Trekking the World is a sequel game to 2014’s Trekking the National Parks, which itself got a fresh edition in 2017 and about which at least two readers have asked me recently. (It’s unrelated to PARKS, a highly acclaimed 2019 game that I thought was good but a little too short for its mechanics) It’s more than just a reimplementation, though, changing some core mechanics from the earlier game while keeping the general theme of encouraging exploration and teaching geography through a route-building and card-collection game.
The Trekking the World board has a map of the world with routes connecting various sites on the six inhabited continents, some of which are labelled with major natural or man-made tourist attractions, while the remainder are blank waypoints along the routes connecting the world. The waypoints are then filled with cubes of four colors, distributed randomly, which represent souvenirs that players can collect as they move about the world. Players move by means of their hand of Trek cards that show movement points of 1 to 3, and also come in various colors that match the Destination cards for each tourist attraction on the board. If you have the matching hand cards for a Destination and then go to that tourist attraction’s spot on the board, you can claim the Destination card. Worth 10-18 points apiece, they’re the biggest prize in the game.
There are other ways to gain points, however, so a player can’t be shut out if they target Destination cards that other players get first. One is by collecting sets of souvenirs; each set of four (one per color) is worth an increasing bonus, and the player with the most of each color gets a game-end bonus. Another is by collecting the last souvenir token on each continent, which yields a random and hidden bonus of 3 to 6 points.
On a turn, a player must move if they have any cards in hand, and then may take an optional action: draw two more Trek cards, complete a Destination card, or use one of the two Journey cards on the board for a special move. Those journey cards amount to a more powerful double action, such as allowing movement and completion of a Destination, or allowing fulfillment of a Destination card for fewer Trek cards than it would ordinarily require, but getting them also means giving up valuable Trek cards you might want for movement, so their power is blunted by the turns you give up to use them.
At its most basic, Trekking the World is a light and easy-to-understand family game with two educational aspects to make it more appealing to parents. The Destination cards contain brief explanation of each tourist attraction, and they’re all situated on the world map in a way that can help kids (and, in some cases, adults) learn where they’re located. The movement mechanic is really easy to follow, and the way you trade in Trek cards for Destinations is the most complex thing in the whole game. The fact that most movement early in the game yields a souvenir cube is also a big positive, so that no turn seems fruitless until very late in the game. The whole thing ends when one player gets their fifth Destination card or when five of the six continent bonus tiles are claimed.
My one complaint with Trekking the World is a rule you could always alter for your own purposes. Another player’s token blocks both the city on which it stands and the route through that city. I suppose it increases the need for efficient route-finding, or just increases the competitive aspect if you wanted to actively try to thwart an opponent for a turn (you can’t stay put), but in practice, it’s extremely frustrating, and it doesn’t fit with the theme of exploration. If you’re traveling the world, you aren’t forced to skip visiting Angkor Wat because there’s (checks notes) one tourist there already, and you don’t have to skip flying through Heathrow because there’s (checks notes again) one passenger already in the terminal. This is a family game at heart, but this one rule makes it family-unfriendly. I’d house-rule it to allow passage through an occupied space, at the very least.
I’d give Trekking the World a passing grade, a solid 50, good enough to recommend if you want a game to play with your kids where they’ll learn a little something along the way and can compete reasonably well with older players. Just consider the ages of the younger players when deciding whether to alter the rule on movement, and tailor it to your particular group. For older players, I’d say give it a pass – there are better games of route-building and set collection, like Thurn and Taxis (out of print again), Concordia, or Thebes.