10 Days in the USA Review

boardgamequest.com:

We review 10 Days in the USA, a family weight game published by The Op. 10 Days in the USA is both an educational and fun game for families.

I’m always on the lookout for good educational games to play with my kids—emphasis on the word “good” as those seem few and far between. As a big fan of geography, I’ve had my eye on the “10 Days in” games for a while, so I was happy to see this recent reprint from The Op!

In 10 Days in the USA 2-4 players race to be the first to complete their ten day trip by arranging their cards to make connections from state to state. Playtime is about 30 minutes and the suggested age is 8+, though my 6-year-old was able to play with a little assistance.

The game board is a map of the US and there is a deck consisting of 50 state cards and 16 transportation cards. At the start of the game, each player is given trays to hold their cards, with a slot for each of the 10 days players are traveling in the country, then they draw cards from the shared deck, one at a time, placing them into any empty slot in the card trays. The object is to arrange your cards to form a cohesive trip.

Once all players have filled their card trays, they then take turns drawing cards from the deck, or taking the top face-up card from any one of the three discard piles. They may either replace a card in their tray with the new card, or discard it to one of the discard piles. Connections are created when you play a state card next to another state card that shares a border with it on the map, or when you place an airplane card between two states of the same color. Players may also skip a state in their journey by playing a van card, which essentially acts as a wild card. For example, you could have Oregon in your Day 1 slot, a van in your Day 2 slot, and Montana in your day 3 slot. The first player to complete a contiguous 10-day journey wins the game.

The premise of the game is simple, but engaging. The length, which is about 30 minutes or less, feels just right for