjwnH1y3V8
— Brennon Hook (@BrenCasts) April 2, 2020
OK, so it’s not technically a board game, but it plays quite like one and no list of travel games is complete without it. An online game played alone or with friends, GeoGuessr plonks you down at a semi-random location in Google Street View, and tasks you with working out where in the world you are. The tiniest details can yield clues – from different species of vegetation to markings on the roads. Oddly addictive, it’s procrastination perfection.
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