diff --git a/.travis.yml b/.travis.yml
index 8b00aef0a..ae9a8b31c 100644
--- a/.travis.yml
+++ b/.travis.yml
@@ -17,7 +17,8 @@ before_install:
   - sudo apt-key adv --fetch-keys http://dl.yarnpkg.com/debian/pubkey.gpg
   - echo "deb http://dl.yarnpkg.com/debian/ stable main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/yarn.list
   - sudo apt-get update -qq
-  - sudo apt-get install -y -qq yarn
+  # trying 0.16.1 because https://github.com/yarnpkg/yarn/issues/1838
+  - sudo apt-get install -y -qq yarn=0.16.1-1
 
 # cache node modules
 cache: