Trekking the World can serve a few purposes in a collection. If traveling is one of your hobbies or interests, you will probably get even more enjoyment out of the location descriptions and amazing art. Reminiscing over past trips can add to the overall experience. Those conversations will come about naturally through the gameplay. To begin, souvenir cubes are randomly drawn from a bag and placed on the location spaces around the board. Region bonus tokens are also randomly placed face-down on their spaces next to each region. The Destination cards are shuffled and 4 are placed face-up next to the board and the 3-point and 5-point tokens are placed next to the farthest right Destination cards. Bonus point tokens next to the rightmost Destinations will grant extra points for Touring these awesome locations.

If the player collects the last Souvenir cube in a Region, they also claim that Region’s Bonus token. They can look at it and keep it face-down next to their suitcase (for scoring at the end of the game). The numbers on the cards are used to traveling that distance. From a presentation standpoint, Trekking the World is every bit as charming as National Parks. Instead of using photographs for the Destination cards, here the artwork is gorgeously illustrated, an impressionist swirl of high-saturation hues. Each card has several paragraphs of information on the real-life locations, perfect for school-age children. While wooden cubes replace the previous game’s colored stones, the fantastic leathery bag that holds them feels just as nice as before. This is a game that needs to be played with an open mind and flexibility. While it has a dressing of a fairly strategic game, it is ultimately more tactical. You will need to plan several turns ahead, but if someone gets to something before you, you may be starting from zero again. With there only being five destinations to tour at a time and two of those destinations being worth 3 or 5 bonus points, you are bound to clash with someone else on the board. For that reason, I think this game is best at two to three players. With each player beyond that, you’ll feel like you have less control over how well your plans pan out. At the start of the game, two random Journey effects are selected. These stay in place for the whole game. If there is a cube at the location you finish at, you may take it an place it on your suitcase. If you at any time collect the most souvenirs, or are the first one to reach the star of a color of souvenirs. You can claim the most souvenirs tile of that color. This also means, if another player has the yellow souvenirs tile with three cubes, but you collect four cubes and have now the most yellow souvenirs, you claim the tile from the other player. The souvenirs tiles give you more points at the end of the game. If you collect the last souvenir in a region, you may also take the region bonus token. These tokens will also provide you with bonus points at the end of the game.The Destination cards then all shift to the right and a new Destination card is revealed. Discard cards matching the symbols on a Destination card to Tour (claim) it. I’m Touring the Taj Mahal. Trekking the World scores high on our “let’s play again” game meter because of its simple and fun game play plus it’s visual appeal. But mostly we enjoy it because of the light strategy involved as we outlined above.

The game ends when 5 of the 6 Region Bonus tokens have been claimed, or when a player Tours their fifth Destination card. Whereas, in 5-player games, there’s more opportunity to sweep things out from under other players just before they do — or have that happen to you. So it will definitely feel like a race to grab things while you can. Since the Souvenir cubes are open information, players can make strategic moves to snag cubes of certain colors to get a particular Souvenir bonus tile as well as for completing sets of Souvenirs. Players can also make strategically timed moves to grab the last cube in a Region to walk away with the Bonus token.If there is a Souvenir cube on the location they finish on, they take the cube and add it to their Suitcase (in the left-most space for that color). If after placing the cube in their suitcase, they have at least 2 of that color and have more of that color than any other player, they claim the Most Souvenir tile for that souvenir. Each player chooses a Trekker and places them on one of the airport locations to begin. They also get a Suitcase sheet that matches their Trekker’s color. Lastly, the Trek cards are shuffled and each player is dealt 3 cards to form their starting hand. The rest of the Trek cards are placed next to the board in a draw pile and 4 are placed face-up. If a player begins their turn on an Airport location, they may first choose to Fly to another airport as a special pre-turn action. Final Score: 3 Stars – Amazing art and production elevate a decent gateway game with a pleasant theme of world travel Players total up their points from Destinations Toured, Region Bonus tokens, Victory Point tokens, Most Souvenir tiles, and sets of Souvenirs (completed columns of souvenir cubes in their suitcase). The player with the most points is the winner! Souvenir cubes go in your suitcase.

Trekking the World is an easy to learn family board game where players traverse the continents, visit popular destinations, and collect souvenirs in a race to score the most points. But there are also a number of strategic elements to the game. Getting the most Souvenirs of one type will get you the bonus point tiles.Depending on your outlook, this could be the best-timed release or the worst-timed release, seeing as world travel is currently restricted due to a global pandemic. To me, it’s a pleasant reminder of what was and, hopefully, will be again soon. Trekking the World is a 2-5 player game that takes about 1 hour to play. The gameplay is centered around route planning and set collection. Gameplay Overview: We’ve also found the game plays well at all player counts. So whether it’s just two of us going head-to-head or a full 5-player game with a crowded board, the game is just as fun. Collecting enough Souvenir cubes of any one color can earn you the matching Most Souvenirs tile, which is worth Victory Points. In Trekking the World, players are competing to score the most victory points. Players earn victory points by collecting sets of souvenirs (colored cubes), touring destinations, and achieving various bonus scoring. Trek Cards can be played for movement, taking a journey, or touring a destination.