It’s no secret I love train travel. And in our family, it’s also no secret I love board games. Which is why I adore Ticket to Ride  — a board game based on train travel through various countries and continents.

Several years ago one of my sons and his family introduced us to Ticket to Ride, and we’ve been hooked ever since. I say hooked, but I really should say obsessed … to the point where one version or another of Ticket to Ride is always set up on our dining table … and we eat around it. To the point where my husband and I play four or five games in an evening. To the point where my husband made wooden card holders

(so we don’t have to hold a fistful of cards), along with fancy boxes to hold the cardholders made out of reclaimed hardwoods. But I suppose the real evidence of our addiction is we packed a separate bag with a few versions of the game to take on a train trip to Atlanta a few years ago.

Days of Wonder publishes Ticket to Ride in several editions, with a new one introduced almost every year. Our initiation began with the original Ticket to Ride, which includes destinations throughout North America. Then we played the Asia version with our son’s family. We soon realized we could not wait for them to bring the game by on a visit, so we started collecting our own, starting with Europe, then moving on to India (with Switzerland on the other side of the board), the Netherlands, the United Kingdom with Pennsylvania on the other side, Africa and, most recently, France and Germany.

Each version consists of a board map with rail routes connecting the cities (or countries), plastic train cars you place on the tracks to claim a route and decks of destination tickets and train cards of various colors you collect in order to claim the train routes.

You can pick up the rules for each game in about five minutes. Since each edition has its own specific set of rules, that’s important. And I also love that — unlike, say, Monopoly — the game plays quickly, most versions taking about 30 to 60 minutes. Even our grandkids love to play the game with us — Ticket to Ride is suitable for ages 8 and up, but we’ve had 6- and 7-year-olds catch on and even win. That said, it remains a challenging game for adults, whether you have an ongoing competition between two people or five players all vying for the same tracks.

The ultimate version — Rails and Sails — came out in 2016 and includes the world map on one side and the Great Lakes on the other. Players must not only claim rail routes with their train cars but also water routes with ships, sometimes circumnavigating the globe.

I highly recommend Ticket to Ride, whatever version, for family game nights or get-togethers with friends. What’s fun about playing the game with kids, however, is their curiosity about the destinations. And it’s interesting for adults as well since each map is based on the country in a particular year in history. For example, the India map is based on the year 1911, during the British Raj, so cities retain the “old” names, like Bombay and Calcutta. It’s easy to sneak in a little history lesson while enjoying competitive play!

— Jan Hecht, senior editor