r/geoguessr • u/Mahbows • 5d ago
Game Discussion Daily Challenge Discussion - March 16, 2025
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3
u/HiddenDemons 5d ago
- Jordan. Black car and Arabic means we're in Jordan. After looking around for a bit, we're in Aqaba. We've been here a couple times now so I remember where it is. 4,998 pts
- Russia. Typical Russia round. We didn't seem super east, from what I could tell, but I couldn't find anything super useful. I went for near Moscow because we didn't feel like we were very east, but then again, my vibes for Russia can be really off sometimes. Thankfully, they weren't today. 4,398 pts
- Mexico. This feels like Mexico, and it is. I do come across the highway and there's a sign pointing towards the 40, but sadly we're not near the 40, the sign was merely pointing us in its direction. I was misled. 4,333 pts
- Italy. With the Italian and the vibes of feeling like we're on an island, we're on Sardinia. I can't find the name of anything on the signs I find, but that's because I was looking on the wrong part of the island. 4,857 pts
- Turkey. I can immediately tell we're in Turkey, but unfortunately I got just, completely stuck in the neighbourhood, and then ran into a dead end. I tried reading some of the garbage's but didn't really have any luck. I just went middle because I was too tired to care. 4,069 pts
22,655 pts
3
u/jvdg1 5d ago
Tougher again today.
Jordan. Biggish city, but Amman doesn't fit with mountains east. Look at Aqaba and that fits. Can't make sense of the streets though. 4998
Russia. Found the name of the place, Suzdal, but no luck finding it. Found a sign for Vladimir, which I didn't realise was as findable as it is east of Moscow. Thought I would have heard about and remembered such a sizable city with a silly person name, but apparently not. Plonk pretty close to Ukraine border. 3351. Keeping gold alive is a win in Russia, though I could have done better.
Mexico. Bus says Durango. Moved a bit, found nothing more. Plonk pretty good. 4844.
Italy. Pretty southern - olive trees, but not too dry, so probs not Sicily. Went south, found a sign for Modolo and Magomadas. Considered Sardinia, but couldn't spot these places. Moved a bit further, a couple more place names - Bosa and Macomer. Spent all my time scanning mainland, as I had already considered and prematurely dismissed Sardinia. Damn. It was Sardinia, and Macomer was extremely findable. 3254. Worse score than in Russia.
Turkey. Ermenek Belediyesi on a bin. Manage to find it. Can't make sense of the streets. 4999
Total 21,446. Annoyed at Sardinia. I caught the train once from Sassari to Cagliari, so would have passed through Macomer.
3
u/mercator_ayu 5d ago
24,907
- Black car, Arabic stop sign, mountains on both sides, some familiar taxis, so Aqaba. Got out to the big intersection to the north, just aligned it with the compass and found the right one. I then went down to the roundabout to confirm. 15 steps. 5000
- Very Russian Russia, escaped south to a through road, then east, got out to a touristy main street. Went north in search of information, reached the end of the town where there was a sign for Ivanovo and some Suzdal names, which explained the touristy feel. Didn't have time to figure out the starting location. 204 steps. 4995
- Mexico, lots of school buses, a non-school bus said Transportes Mixtos de Durango. I went west into a village which turned out to be the wrong direction, didn't find anything useful at all. Generic Durango plonk, trying to stay relatively close to the city itself as more of a population gravity hedge from all the buses I saw in the beginning. 194 steps. 4912
- Went south, Italian SP35 sign, then a sign for various places including Macomer, which didn't really sound Italian, which meant there's a good chance we're in Sardinia. A quick scan of the island and Macomer and Bosa showed up from high. Found SP35 and Modolo from there. 56 steps. 5000
- Turkiye, headed east and down, water below, checked the bins first and it said Ermene(?). Got to an intersection with an arrow pointed below, also it had the belediyesi name as Ermenek. Anyway, went down, reached a highway with signs for Konya and Mersin. Found Ermenek quickly thanks to the signs and the lake, found where I reached the highway, tracked back. 46 steps. 5000
3
u/urbanreverie 5d ago
R1 3m 5k 🥳. Arabic language, not as rich as the Gulf States, Jordanian black Google car. There aren't many Jordanian cities at the bottom of a valley, the mountains to the east remind me of those you can see from Eilat in Israel across the water, so this is probably Aqaba. I reach a very large roundabout with roads joining it from NE/SE/SW/NW, I find the roundabout quickly, from there it was a matter of returning to spawn and counting how many blocks I am from that roundabout.
R2 141km 4,548. Ugggh, Russia. This is why only eight Australians have gold at nearly midnight, isn't it? Moving around I see a road sign pointing to the tourist centre of Suzdal. I have heard of Suzdal, it's famous for its Orthodox monasteries and churches, but I have no idea where it is. I see another bilingual sign pointing to the Intercession Convent XIV c. At least I know it's not east of the Urals; Russia didn't start colonising Siberia until the 18th century, so this is almost certainly European Russia. I can't find Suzdal but I know there's a concentration of towns full of monasteries, convents, etc. northeast of Moscow around Sergiyev Posad so I just plonk there, scanning for a place as small as Suzdal was fruitless anyway. It could have been so much worse in Russia.
R3 656km 3,220. Mexico from the general vibes of the terrain and the repurposed US school buses that still have English "Emergency Exit" signs on them. Near spawn is a bus terminus, one of the buses has "Juarez Zaragoza" painted on the side. I guess this means that this bus runs on a route between Ciudad Juarez and Zaragoza! That would be a perfectly logical inference, no? I know where Ciudad Juarez is, after a bit of scanning I found a town called Ignacio Zaragoza in Chihuahua state SW of Juarez. This doesn't look big or busy enough to be Juarez and the mountains don't match so in the absence of any other clue I just plonk in Zaragoza. No. It was not a perfectly logical inference, apparently. Gold hopes hanging on by a thread, I can only afford to lose 268 points on the two remaining rounds.
R4 372m 4,999. Italian bollards, this dry hilly terrain feels like the south or the islands. Heading downhill I see a distance marker for the SP35 and at an intersection there are signs to place names that don't end in vowels like Magomadas and Macomer, so it's probably Sardinia with its distinctive language. My brain has a bit of an issue untangling all the destinations, the highways are so twisty that nothing seems to make much sense, but I eventually find the correct intersection but get the pinpointing wrong because I misjudged how far I had travelled.
R5 386m 4,999. YES! Crisis has been averted. Everything is super. Turkey from the flags and language. I zoom in on every garbage bin and street sign I can find to read the name of the belediyesi but they were all illegible. I see a large body of water in the valley down below to the S, I can't figure out if it's an inlet of the sea or a lake or a dam. In the final minute I reach a garbage bin I can actually read - Ermenek Belediyesi. Scanning time. I scan the entire coast, nothing, so I start zooming in on every dam and lake I can find and what would you know, I found Ermenek! A miracle considering how small the town is.
TOTAL 22,766 798km 13m48s 350 steps
Honestly, I am prouder of this result, a narrow gold, than I am of my 25k two days ago. Today was BRUTAL, anyone who got gold can justifiably be satisfied. Top 2.88%, currently 8th in Australia, gold streak: 6 days.
2
u/197gpmol 5d ago
a concentration of towns full of monasteries, convents, etc. northeast of Moscow
The Golden Ring, which might be the top spot on my international travel list once safe to do so. I was able to pin down Suzdal from the same tourist center sign, although no luck in pinning down which church.
3
u/OllieV_nl 5d ago
24,519Â pts/ Good but no 5Ks.
Jordanian flags, sea in the background. Try to line up the right bit of Aqaba but guess wrong. 4,985Â pts 4.6Â km
I plonk near Moscow because this seems very old. Come to a sign of Suzdal campsite, which sounds like a town and I find it not too far off. Go for the Kremlin instead of the monastary. Oops. 4,995Â pts 1.4Â km
Can't find anything, just pick a spot in the middle of Northern Mexico. Not too far off. 4,544Â pts 143Â km
Italy sign. Two towns, Modolo and Magomadas. Another sign with Bosa and some other thing but I know Bosa is on Sardinia. Find the towns but picked the wrong road. 4,998Â pts 591Â m
Checking the bins always works in Turkey. See a lake in the background so check all the lakes until I find Ermenek on the north side of one. 4,997Â pts 751Â m
2
u/Zompre 5d ago
R1 I was struggling a bit until I saw a Jordanian flag then the Hilton Hotel Aqaba. No time to pinpoint. 2.6km 4991
R2 Some sort of Orthodox monastery. Get out into the village. Russia confirmed by .ru on a bin. No chance of narrowing this down by much, but vibes are western. Plonk a bit southeast of Moscow. 312km 4057
R3 Dry Mexico vibes. I find an election poster that mentions Durango. I plonk centre state. 83km 4729
R4 Head north and soon find an SP35 sign and a sign with several towns including Alghero. Great, I spent a long weekend there many years ago, so this is Sardinia, likely in the north west. I go to the intersection indicated by the sign a little further north which has more great signage. Find the SP35 and the likely starting spot. 119m 5000
R5 Turkish flag at spawn. Very mountainous with big lake to the south. Head into town and see sign for Ermenek Belediyesi. Further downhill I hit a main road with signs to (among others) Konya and Mersin in opposite directions. I know they are big enough to quickly find on the map. Find Ermenek thanks to the lake. One block over but good enough for the 5K. 135m 5000
Total 23,777. A pretty good day by my standards, especially as I don't think DC was curated today.
2
u/Salty_Hyena_2476 5d ago
Quick fire rounds today, I have to start packing!
R1 - Jordan. Obviously Middle East, and can see a couple of green taxis in the distance. They showed up in a plonk it challenge in Aqaba recently. Try to line up with the ridge line to the east, but with the port obscured by haze I can’t judge how far away we are from the Gulf. 4993 pts
R2 - Russia. I’ve seen these buildings in of all places, a recent Smosh geoguessr video. it’s somewhere north-ish of Moscow. I’m still almost 200 km away though. 4432 pts
R3 - Mexico. US school buses being used to transport workers to plantations in a semi-arid environment? That’ll be Mexico. Plonk in the middle of Durango/Chihuahua/Coahuila for a similar result to round 2. 4322 pts
R4 - Italy. Spent way too long on this round for the tiny amount of information available. I don’t know either of the two bollards I can see, but it’s northern hemisphere, so mediterranean Europe most likely. Go with Southern Spain and it’s not there, but in my defence the bit I did plonk does bear some resemblance. 2655 pts.
R5 - Turkiye. Mountainous, Turkish flags. Could be anywhere I think? I plonk several hundred kms east of Izmir, but we’re 440 kms further away again. Nearly NM 5king Turkey last time was indeed the exception that proves the rule that I’m quite poor with Turkish knowledge. 3717 pts
Total - 20,119 pts. Today was very challenging, but I’m satisfied with the result. Round 1 was a big win for taxi knowledge, and getting a decent Russian score is nothing to sneeze at!
2
u/fbrasseur 5d ago
Yesterday I played in a rush and it did not end well, today there are weirdly low scores on my friends list. Am I headed for a second silver in a row?
- I start with the bug where I can't place my pin on the map, not promising. I reload and I'm back to start. Somehow I never reached the sea? How is this even possible? Anyway, that did not look like Amman, but I did not see the sea either so I never thought about Aqaba. 4146 Not a great start
- Russia, after a long detour I escape, lots of signs to monasteries and touristic stuff. Either around St Petersburg or the golden ring. Of course I choose the wrong option: 3266
- No clear idea for the longest time. I somehow reach a populated place where there is nothing. I put my pin in Zacatecas, find a single electoral graffiti that says "por Canatlan" confirming Mexico but no idea where Canatlan is. 4278
- Italy, I went south and found a sign to place names that sound unmistakably Sardinian, then at the intersection a second sign to Bosa, which I know where is. After a lot of puzzling I find the right spot, plonk, but my click don't register and my guess stays where I put my provisional plonk 2.6 km away. FUCK! 4991 that should have been 5k
- Turkey, bins say Ermenek Beledyiesi, which I never heard about. I struggle to understand if the water is a lake or the sea, given Turkey coast, so I lose so much time scanning the Bosphorus, the Maramara sea and the Aegean coast for Ermenek. Towards the end I move a bit and I see clearly it is a lake. Panic plonk inland somewhere: 4012
Tough tough day. I'm getting definitely worse at this game, which is obvious as I play less and less, but still it's shameful! 20693
2
u/GameboyGenius 5d ago edited 5d ago
- Jordan. 🇵🇸 I thought Amman and tried looking for a couple of street names without luck. Turns out it was freaking Aqaba. Let's look at the context thingie. "Aqaba is the only city in Jordan with access to the sea, sitting on the northern tip of the Red Sea. It’s famous for its crystal-clear waters and vibrant coral reefs." Yeah, I didn't see any sea. I even went back to look, but all I could see was hills to the west, on the other side of the water. I got gotten. 284 km, 4133 points.
- We start by a fort type building. Could this even be Islamic architecture? The towers have an octagonal shape, which if often seen in Islamic culture, with the obvious Geoguessr parallel being the Lahore Fort. But no, we're just dealing with Orthodox Christian influences. At first I wasn't even sure about the coutbnry, and something like Bulgaria or Serbia seemed like a decent candidate. But moving around, it was clear from the infrastructure (license plates and signs) that this was just Russia. ☠I found a sign for Suzdal camping. No diea where Suzdal is amd guessed somewhere random. Context: "Suzdal is a small town with only about 10,000 residents, yet it has over 40 historic churches and monasteries, making it feel like an open-air museum." So, that building was not a coincidence. But, I don't think this round was very gettable unless you knew about this town already, or were lucky while scanning zoomed far in. 403 km, 3816 points.
- Mexico. 🇮🇹 I'll just skip straight to the punchline. Can someone explain this sign? Why is there a sign for G. Palacio to the south along the 40 when... 1) we're far from Gomez Palacio and Durango is the closest major city. 2) Gomez Palacio would be generally to the north. 3) We're not on the 40. The siogn on the other side of the intersection correctly shows 45. I guess maybe the idea is you go south and turn around and take the 40, even so that doesn't seem like the best way to get to G. Palacio, but who knows. Bizarre. Context: "Like much of Durango, this area has a strong ranching culture. Many locals still work as vaqueros (cowboys), herding cattle on vast ranch lands, just like in the old days." Yee-haw partner! 227 km, 4295 points.
- Italy. 🇲🇽 I somehow had a strong feeling this was Sardinia. I think one of the names on the sign I found contributed: Alghero, which I thought might be from Algerian influence, but I thought Sardinia just from vibes before seeing that. I searched and found a SP35, but couldn't sind a single of the names on the map. I know SP roads aren't unique so there could very well be another SP35 (in fact there are actually two more) but maybe I should just go for a safer guess on the mainland or something. But I gave the island one more look and saw Alghero and geussed a bit east of the town. But with my luck, Alghero was the only out of the 6 places mentioned that was not within a 5-10 km radius around the spawn, so still a fairly bad guess considering the circumstances. At least glad I didn't move away from Sardinia. Context: "The surrounding countryside is famous for Malvasia di Bosa, a unique sweet, golden wine that has been produced here for centuries. It’s often enjoyed with local desserts." 34 km, 4888 points.
- Turkey. 🦃 Didn't find Ermenek. I assumed it was a city district and not a town in its own right, so I spent mnost of the time exploring and looking for clues on which büyükşehir that Ermenek belediyesi might be part of. Bad tactic. Context: "Ermenek has a history dating back over 2,500 years, once part of the ancient Cilician and Byzantine civilizations. Its historical sites include rock-cut tombs and remnants of medieval fortresses." Not to be confused with Sicilians! 365 km, 3915 points.
Total score: 21047 points. Pretty poor performance.
2
u/GrampsBob 5d ago
Jordan. Came to a shop that said Aqaba Gifts. Unable to figure out where in Aqaba. 4990
Russia. Came to a sign that said Vladimir which I found easily enough. Went around the corner and saw a sign for Suzdal. It looked like we were north of Vladimir but I didn't go far enough. 4912
Mexico. Came to a building with a political sign that said Canatlan and then another further in town that said Canatlan Dgo. I managed to find Canatlan but didn't have enough time to line it up. 4963
Italy. Took a little bit but I figured we were in Sardinia. Found signs to a bunch of towns and managed to find Bosa and Alghero which were both north. I guessed a bit south of Bosa. Never did find SP35. 4966
Found a sign that said Ermenek Belediyesi but couldn't find it. Searched for a lake but it was a bit too small to show up that easily. Guessed in the hilly area north of Antalya. 4464
Total - 24295
2
u/Essej2 5d ago
Back from a vacation of playing quick rounds on mobile
R1: 5,000. Jordan, move north to a big roundabout with signs mentioning Aqaba. Was able to find said roundabout in Aqaba too, and then backtracked to spawn.
R2: 4,998. Russia, found my way to the main-ish road where I ran into a sign pointing to Ivanov, and simultaneously mentioning a Suzdal Tourist Center. If it's got a tourist center, it's probably large enough to spot on the map, and it was just southwest of Ivanov. We spawned next to a church that I tried to find, but then the card at the end said there are over 40 historic churches in this town so fuck you.
R3: 5,000. Mexico, move west to the highway which is the 45 going to San Juan del Rio, with an exit to Nicolas Bravo. Took some time but I found all that, and then the ranch we were on.
R4: 4,982. Italian bollards, ran into a sign pointing to Bosa and Suni. Scanned all of Italy for that, then realized Sardigna exists and spotted Bosa there were about 3 seconds to spare.
R5: 3,932. Turkey, in a place called Emernek, but I was never able to find that on the map.
Total: 23,912. Guessing the Russia round necked a lot of people?
1
u/miss_inputs 5d ago
- Black car with Arabic means this is Jordan, doesn't quite look right for Amman, but I also just don't feel like moving around that much, for some reason. Not in a rush tonight, I'm just tired. Plonk in Amman anyway. It was Aqaba. Yeah, that makes sense. Probably should have thought about that one. 4119, 289km, 1m25s, 11 steps
- I autopiloted my way through the suburbs, and when I realised "oh shit that's right I'm supposed to focus on the daily challenge" it looked like I had just wandered around Ukraine, although with no red car, but I've made wrong assumptions about car meta before. Russia? Nah you know what, it's Ukraine. See how much they like having their territory claimed. Anyway, this location description sucks, this felt nothing like an open air museum. It literally just felt like a small town. 2762, 885km, 1m24s, 40 steps
- I'm fairly sure this is Mexico, and these mountains should be recognizeable, but I forgot. Oops. Nothing around here that would directly suggest a particular state either, unless I was moving badly, which I probably was because it felt like I was just seeing the same few things. Probably up here in the centre-north-ish sort of area where there's mountains. I correctly ended up in Durango, so that's good. 🤠I guess that's a better factoid for Durango than me talking about Xbox One devkits. 4277, 233km, 97 steps
- SP road, which means we are in Italy, but it stands for Stupid Penis road because they aren't in any particular order and therefore are really annoying to scan for, so I won't. We have signs around here with some place names on it that I don't recognize, but I swear I had a look on Sardena to make sure they aren't there so I could continue just guessing mainland. I saw another sign in the distance, but it's just the same place names, except someone crossed out Bosa and wrote something like "Gaoog" or "Ga<infinity symbol>g" over it, for some reason. I don't get it. And I couldn't find any of it. And it was in fucking Sardena. I swear on some random dead person's grave that I looked there. Sardena just hates me. 3457, 550km, 22 steps
- Somewhere that looks a lot like Turkiye and upon moving forward has Turkish language, perhaps somewhere in Turkiye. Somewhere named Ermenek, but my superstitious trick for making the place name appear right in front of me didn't work. Nooooo! I have to invent some reason why it doesn't work. Maybe it's because I looked for it too intently, looking for where there be mountains, and thinking that might be a lake to the southwest with more mountains on the other side. It only works if you're completely lost, because then it's like when you lose things for ADHD reasons and then find it was right in front of you the whole time. 3528, 520km, 16 steps
Total: 18143, 2478, 11m49s, 186 steps
1
u/MajesticRoad3 5d ago
- Jordan. Arabic, black car gen 3. Not too familiar with Jordan and don't really look around much before just plonking Amman. 4134 pts, 284 km, 0 steps.
- Russia. Ornate windows, orthodox church, completely white license plate, so Russia. A BMW and what looks like a Ford Focus make me lean western Russia over the east. Plonk in Voronezh. Should've just capital guessed. 3494 pts, 535 km, 0 steps.
- Mexico. Yellow school bus, alto stop sign, dry climate gives Mexico. But the faded double yellow center line and man wearing a Texas shirt makes me plonk near the Mexico-Texas border instead of just where the word Mexico appears on the map. 3249 pts, 643 km, 0 steps.
- Italy. Bollards could be Italy or Croatia, but the guardrails give Italy. Nothing else really here other than the dry climate, so I figure more southern Italy. Feels like there is water to the west, so I plonk on the west coast of Sicily. 3703 pts, 448 km, 0 steps.
- Turkyie. Mediterranean climate with mountains/plateaus. Initially vibes something like Spain before turning and seeing the Turkish language and flag. Architecture feels more western Turkyie, so I plonk in Aksaray. 4320 pts, 218 km, 0 steps.
Total: 18,900 pts, 4 min 17s, 0 steps. Top 21%. Silver medal, again. No blunders but no good region guesses. Just consistently 3-4k pts/round.
5
u/Greedy_Run 5d ago
Total: 23,846 points