How to Play Ticket to Ride: Cards, Routes & Destination Tickets

Ticket to Ride is a route-building game on a map of North America. On each turn you take exactly one of three actions: draw Train Car cards, claim one route, or draw new Destination Tickets.

Setup basics

Each player starts with 45 trains and 4 Train Car cards. Deal 3 Destination Tickets to each player; each player must keep at least 2. Tickets remain secret until final scoring.

Action 1: draw Train Car cards

You normally draw two Train Car cards. Cards can come from the five face-up cards or from the top of the deck.

Locomotives are wild. If you take a face-up Locomotive as your first draw, that is your only card draw for the turn. A blind Locomotive drawn from the deck does not create that same face-up restriction.

Action 2: claim a route

Play a set of Train Car cards matching the route’s color and length, then place one of your plastic trains on every space of that route. Gray routes may be claimed with a set of one color.

You score route points immediately. Longer routes score increasingly more points per train.

Double routes

Some city pairs have two parallel routes. One player cannot claim both routes between the same two cities. In a 2- or 3-player game, once either side of a double route is claimed, the other side is closed.

Action 3: draw Destination Tickets

Draw 3 new Tickets when available and keep at least 1. Return any others to the bottom of the deck. Taking extra Tickets can increase your score, but failed Tickets subtract their printed value at the end.

Completing a Destination Ticket

You complete a Ticket if your own claimed routes create a continuous connection between the two named cities. The exact path does not need to resemble a straight line and the same network can satisfy multiple Tickets.

When does the last round start?

If a player ends their turn with 0, 1 or 2 trains remaining, the final round is triggered. Every player—including the triggering player—gets one final turn.

Final scoring

Add completed Destination Ticket values and subtract failed Ticket values. Then award the 10-point Longest Continuous Path bonus. Tied players for longest path each receive the bonus.

For all route values and path details, see Ticket to Ride Scoring: Routes, Tickets & Longest Path.

Common beginner mistakes

• Taking two face-up Locomotives in one turn.
• Claiming more than one route in the same turn.
• Using another player’s routes to complete a Destination Ticket.
• Forgetting the special double-route restriction at 2–3 players.
• Assuming the game ends immediately when someone reaches two trains; everyone still receives the final turn specified by the rules.

Related Ticket to Ride guides

See the Ticket to Ride game guide for the base USA game overview. Continue with Ticket to Ride Strategy. For the separate European game, use the Ticket to Ride Europe guide.