Play Travellers Solitaire Online for Free (Travellers Patience)
What is Travellers Solitaire?
Travellers Solitaire, also called Travellers' Patience, is a single-deck card game in which 52 cards are dealt into thirteen face-down piles of four. Twelve piles are named Ace through Queen and the thirteenth serves as the reserve. You flip the top card of the reserve and shuttle it to its matching pile, then flip the top card of that pile and keep going. The game plays itself once it begins; the only question is whether the cards fall in the right order.
Travellers Solitaire history
Mary Whitmore Jones first published Travellers' Patience in 1888, but the shuttling concept dates back to Wandering Card from 1869. David Parlett groups these games under the "shuttler" label because each turn follows the same rhythmical pattern: place a card, reveal another, repeat. Travellers became the most widely printed version of the family through the 20th century and remains a popular quick-play patience game today.
How to play Travellers Solitaire
- Deal thirteen piles of 4 cards, all face-down. Piles 1 through 12 are named Ace through Queen. Pile 13 is the reserve.
- Flip the top card of the reserve pile. This is the first traveller.
- Place the traveller face-up under the pile matching its rank. Aces go to pile 1, Twos to pile 2, and so on up to Queens at pile 12.
- Flip the top card of the destination pile and continue shuttling.
- Kings return to the reserve pile (pile 13). After placing a King, flip the next reserve card to keep the game moving.
- Win if the fourth King is the very last card revealed. Lose if the fourth King appears while face-down cards remain in other piles.
Strategies to win Travellers Solitaire
Because Travellers is a purely mechanical game with no player decisions, there is no strategy that can change the outcome once the cards are dealt. The result is fixed at the moment of the shuffle. Some players enjoy reshuffling repeatedly to chase the rare win, while others treat it as a meditative card-turning exercise. If you want a shuttler game where the initial card choice matters, try Hide and Seek Solitaire, which lets you pick the starting pile.
Travellers Solitaire rules and objective
The goal is to sort every card into its matching pile so that each numbered pile holds four cards of its rank (four Aces in pile 1, four Twos in pile 2, and so on). The game ends immediately when the fourth King is returned to the reserve. If all other cards have already been sorted, you win. If face-down cards remain elsewhere, you lose.
Game setup
| Element | Detail |
|---|---|
| Deck | Standard 52 cards |
| Layout | 13 piles of 4 cards, all face-down |
| Pile names | Piles 1-12 = Ace through Queen; pile 13 = reserve |
| Kings | Return to the reserve pile (pile 13) |
| Objective | Each pile holds 4 cards of its named rank |
| Player decisions | None, purely mechanical shuttling |
Travellers Solitaire variants
Travellers belongs to a family of shuttling patience games that share the same core mechanic but differ in layout, starting rules, and King handling.
- Clock Solitaire: arranges the 13 piles in a circular clock-face dial with Kings sent to the centre.
- Four of a Kind: uses a grid layout and checks piles in sequential order.
- Hidden Cards: deals face-up in a 2x6 grid with reserve-fed shuttling.
- Hide and Seek: starts from the Ace pile, giving the player one initial choice.
- Wandering Card: the 1869 ancestor with a set-aside matching phase.
- Spoilt: a variant where the bottom card of each pile is checked after the King stops play.
How difficult is Travellers Solitaire?
Travellers is one of the hardest patience games to win because the player has zero influence on the outcome. Once the cards are shuffled and dealt, the entire sequence is predetermined. The game either resolves itself or it does not. Most deals end in a loss when the fourth King surfaces too early and strands unturned cards across the remaining piles.
What is Travellers Solitaire's win percentage?
Travellers Solitaire has an estimated win rate of about 1%. Computer simulations across millions of shuffled deals consistently show that roughly 1 in 100 games results in a win. This is nearly identical to Clock Solitaire, which uses the same mechanic in a circular layout. The low odds make every win feel genuinely rare.
What is the difference between Travellers Solitaire and Clock Solitaire?
Travellers and Clock share the same shuttling mechanic but differ in visual layout and King handling. Clock arranges piles in a circular dial resembling a clock face, with the King pile in the centre. Travellers lays its 13 piles in straight rows, and Kings return to pile 13 (the reserve). The win and loss conditions are identical: the fourth King must be the final card. The two games have the same statistical win rate of about 1%, and neither offers player decisions during play.
| Feature | Travellers | Clock |
|---|---|---|
| Layout | 13 piles in rows | 12 piles in a circle + centre |
| Kings go to | Reserve pile (pile 13) | Centre pile |
| Starting card | Top of reserve pile | Top of centre pile |
| Win rate | About 1% | About 1% |
| Player input | None | None |
Travellers Solitaire FAQ
Can I improve my odds in Travellers Solitaire?
No. Travellers is completely mechanical with no player decisions. The outcome is determined entirely by the initial shuffle. The only way to get a different result is to reshuffle and deal again.
Why do Kings end the game in Travellers?
Kings are sent back to the reserve pile (pile 13). Since the reserve is the source of new traveller cards, each King placed there effectively uses up one slot. When the fourth King arrives, the reserve is fully occupied by Kings and cannot produce another traveller, so the game stops.
Is Travellers Solitaire the same as Clock Patience?
They are close relatives but not identical. Both use the shuttling mechanic and have the same win condition, but Clock lays its piles in a circular dial while Travellers uses straight rows. The win rate and gameplay flow are effectively the same.
How long does a game of Travellers Patience take?
A single game of Travellers takes roughly 2 to 4 minutes. Because there are no choices to make, the pace is limited only by how quickly you flip and place cards. Online versions finish even faster since the animation handles each step automatically.
What happens if I flip a card that matches its own pile?
If the card you flip already belongs to the pile it came from (for example, flipping an Ace from pile 1), you place it back under that pile and flip the next card from the same pile. The shuttling continues as normal. This counts as a successful placement even though the card did not travel to a different pile.