Ticket to Ride is often the first modern board game in a house, and when it works, the next question is what to buy after it. Most lists answer with any well-known family game. That is not much help, because people like Ticket to Ride for different reasons.
Some like the map: joining one city to another and blocking someone else’s line. Some like the cards: building a hand of one color until it is enough to buy something. And some just like that it is easy to teach and over in under an hour. This list sorts five games by which of those they give you more of, so you can skip the ones built around the part you did not care about.
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The Short Answer
- You liked drawing the routes? Next Station: London. You draw subway lines across a map of London.
- You liked the routes and want something quicker? Railroad Ink: Deep Blue Edition, a roll and write that plays in 15 to 30 minutes.
- You liked collecting cards by color? Splendor. Cards and gem chips in place of trains, with the same build up and cash in rhythm.
- You liked building something on the table? Carcassonne. Roads and cities appear tile by tile.
- You want a similar weight and length, with a calmer feel? Cascadia. Fewer ways to block the other players.
If you have not bought Ticket to Ride yet, start with our Ticket to Ride review. If you already own it and want more maps for the same box, see Ticket to Ride Map Collections.
What Ticket to Ride Actually Does
On each turn in Ticket to Ride you do one thing: take train cards, claim a route on the map with cards of the matching color (gray routes take any one color), or take more destination tickets. The tickets are secret. Each one names two cities, and you score it at the end if your trains connect them, or lose its points if they do not.
Three things come out of that, and they are what the games below are sorted on:
- Routes on a map. You are joining places, and someone can take the route you needed.
- Collecting by color. You save up cards of one color, then spend them all at once.
- A short list of choices. One action per turn, which is why it is easy to teach to someone who has never played a modern board game.
No game below has all three the way Ticket to Ride does. Each one keeps one or two of them and changes the rest.
Quick Comparison
| Game | Publisher | Players | Age | Length | What it shares with Ticket to Ride |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ticket to Ride (for reference) | Days of Wonder | 2 to 5 | 8+ | 30 to 60 minutes | All three |
| Next Station: London | Blue Orange | 1 to 4 | 8+ | About 25 minutes | Routes on a map |
| Railroad Ink: Deep Blue Edition | Horrible Guild | 1 to 6 | 8+ | 15 to 30 minutes | Routes, connecting exits |
| Splendor | Space Cowboys | 2 to 4 | 10+ | About 30 minutes | Collecting by color |
| Carcassonne | Z-Man Games | 2 to 5 | 7+ | About 35 minutes | Roads on a growing map |
| Cascadia | AEG and Flatout Games | 1 to 4 | 10+ | About 45 minutes | Weight and length |
Players, ages and lengths come from the publishers’ pages and the boxes. All five had an offer on Amazon for delivery in the US on November 2, 2026.
1. Next Station: London
1 to 4 players | Ages 8+ | About 25 minutes | Blue Orange
This is the closest of the five to the part of Ticket to Ride that happens on the map. Everyone gets the same map of London and a pencil. Each turn a card is turned over showing a station shape, and every player extends their subway line to a station of that shape, at the same time.
Blue Orange describes the goal as drawing four underground lines over the game, one after another. You score for how many districts a line reaches, for tourist sites along it, and for crossing under the Thames.
The big difference from Ticket to Ride is that everyone draws on their own sheet. Nobody can take the route you were planning. If the best moment in Ticket to Ride for you is claiming the route someone else needed, this does not have it.
Best if: you liked joining places on a map, and you would rather everyone play at the same time than wait for your turn.
Worth knowing: on November 2, 2026, the Amazon offer was from a third-party seller, Noble Knight Games, not from Amazon itself.
2. Railroad Ink: Deep Blue Edition
1 to 6 players | Ages 8+ | 15 to 30 minutes | Horrible Guild
Railroad Ink keeps the routes and cuts the length to 30 minutes or less. It is a roll and write: dice are rolled in the middle of the table, and every player draws the road and railway pieces shown on the dice onto their own erasable board.
Horrible Guild sets out the scoring. Each exit on the edge of your board that your routes connect earns points, and every open end of a route left unconnected at the end costs points. So each roll asks the same question Ticket to Ride asks with tickets: push on toward a far connection, or settle for a shorter one you know you can finish.
The Deep Blue Edition adds River and Lake dice, which bring their own rules on top of the roads and rails. Horrible Guild says boxes can be combined for more players, with the boards as the only limit.
Best if: you want the planning part of the tickets in a game short enough to play twice in a row.
Worth knowing: on November 2, 2026, the Amazon offer was from a third-party seller, Modellbahn Ott Hobbies, not from Amazon itself.
3. Splendor
2 to 4 players | Ages 10+ | About 30 minutes | Space Cowboys
Splendor has no map at all. It is here for the other half of Ticket to Ride: saving up by color and then spending it. On your turn you take gem chips or use them to buy a card. Every card you buy gives you a permanent discount in its color on later cards, and reaching 15 points ends the game at the end of that round.
The feel is close to waiting for the last green train card. You build toward something, someone else might take it first, and the turn you finally buy it is the one you remember. Like Ticket to Ride, a turn is one simple choice, so it is easy to teach.
Best if: the cards were your favorite part, and the map was just where you spent them.
Worth knowing: the box says 10 and up, two years higher than Ticket to Ride.
4. Carcassonne
2 to 5 players | Ages 7+ | About 35 minutes | Z-Man Games
In Ticket to Ride the map is printed and you fight over it. In Carcassonne the map does not exist yet. Each turn you draw a tile and add it to the table, extending roads, cities and fields, and you can place one of your followers on a road or city to claim it.
That brings back the part of Ticket to Ride where two players want the same thing. You can join your road into someone else’s, or place a tile that makes their city very hard to finish. Turns are short, one tile and maybe one follower, like Ticket to Ride.
Best if: you liked watching a map fill up over the game, and you want something you can play with a seven-year-old.
Worth knowing: Carcassonne comes in many boxes, including big boxes with expansions inside. The card below is the base game. It is also on our list of entry-level board games.
5. Cascadia
1 to 4 players | Ages 10+ | About 45 minutes | AEG and Flatout Games
Cascadia is the pick for a table that liked how Ticket to Ride felt more than any one part of it: easy to learn, a similar length, and something to look at as it grows. On your turn you take a habitat tile and an animal token as a pair and add them to your own area.
AEG explains the scoring. Each animal has its own pattern it scores for, and you also score for your largest connected area of each habitat. The animal goals change from game to game, so the puzzle is different each time.
The difference is how little you get in each other’s way. Tiles and animals are taken from a shared row, so the most you can do is take a pair someone else wanted. If blocking was the part of Ticket to Ride that caused arguments at your table, that is a reason to choose this one.
Best if: you want a calmer game of a similar weight, for players ten and up.
Worth knowing: there are several Cascadia boxes, including Cascadia Junior, a Landmarks expansion and roll and write versions. The card below is the original game. On November 2, 2026, it was sold on Amazon by Alderac Entertainment (AEG), the publisher.
What We Left Out, and Why
- Other Ticket to Ride boxes. Europe, the map collections and First Journey are more Ticket to Ride, not something like it. They have their own guide: Ticket to Ride Map Collections.
- Trekking the National Parks. A good fit on paper, collecting cards to reach places on a map of the US, but it had no seller on Amazon US on November 2, 2026.
- Catan. Often named next to Ticket to Ride, but it plays very differently: trading, dice and a longer game. If it interests you, start with which Catan box to buy.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the closest game to Ticket to Ride?
Ticket to Ride Europe is the closest, because it is the same game on a different map. Outside the Ticket to Ride family, Next Station: London is the closest on this list, since you build routes across a map. Like Railroad Ink, it does not let you block anyone.
Which of these can I play with two people?
All five list two players. Next Station: London, Railroad Ink and Cascadia also list one, so they can be played solo.
Which is best with kids?
Carcassonne has the lowest age on the box, 7 and up. Next Station: London and Railroad Ink are 8 and up, the same as Ticket to Ride. Splendor and Cascadia are 10 and up.
Which one is quickest?
Railroad Ink, at 15 to 30 minutes. Next Station: London lists about 25 minutes.
Which one works for a big group?
Railroad Ink lists up to six players in one box. Carcassonne lists up to five, the same as Ticket to Ride. The other three stop at four.
Do I need to learn Ticket to Ride first?
No. None of these depend on it. If you want to know how Ticket to Ride itself plays before you compare, see how to play Ticket to Ride.
Where to Start
If the routes were the best part, buy Next Station: London.
If you want the shortest routes game here, buy Railroad Ink: Deep Blue Edition.
If the cards were the best part, buy Splendor.
If you are playing with a seven-year-old, buy Carcassonne.
If you want a similar length with less blocking, buy Cascadia.
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