Geography Quest: Game Edition
Learning geography is perfect at any age. You only need the right tools for the job. Geography Quests are family geography adventures that work for multiple ages in any homeschool. Geography Quest Game Edition is a list of fantastic games with a geography theme.
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This post is also day two of Family Geography Using Geography Quests.
I hope you’ll find some practical advice on how to have fun with geography as a family.
Our family loves to play games.
How about you?
Here’s a list of the geography themed games in our closet.
Which are your favorites?
Games for United States Geography
- Where in the US is Carmen Sandiego ?– This one is still around in software form and it’s easy to pick up at used sales. While its world counterpart has gone out of date, the U.S. edition is fun to play and is still relevant.
- Scrambled States of America (and the card game version)- based on the book, The Scrambled States of America, these fun games reinforce state spellings and shapes.
- Ticket to Ride– Best with the expansion, this game is loads of fun and helps to familiarize players with the continental U.S. and its Canadian border to the north. You have to build routes by collecting train tickets.
- Ticket to Ride New York– a small game based on New York City
- Borderline (U.S.)– a card game where you lay down cards that border ones that have been placed down.
- Great States– This game touts landmarks and state industry along with state capitols and a detailed map for reference.
- Great States Junior– great little game for primary kids on US Geography. You can match state shapes and learn state spellings or what states begin with M, for example. One card set is all landmarks for each state and the board is big and colorful for players to reference.
- 10 Days in the USA– this is a tough game where you try to build a ten day itinerary with some rules that make it more difficult- like not being able to switch your cards after you first place them.
Games for World Geography
- Ticket to Ride Europe (and the expansion)- There are a few European versions which focus on one country or region of Europe, but this is the whole of Europe and it has rules not introduced in the original version.
- Ticket to Ride Rails & Sails– this one has the world map on one side and the Great Lakes on the other and includes traveling by boat in addition to trains. The trick is to estimate well how many boats you will need because you must decide at the start of the game.
- Ticket to Ride France– with the Old West on the reverse of the board. In this version, you have to lay down track before you can play down trains.
- Pandemic– stop the world from being destroyed by disease. This is a cooperative game that is tough to win, but you’ll be familiar with cities all over the world as you try and cure and eradicate disease!
- Ticket to Ride United Kingdom– on the back side is Pennsylvania which is one of our favorite editions!
- Ticket to Ride Africa– this one introduces terrain as part of earning points and laying down routes.
- Ticket to Ride India– two sides and the opposite side is Switzerland. Each of the Ticket to Ride games introduces a different mechanic.
- Ticket to Ride Asia– with a team version on one side along with a IndoChina journey
- Ticket to Ride Nordic Countries– one of our favorite versions! This is a great 2-3 player game and will familiarize you with Scandinavia
- Ticket to Ride Germany– we have the older Marklin version which introduces passengers for the ride.
- Ticket to Ride Netherlands– another expansion that is country specific
- Ticket to Ride Poland– the newest in our collection
- Ticket to Ride Berlin– a ten to fifteen version of the larger games focusing in on a city, rather than a country
- Ticket to Ride New York– a smaller version of the larger game that can be played in a short amount of time. These are great for teens and tweens who can’t sit through a long game.
- Ticket to Ride London– another smaller game
- Ticket to Ride San Fransisco – another city game that is small
- Ticket to Ride Amsterdam– a short, city gameTicket to Ride France– the flip side of this one has the American Old West and has a few new mechanics of how you can lay trains down. France has you actually building track. That’s strange to me! I wonder why you don’t lay track in the old west?
- Ticket to Ride Japan– this version introduces bullet trains which makes the strategy different
- Merchants & Marauders– for a look at the Caribbean Sea in history
- Cardline Globetrotter– it plays like Timeline, but you use various geography metrics to see where the card will be placed. This is a great option if you don’t want to take a lot of time to play!
- Borderline– a card game where you build on opportunity with border cards you hold.
- Around the World in 80 Days– based on the book by Jules Verne. You get the sequence in which the trip was taken along with the general setting of the story in a game.
- RISK/Axis & Allies– allows kids to have some general geography awareness with necessarily being entirely accurate. RISK is all about world domination, but Axis and Allies is a World War II themed game. So, if you have any WWII buffs (like I do), this game is a lot like RISK but way more detailed and you have different resources to work with like planes and a navy.
- 10 Days in the Americas– This is the newest of the 10 Days series of games and concentrates on the geography of North and South America.
- 10 Days in Europe– Travel around Europe by foot or car in this itinerary building game.
- 10 Days in Asia– This map includes Oceania and the rest of Asia. You can travel by boat, car, railroad and it’s the most intricate of the 10 Days series.
- 10 Days in Africa– All about the continent of Africa you can travel by air, car, or foot. You’ll know the countries in Africa in no time after playing this one a few times.
Make Your Own Geography Games
We make our own games as well.
Ethan, our oldest, made a Truth about New York game in late middle school which plays like Monopoly only you can build parks and monuments instead of hotels and houses among other things.
The first time he hand made the cards and once it was destined for the New York State Fair, he upped his “game” and worked out the cards on the computer. It came home with a blue!
Find out more about making your own games from materials and resources to themes for games in the post Adventures with Games.
In the game Conversion, you are a missionary who is trying to convert the peoples to Christianity. The geography in this game is Europe (in the Middle Ages).
Get a Geography Travel Journal Page
Games are fun way to go Geography Questing as a family.
Pull out your favorite game and play today.
Better yet, work on plans to make your own game.
So glad to see this post! We love games and I’ve been thinking of adding some geography games that are outside of learning states and capitals 🙂
haha I left off a few state capitals games now that you mention it.