10 Days in Europe by Out of the Box Games is that rare boardgame that offers the perfect combination of a fun-filled and an educational experience. A simple and elegant game, 10 Days in Europe’s mix of luck and strategy wrapped around the “vacation in Europe” theme makes it appealing and accessible to a wide variety of ages.

All 10 Days games are based around the same idea: string together a 10-day trip using a combination of interconnected location and transportation tiles. In this edition, the locations are drawn from all of Europe (from Iceland to Turkey) and the transportation options include airplanes and boats. Each country has one tile (except for six of them, which have two) assigned to one of five colors, and there are ten Airplane Tiles (two per color) and nine Ship Tiles covering the Atlantic, Mediterranean and Baltic. The box also comes with four sets of wooden tile holders (two per set) tracking each day in the 10-day trip and the gorgeous game board.

At its core, 10 Days in Europe is a tile-arranging game that uses the board map for reference. You mix all the tiles together face down and each player proceeds to take ten tiles, placing them in their holder in any order they wish, though once placed it cannot be moved. The rest of the tiles are put into a pile and the top three are turned face up to form three discard piles. The idea is to try to make the best out of your initial tiles, and though serendipity sometimes smiles on you, you’ll most likely end up scratching your head trying to figure out how to make a trip out it all.

Each player in turn then has the chance to trade a tile in their holder for one on the table, be it one drawn from the face down draw pile, or from one of the top choices in the face up discard piles. This is the only way to move tiles in your holder around, and there’s always the risk that when you put a tile down, another player will take it. You string together countries by geographical proximity (some countries have bridges or ferries between them that make them connected), which is where the map comes in handy, and use transportation tiles to bridge gaps between them. Airplane Tiles can connect two countries of the same color and Ship Tiles connect countries that have at least one coast on that body of water. Once you have put together your 10-day trip, you win!

This is a great game for any travel enthusiast and an ideal fit for a family game night, especially if you are planning a trip to Europe in the near future. The game also has a high educational component, as each Country Tile lists the name of the country along with its capital, and the necessary use of the map for reference increases geographical knowledge through gameplay. You can check out a video demo of the game at the product page.

10 Days in Europe retails for $24.95, a good price for the high replay value you get out of it.

10 Days in Africa/Asia/the USA

The other three games in the series play the same way, though each introduces some variations in the modes of transportation. USA and Africa feature Automobile Tiles that allow you to connect two states/countries as long as these share a border with a third one in the middle (you’re in effect driving through it), and Asia introduces Railroad Tiles that allow you to connect two countries that lie along the established train routes on the map. I recommend all titles equally.