How to Play the Ticket to Ride Card Game

Ticket to Ride is a bestselling games and for good reason. It’s fun, challenging but not too hard and it has a great theme. We have been obsessed with this game. But did you know there is a Ticket To Ride Card Game? We knew we had to give it a try.

Ticket to Ride is a modern classic that fits right in with the classics like Clue, Scattergories, Taboo and Mastermind.

In this post we’ll go over how to play, the rules, what we liked and didn’t like and how it compares to the original game. Let’s get to it.

This post may contain affiliate links. I receive a small commission at no cost to you when you make a purchase using my link.

Setting up Ticket to Ride Card Game

First, I want to say that when we first opened the game it seemed complex and intimidating. I do remember feeling the same when friends introduced us to the original game. But as like with the original, it’s not nearly as complicate as it seems.

Next, we’ll tell you about the cards. There are wild cards, colours cards and Destination cards. These are all similar to the original game.

We’ll start with a two or three player game. For a four player game, see the rules below.

To start, each player gets one wild card and seven random colour cards. They also get 6 destination cards. Each player must keep at least 1 destination card but can keep as many as 6 cards. You shuffle any unwanted cards back into the deck.

Next, you place the top five cards of the colour card deck on the table as the draw area, face up. Last, lay the Big City Bonus cards out so that everyone can see them. (these come into effect at the end of the game.)

Now we’re ready to play.

Playing Ticket to Ride Card Game

The playing of a turn is where this game gets a little mind-boggling with choices. On a player’s first turn, she can choose to take more destination tickets. If she does this, then that is her whole turn. She collects 4 new destination card and can keep all four but can return any or all of them.

Next, she can choose to draw cards. For this, she would either take two cards from the draw deck or ones from the face up cards in the draw area. If she chooses to pick up a wild card from the draw area, she only gets the one card.

Last, she can choose to place cards in her railyard. This area is the space in front of her on the table. Cards place here are face up for others to see. When placing cards here you can either place three cards of different colours or any number of cards of one colour. For example, you could place one card of red, blue and green. Or you could place 5 yellow cards. To place a wild card here, you place them with a stack of colour cards. For example, if you are placing the yellow cards done, you can add the wild cards to the stack, so instead of 5 yellow cards, you would place 5 yellow and 2 wild.

The other rule about placing cards in your railyard, is that you can’t place any card that matches the colour found in someone else’s railyard. For example, if another player has a purple card in his railyard, you can’t put a purple in yours. There is one exception. If you have more card of that colour than is in someone else’s railyard, you can place them. For example, if someone has two yellow down, you can place three or more yellow cards in your railyard.

When you place more cards of a colour that someone has down, that player must discard that colour of cards.

Trust me, it is not as difficult as it sounds.

Round Two

For a player’s second turn there is one more step. Before drawing any cards, you have to move cards from your railyard to your on-the-track stack. This stack of cards is placed face down and can’t be looked at once cards are placed there. These are the cards that will be used for scoring at the end of the round. Any wild cards found in this stack can be used as any colour, despite what colour they were placed in the railyard as.

To place card in the stack, you take the bottom most card of every colour and place it face down on the stack.

After placing card in the stack, the player chooses what move to make next, draw cards, draw destinations or place cards.

Here’s a summary of a turn:

A – place the bottom card of each colour in the railyard into the stack
B – chose either 1 – draw more destinations (4)
2 – collect cards either 2 from the top, 2 from the draw ears (or one from the draw and one from the draw area) or 1 wild card form the draw area
3 – place cards in your railyard (making sure on one else has that colour down)

When the deck runs out

Play continues until there are no more cards in the draw pile. When this happens, all players get one more turn, including the player who drew the last card. After that player’s last turn, the game moves on to scoring.

Scoring Ticket to Ride Card Game

First, you only use cards in the on-the-track stack in completing destinations.

The first part of scoring is to determine what destination cards have been accomplished. To do this, each player turns over there stack and matches the colour dots on the destination cards. The wild card can be used to fill in as any colour. You can only use a card once.

All destination cards that have been completed are added together. Any unfinished destination cards are subtracted from the score.

Now you score for the Big City Bonus cards. The player with the most completed cards that go to the city on the card wins the card and that many points are added to their score. For example, if player A goes to Dallas three times and player B goes 5 times then player B picks up the Dallas card and adds 10 points to her score.

If two players have the same amount of cards that go to that location, they both earn the points for that card.

Winning Ticket to Ride Card game

When all the Big City Bonuses have been won, players reveal their scores. The player with the most points wins.

Four Player Game

The four player game is played the same with one change. When the last card of the draw pile is taken, all players have one more turn. They then start the scoring process. They look through their stack and match cards to their destination cards. When they have finished, any unfinished destination cards and any colour cards in a players hand are kept secret and in play. All colour cards not in hands, are gathered and reshuffled.

Now the draw area is reloaded with cards and each player gets 4 new cards. Play continues the same as before until the last card of the draw pile is taken. Play and scoring are the same as before.

What We Like

We like that Ticket to Ride Card Game is similar enough to the original that it was easier to learn and had the same feel. The art work and quality are top notch. The time it takes to play is a nice compact game. It also uses a small amount of space.

What We Didn’t Like

Although this is a simple enough game to play, the starting learning curve feels huge. We also feel that there isn’t much player interaction. Of course, as I was writing this post, I see that we missed the rule where a player has to discard a colour if you place more of that colour in your railyard.

It seems like mostly a memory game that you’re playing by yourself. And although I’m okay with that kind of game, I wasn’t excepting it from this game.

We also don’t like the way that the game ends. Yes, on your last turn you can add to your stack but other than that, there is no point to it.

Lastly, the original game helps teach geography as you get to see the map and where the cities are and how they are connected. With the cards, the places don’t really matter.

How Does it Compare to the Original?

Well, the quality is the same. There is some similar game play which is good. However, as we said it feels more like a solo game, which was a disappointment. Also, the connection to the cities and visual aspect are missing.

The game play time is less than the original and so it the space need. We love the original but it does require a large table space.

Is it Worth Adding Ticket to Ride Card Game to your Family Game Shelf?

If you love Ticket to Ride, this might be a good addition to your game shelf. Also, if you like more memory games, then this would be a good one. Over all, we prefer the original one.

To get your copy of Ticket to Ride card game, shop here. Canadians here. If you want to grab a copy of one of the many Ticket To Ride original games, shop here. Canadians here.

For more fun, visit our Family Game Shelf shop where you’ll find tons of fun with seasonal and original games like our seasonal Word Hunter games where you have only one word to get your team to hunt the right word.

Rating: