Travle Strategy – Country Routes, Borders and Shortest Paths
Find a shortest country route
Choose two countries to calculate a route using this game’s fixed, symmetric connection graph.
3 border crossings on one shortest route.
- 1. Portugal
- 2. Spain
- 3. France
- 4. Germany
Allowed neighbors of Portugal
Spain
Map scope
The map shows 177 units; 151 have at least one playable connection. The other 26 are outside the route-puzzle pool in this version, including Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Cyprus, Northern Cyprus and Somaliland. They can still appear in this lookup. These exclusions describe this practice graph, not real-world adjacency or political status.
Connection exceptions
- Denmark ↔ Sweden
- Allowed fixed bridge.
- United Kingdom ↔ France
- Channel Tunnel excluded.
- France ↔ Brazil; Spain ↔ Morocco
- Overseas territory and enclave links excluded.
- Canada ↔ Denmark
- Hans Island connection excluded.
- Azerbaijan ↔ Turkey; Russia ↔ Poland / Lithuania
- Represented exclave land borders included.
These are puzzle connections, not road, visa or travel advice. Natural Earth supplies the map; the connection graph is compiled separately. Full rules · Play Travle.
Work backward from the destination
For Portugal → Germany, a shortest route is Portugal → Spain → France → Germany. Counting borders gives three crossings. The reverse route takes the same number because every connection is symmetric.
More than one shortest route can win
France → Germany → Austria, France → Switzerland → Austria, and France → Italy → Austria are all two-crossing routes in this graph. The game accepts every valid connected route, even when it differs from the example solution.
Learn bottlenecks and inspect exceptions
Portugal’s next move must be Spain. The Americas connect through Panama and Colombia. Islands and overseas territories need explicit rules, so check the connection list rather than assuming every visible shoreline or territory creates a playable edge. A hint chooses one shortest remaining route without reusing your earlier countries.