A list of beautifully coloured, travel puzzles for adults, mostly medium-difficulty jigsaw puzzles inspired by famous tourist destinations, landmarks or cultural diversity. Ready for putting the pieces together?

If there is something that we’ve learned in the past years is that traveling is not always easy, not always an option, not always a possibility, no matter how much we want or how available we are. But solving a travel-themed puzzle is still a nice way for keeping creativity and traveling passion alive while experiencing just a bit of a foreign culture.

My hubby and I had a lot of spare time these days. Therefore, the kitchen table became the proper environment for putting together quite a few beautiful jigsaw puzzles for adults.

After we finished building Hagia Sion from Jerusalem, I rushed online with high hopes for more. Even so, I got pretty fast to the conclusion that is very hard to find some decent travel-themed jigsaw puzzles for those grown-ups which are still children at heart.

Hagia Sion, Jerusalem, Copyright © Cooltourismical.com

There are literally thousands of patterns out there.

However, I tried to pick puzzles that are BIG and intricate, with non-aggressive colours, and, most of all, quality. A puzzle that no one complains about it by saying that pieces are missing or that the puzzle is a little shifted, oh well, not much, but enough to ruin your mood.

I must confess that it took me quite a while to find a THE jigsaw puzzles that are worth the time. And they do look promising to the globetrotter hidden inside me. Here they are. Architecture, art, crowded streets, everything we can’t get lost into when we’re stuck at home. So relax and enjoy!! ♥♥♥

Retro Jigsaw Puzzles, Copyright © Lantern Press

I totally fell in love with the USA Classic Travel Puzzles for adults from Lantern Press.

They use vintage colour palette and pale tones illustrations. Which is the reason for their puzzle games being so SPECTACULAR!  It was extremely hard to choose which ones to list here. Some of the puzzles have 1000 pieces, others just 500, but nonetheless magical.

Retro Jigsaw Puzzles, Copyright © Lantern Press

Can be found here: Mount Rainier, Seattle, Chicago, San Francisco, Philly

And the list can continue, but these are my all time favorites – one hell of a trip through out USA!

Buy now: Mt. Fuji and Chureito Pagoda Panorama Puzzle 

From USA to Japan.

This is what I was talking about: a travel-themed puzzle that’s so big it can’t fit any room inside the house. And you need to buy a new one, bigger. I’m talking about the house, of course. In the end, it is a 3000-piece puzzle. Which means enjoying the beautiful panorama of Mt. Fuji for many days to come.

Japan, as a travel destination, is a dream in reality and in pictures ❤. But what makes the puzzle more addictive is not just the idea of the Land of the Rising Sun, but also its high complexity of the sky area, as well as the intricate trees surrounding the pagoda. Below, a time lapse of the 2000-piece puzzle version. Both of them are so pretty and lively coloured!!

Many love this puzzle because:

• it has a very good price for a big sized puzzle;
• panorama is spectacular;
• the printed image is high-quality;
• Sometimes, it is shipped sooner than expected!!! ❤

Buy now: EuroGraphics

Breath-taking views and mosaic covered buildings, the work of Antonio Gaudi, an architect with a highly individualized style, exponent of the Catalan Modernism.

If you haven’t yet visited Barcelona, you could be the new Alice in Wonderland. Unexpected shapes and striking material combinations in colourful, natural setting, Park Güell – Gaudi’s Garden System. It is one of the little bit difficult 1000-piece travel puzzles, but not boring at all.

Found in the MET Store

The history-crowded rooms of MET.

A 500-piece puzzle only, but extremely detailed and cute map illustration!! Allows us to take a dreamy walk through the galleries of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and enjoy part of the many exhibits. I so miss NY. I found it now and it reminded me of my Big Apple winter adventures. Need to go back soon. Until then, I will just move the puzzle on the top of my shopping list!!! ❤❤❤

Small cut of the MET Family Map

The MET map was illustrated by John Kerschbaum, who spent many years documenting and sketching inside the galleries of the museum. The image below is one of his extremely funny drawings. Because we should never forget the amazingly talented people behind the things that make us happy. For more lovely comics, you can go visit the instagram page, or follow John on twitter!!

Copyright ©  John Kerschbaum

Cutest puzzle ever:

• it makes you miss New York
• it is one of those travel puzzles for adults still children at heart;
• you can recognize the artworks from the museum;
• it helps in planning your next museum visit;
• Bonus: pieces are high quality and have oddly shaped edges.

Found on: Amazon

As a child, I used to travel each summer with my grandma to a resort in the mountains. I still remember the vintage cardboard train tickets in almost faded shades of brown, green and yellow. They were the gateway to my fun trip. And I used to collect ALL of them!!

And this is one of those charming travel puzzles that capture that precise nostalgia, of the old times, and the elegance of vintage public transportation,  bus, train, subway, tram, and trolley tickets. It evokes the feeling of a simpler world when traveling with a beautiful piece of paper in your pocket was a joy in itself!

Educa Antique Map Puzzle, 1000 pieces, approx. 27 x 19 inches / 68 x 48 cm, Difficulty: High

Buy now: Educa Antique World Map

Educa Antique Map Puzzle is gorgeous and the pieces are high-quality. It is one of the two vintage map puzzles I found to be rather acceptable for the experienced puzzle solver, after a long search in the online puzzle world.

With little exceptions, better said unlucky people, the reviews are extremely good. And the odds of getting all the game pieces are high.  More than that, being a monochrome jigsaw puzzle is a real challenge. The color scheme makes it a bit more difficult to solve than other 1000 pieces puzzles. The Educa map puzzle is shipped only to US.

Highly appreciated for:

• the 18th century fancy appearance;
• making the process a bit challenging, even overwhelming;
• very good quality, strong and well cut puzzle pieces;
• Bonus: comes with glue included in the package.

Old Map with Hemispheres Jigsaw Puzzle, 6000 pieces, 165.3 x 114.3 cm / 65 x 45 inch, Difficulty: Very High

Buy from: Rare Puzzles

Comes from Clementoni and it’s a colorful, artsy, magnificent puzzle belonging to forgotten times of conquest and colonization when people were travelling and exploring the seas to discover new lands and cultures. A time of no satellites or wazers. Just calculated drawings and voyagers. Intricate and educational – a way to follow up on the old methods of mapping and how they used to imagine the planet.

A puzzle as Italian as Christopher Columbus!

Copyright: Butler & Hill

A fancy map of your neighbourhood and a puzzle game. Pretty nice to see your home from above and recognize the streets you pass daily on your way to work or school. Even if it’s just a 400 piece puzzle, still makes a good gift for a new house or a good source of solitude fun.

These puzzles are made to order. Therefore, be extra careful to their specifications and pay attention when filling up the form on their website.  Or you might not get what you expect. To me, it looks like an automatically generated puzzle.

California Puzzle

True fact. These are the tiniest puzzles ever made. The puzzles from MicroPuzzles are very, very small. But also very well rated due to their portability and colour palette. My favourite is the New York panorama one with Manhattan and Central Park area, but California Road Trip is not bad either.

New York Tiny Puzzle

Buy now: Eurographics

When maps aren’t your thing, but you’re a stuck-at-home museum art devourer like me.

Sturdy cardboard, great colours, premium museum quality and a well known work of art of the famous Dutch post-impressionist painter, Van Gogh.

The painting, A Starry Night, depicts the summer sky of 1889, just before the sunrise, as seen from a window of the asylum of Saint-Paul-de-Mausole near Saint-Rémy-de-Provence. Under the beautiful stars lays a village of dreams.

The level of difficulty of the beautiful puzzle is rather high due to the blue colour tones, the circular brush strokes and the hills that blend into the sky.

An extremely challenging artwork puzzle fit for:

• family gatherings;
• art lovers and explorers;
• fearless, strong headed, obsessive puzzlers.

Artwork of Damian Elwes, Modern Studios

A painting of a painter’s studio, part of a series of creations by Damian Elwes depicting studios of famous artists . Even if it’s a smaller puzzle, it has some special features that make it out of the ordinary. It is entirely cut out of wood and no piece resembles another. Plus, each pieces has a special, intricate shape.

This travel-theme puzzle was a nice opportunity to find out not only a bit more about where Matisse used to spend his summers painting, but also about Damian Elwes, a contemporary artist, born in London, dividing his existence between Los Angeles and Colombian forests.

Found on: Amazon

I remembered giving this one as a gift a few years ago. The Ravensburger puzzle featuring the Tower of Babel, a painting by Pieter Bruegel the Elder – a 5000-piece puzzle!!!  A puzzle for grown-ups indeed: huge and highly complex, with fairly good quality of the print and cut. Every piece of the game fit perfectly!

It was quite a masterpiece. And still is… a statement for all the dream places we can never travel to.

A Ravensburger puzzle means:

• high-quality print image;
• beautifully variations of colours;
• unique cuts so two pieces don’t fit in the same place;
• tons of fun!

Found on: Amazon

The exotic corridors and cabins of the iconic 19th century train, a notorious detective and a suspicious death. What better setting for solving both, a travel jigsaw puzzle and a murder mystery?

For me, joining detective Hercule Poirot on his Orient Express voyage to Istanbul, while uncovering clues, is like watching and being part of an exciting murder show. By the way, need to read Agatha Christie’s novel. The puzzle game comes with its own storyline and plot booklet.

Found on: Amazon

Even if it is an unforgettable movie on more or less failed family trips, Home Alone jigsaw puzzles are quite rare.

Always left behind (by mistake) by his parents while departing for vacations, Kevin knows how to build his own adventure. Fighting burglars in the iconic house, sneaking into planes without a ticket, checking in to most luxurious hotels, puts even more life into already impressive locations such as Chicago and New York.

Found on: Jigidi

I honestly don’t know why they don’t make more travel-themed puzzles on this topic. The humour, the places, Kevin, all are undying.

Found on: Amazon

Sandy beach on one side, turquoise clear waters on the other, make this game one of the very unique travel destination puzzles.

One side of the puzzle sends us to powdery white sands that stretch out as far as the eye could see. Warm between your toes, palm trees swayed in the gentle breeze. Meanwhile, the back of the puzzle is about turquoise sea revealing a fascinating underwater world.

Lovely puzzle to put together while longing for summer vacation.

Morocco’s Marrakech is a a city that captures the senses with its vibrant colors and rich culture. But one of the most striking features of Marrakech is the architecture, with its intricate mosaics, arches, hammams and courtyards that are a feast for the eyes.

It is a real-life painting. And it couldn’t be different when we are speaking about travel puzzles. That is why I couldn’t stop to one only.

And last, but not least, the most amazing and antique covers of the New Yorker Magazine transformed into exciting jigsaw puzzles for adults.

From the bustling scene of a busy day on Main Street USA (November 18th, 1939, Beatrice Tobias) to a New York city’s futuristic JFK International Rocketport where “fantastical rocket-like commercial aircrafts launch through the sky” (July 2nd, 2001, Bruce McCall ).

These lively puzzles make some of us cross the ocean and others travel to the past.

A bunch of things I wish I knew they existed before solving my first jigsaw puzzle.

And here I am hoping you enjoyed my list of travel puzzles for adults. If you tried any of them or if you have any suggestions about new and exciting medium-difficulty jigsaw puzzles connected to travel or dreamy destinations, don’t feel shy and let me know!