diff --git a/.travis.yml b/.travis.yml
index ebd157762..d66eda40f 100644
--- a/.travis.yml
+++ b/.travis.yml
@@ -56,6 +56,9 @@ matrix:
     env:
     - PYTHON_VER=3.5.0
 before_install:
+  - if [[ "$TRAVIS_OS_NAME" == "osx" ]]; then
+        brew install python
+    fi
   - pip install -r scripts/ci/requirements.txt
   # stop the build if there are any readme formatting errors
   - python setup.py checkdocs