Date Night Every Night: Board Games for Two!

With just a few exceptions, my husband and I have had a date every night for the last year and a half! No, we don’t have a money tree to pay for babysitters, but we do have a standing date from 8:00 – 9:00 every evening after our kids are in bed. We pop some popcorn, pour our drinks, and then sit down … to play a board game. While I wouldn’t call these nightly dates very romantic, they have been really great for nurturing our relationship. It gives us a chance to spend quality time together, talk about our days, and enjoy some friendly competition. We usually move on to Netflix on the couch afterwards and zone out a bit with our phones, but for at least that hour every night, we are sitting across the table from each other, no electronics in hand.

Our foray into two-person board games started on New Years Eve 2017 when our friends brought over Ticket to Ride. We loved it and it wasn’t long before we bought our own copy (then an expansion pack, then the European version…) We probably played it every night for three months before my husband finally had enough and we started to add more games to our collection.

We love trying games before we buy them. Our favorite place to do that is Pawn and Pint down near City Market. They have a huge selection of games you can try out for a small fee, as well as food and drinks to enjoy while you play. They also have some games available to purchase and host themed game nights throughout the month.

We typically purchase our games from Tabletop Game and Hobby in Overland Park or at Target during one of their buy 2 get 1 free game sales. Other local game stores include Mission: Board Games in Mission, Game Cafe in Independence, and Level One Game Shop in the City Market.

Below is a list of our top 10 two-person games, in no particular order. I am linking to Amazon so you can check them out and read reviews, but I don’t recommend buying on Amazon because there are many cases of people getting knock-off games when they buy online. Shop at one of the many game stores around town if you can and they’ll make sure you get the real game, straight from the manufacturer!

  1. Ticket to Ride (with the 1910 expansion pack) and Ticket to Ride Europe
  2. Carcassonne (with expansion packs one and two)
  3. Splendor
  4. Pandemic
  5. Azul
  6. The Castles of Burgundy (our current obsession)
  7. Viticulture and the Tuscany expansion
  8. Race for the Galaxy
  9. Qwirkle
  10. Blokus (the travel or duo version are also great for 2 people, we own both!)

With the exception of a few, our 7-year-old is able to play many of these with us! Some do have kid versions (like Ticket to Ride: First Journey and Ticket to Ride Europe: First Journey).

I’d love to hear what games your family enjoys, as we are always looking to add new games to our collection!

Julia Willhite
I'm Julia and I live in Olathe with my husband of 16 years, my 10 and 6 year old daughters, and our rescue pug Mabel. I’m a social worker turned SAHM and love Dr. Pepper, thunderstorms, and talking to other adults. I hate coffee, diet culture, and washing dishes. I'll talk your ear off about the best local parks and which restaurants have wronged me by changing their long-standing menu items. I try to walk the line between knowing a lot of stuff and not being a know-it-all. Some days I'm better than others.

1 COMMENT

  1. Thanks for the recommendations! We love splendor and ticket to ride. We got pandemic as a gift but haven’t busted it out yet.

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