This article will begin with fairly basic techniques to improve your GeoGuessr game and crescendo to advanced gameplay tips (not quite reaching the level of remembering individual blades of grass).
An Introduction to GeoGuessr
I will briefly outline the objectives of the game for any GeoGuessr newbies out there. GeoGuessr (https://geoguessr.com/) is a free game in which a semi-random Google Street View location is presented to you. You are permitted to move along the street akin to Google Street View and must use Sherlock-esque logic (not the type of logic used in the recent poorly executed ‘Holmes and Watson’ movie that has a generous 10% on Rotten Tomatoes) to decode precisely where on earth your initial Street View location is. On an adjacent map, you are required to click a location and your guess’s proximity to your actual Street View position is awarded with points. The point score will range from 0 for an antipodean guess, which is hard to achieve in itself, to a maximum 5000 points for a guess within about 150 metres for the standard GeoGuessr game. A GeoGuessr game consists of 5 rounds and if my abacus is calibrated correctly, that means a potential perfect score of 25,000 awaits.
The primary purpose of GeoGuessr is that it is (everyone say this in unison) “fun and educational”. Other reasons to play involve lauding your geographical superiority nous over your friends or couples settling disputes about who is better at giving directions whilst driving. In pragmatic terms, Geoguessr may only be useful if you are kidnapped and taken blindfolded to a random location on earth with the captor providing you the chance to escape once your blindfold is removed if you can identify your location accurately to within 150 metres. The captor must then proceed to take you to 4 other locations and repeat said process. I smell a new reality TV show MTV. Incidentally, MTV if you are reading this I copyright this concept; saying copyright counts as copyright, right?
Versions
There exist several variations of the GeoGuessr game. Firstly, by clicking on ‘Browse maps’ within the left column of the website, you will be presented with a range of themes. The most commonly played is the world map which may come as a surprise to some Americans. Other popular maps include: famous places, United States (I take back my previous remark), The European Union and European Stadiums. If you search for your city/state/country, there will likely be a map for your location- note: this may not be true for astronauts aboard the International Space Station.
Challenging others by clicking on the predictably named ‘challenge’ button will allow you to invite friends or foe to play the same map against you to see who really is superior in a very esoteric task that is really quite meaningless.
The standard version of GeoGuessr allows players to navigate along roads for an infinite period of time. In theory, you could be provided a location in Eastern Russia and spend a fun 3 week period on your computer clicking along Siberian roads until you reach a recognisable Paris and thus trace your path back during another fun-filled 3 week period resulting in 5000 points but on the flipside, 6 weeks will be lost from your life. It’s a tough decision. I occasionally dabble in this version of the game but my impatience means that I prefer timed version of Geoguessr. These timed versions can be played within the aforementioned ‘Challenge’ area. You are permitted to enter a time limit per round of somewhere between 10 seconds to 10 minutes. An addictive daily game in which you can test yourself against other GeoGuessr-philes has a 3 minute time limit.
The official versions of GeoGuessr have been explained but there are other variants that aren’t officially regulated and are played in the dark corners of the world; much like cockfighting. The first version involves a still Street View image. Any moving, zooming or panning is forbidden and shall be punishable by death. This is the most challenging version of GeoGuessr and if the image provided is of a grass hill, then good luck in recognising the individual blades of grass if your name isn’t MrBeardedBread (the Roger Federer of GeoGuessr). The second informal version of GeoGuessr allows users to pan left, right, up and down but moving and zooming are prohibited. The third version of the game allows panning and zooming but no moving; something akin to being dropped in a location with binoculars whilst your legs are tied up. These variants of GeoGuessr can be played on the normal maps that allow moving and rely on the honesty of people to follow the restrictions. Everyone has a shady cousin whose scent whiffs of recreational drugs that they claim is a new deodorant, flirts with the legal-illegal line and possibly flirts with other cousins too- this is the type of person I wouldn’t trust to play a GeoGuessr version fairly.
It is frowned upon to use external websites whilst playing GeoGuessr (although this website you are reading now should be used).
Update: August 2019- Major Changes to GeoGuessr
From the dawn of time to August 2019, GeoGuessr was a free game with almost all features (besides to ability to make maps) available to the masses. GeoGuessr are required to pay Google a small fee each time a player uses Street View or Google Maps. Google recently increased this ‘small’ fee by 1400% and this has forced GeoGuessr to make some changes. Personally I’m boycotting Google and will be reverting to search engine Alta Vista…. Okay, I’m reliably informed by that Alta Vista no longer exists.
The post August 2019 version of GeoGuessr requires players to become ‘Pro’ users to utilise the range of features and this costs US$1.99-$2.99 a month. Using the Pro service you can make maps and play all maps to your heart’s content.
For those unable or unwilling to pay this Pro fee, GeoGuessr can still be played. Click ‘Play as guest’ on the main screen and you will be taken to the world map however movement, imagery and often the ability to rotate are restricted (if you don’t know where you are then guess Fiji). Quite frankly this version is unplayable and in terms of enjoyment levels and gameplay is on par with the 1970s videogame Pong.
There are some alternatives if you wish to play real GeoGuessr and don’t wish to become a Pro user. Firstly, you need to sign up for a free account and you will then be granted one free game every 24 hours on any map. Another alternative comes in the form of ‘challenges’. The ‘daily challenge’ can still be played and appears in the left column of the homepage. Challenges on all maps can still be freely played. Search the name of a map e.g. ‘A Diverse world’ and under ‘Activities’ click ‘join challenge’ and presto, you can continue to play as long as a ‘join challenge’ green oblong shape appears.
To continue playing GeoGuessr without paying for a ‘Pro’ account, search for a map, look under ‘Activities’ and if a ‘Join challenge’ link appears, click on it.
Personally I believe the right to freely play GeoGuessr is a basic human liberty akin to having water, food and shelter. *Insert a rant involving something to do with the Geneva Convention*. I hope the fine folk at GeoGuessr HQ revert back to the pre August 2019 GeoGuessr format and invoke a Patreon page, multiple pro user tiers and more ads to cover costs. Alternately, Nathan Fielder from TV show ‘Nathan For You’ may have some better ideas.
Fundamental Techniques
GeoGuessr Coverage
By now you have listened to far too much of my ramblings that are perhaps more suited to graffiti on a toilet wall. I will finally start detailing the techniques required to be victorious in GeoGuessr.
There are large pockets of the world that aren’t covered by Street View and thus being cognizant of these locales will improve your GeoGuessr game. The map below indicates what countries are covered by Street View and thus likely GeoGuessr. There are some caveats to the below map. Firstly, I have never seen a street in Antarctica on the game and in fact I was unaware that Antarctica was a thriving metropolis that has frequent traffic jams. Some countries including China appear in the game but only as landmarks and the streets aren’t fully navigable thus you should be able to determine that you are in these countries. Other places such as India occasionally pop up but typically you can’t traverse far either in these areas. For a detailed explanation of which places Street View covers and to what extent, see the link here. If you are an even more hardcore GeoGuessr player, then this linked map showing GeoGuessr location based on a certain number of game simulations may be pleasing to your eyeballs. A lower section of this article features maps showing more specific coverage within each continent.
A map showing the locations covered by Street View in 2018 and thus GeoGuessr. The blue countries are possible locations in GeoGuessr. (Source: Eugen Simion 14, Wikipedia). A larger map can be viewed here.
Prevalence of Location
Whilst playing the GeoGuessr world map it is important to be aware of the distribution of countries. If you perpetually select Eswatini, whilst neglecting the rarity of Eswatini appearing, then you will score poorly. Russia, the USA, Brazil, Argentina, Australia, Norway and the rest of Europe account for about 75% of GeoGuessr locations. This is crucial information. Learning the idiosyncrasies of these countries is imperative. Also, when tossing up between countries, skew your guess to one of these aforementioned areas. A more detailed synopsis of what countries appear can be found here.
A distribution of locations in GeoGuessr occuring based on 500 games. (Source: C0Y0TE01, reddit)
Another distribution of 500 rounds (100 games) of GeoGuessr. (Source= WebbieVanderquack, reddit)
For all of the glory of GeoGuessr and its founder Anton Wallén (all hail Mr. Wallén), the disproportionate nature of countries appearing can make some rounds rather repetitive (I now have a useless knowledge of obscure Russian roads taking up space in my brain). There is an egalitarian GeoGuessr map that can be fun to play that contains a more equal distribution of countries and less poor quality locations with 14,000 hand-picked places. Think of this map as the communism of GeoGuessr, if that communism is a computer game involving geography largely outside of communist countries. This Diverse World map can be played here.
If trying to distinguish between different shades of grass and different bitumen road laying techniques isn’t your thing whilst playing GeoGuessr’s largely rural maps, then perhaps the Urban World map will be more to your liking. You will get to decipher clues within only cities; from written languages, cars, people and cultures to muggings. The Urban World map can be played here.
Poor Picture Quality
Have you ever played GeoGuessr and then a place pops up causing you to make an appointment with an optometrist? Intermittently you will come across a location on GeoGuessr with image quality that looks like it has been photographed by a Nokia 3315 phone. This is doubly remarkable for this phone considering it didn’t have a camera. As annoying as these locations are (they typically don’t exist on the Diverse World map) they do provide some insights other than being somewhere that employs blurry sign writers. The blurry locations in GeoGuessr are almost certainly from the USA or Australia. Further information can also be deduced from these places. They will likely be a more remote region; often in the central corridor of the USA and not a large city. In Australia, the blurry locations are normally outback areas and away from the major cities (this still includes most of Australia). Why the economically deprived country of Botswana has crystal clear images whilst the filthy rich countries of Australia and USA have blurred photos is largely due to the outdated cameras used on the Street View car in the USA and Australia from several years ago. Also, horror movies portray these areas as dangerous and no-one from Google will sign up to drive through these regions for Street View; a movie idea- A Street View driver captures their own death on Halloween as they are killed by monsters. Trademark.
The Sun
The sun isn’t just useful for helping sustain life on earth but is also one of the most key instruments in GeoGuessr. Which of these traits is more useful is debatable. In Street View, if the sun is clearly in the Northern Hemisphere then you are probably in the Southern Hemisphere and vice versa. There is a compass in the corner of the GeoGuessr game that always orientates you north at the start of every round. The red end of the compass indicates north and rotating your computer around won’t move this compass. My first process when playing GeoGuessr is to determine which hemisphere I am in. The easiest way to do this is by looking at the shadows. If the tip of a shadow is pointing south then you are likely in the Southern Hemisphere and if a shadow tip points north then you are probably in the Northern Hemisphere.
If the shadows are unclear then panning up to the sky to find where in the sky the sun is can be useful. Often the sun is shrouded in clouds however a bright patch of sky can be observed (make sure the sun is in the centre of your screen for accuracy). If the sun is in the Northern Hemisphere then you are in the Southern Hemisphere and vice versa. In some scenes, the sun and shadows are obscured but part of a rolling hill or building is illuminated and you can thus determine where the sun likely is. This sun-hemisphere determination process akin to some ancient civilisation’s infatuated worshipping of the sun, can be problematic. The closer the sun is to the northern or southern horizon, the more accurate guide it is. On some occasions the sun will appear overhead and you will then possibly be between the Tropic of Capricorn and Tropic of Cancer. There are few guarantees with the sun due to the variance in season that the Street View location was photographed.
Note the direction of the compass (the red end being north) and the shadow’s tips also pointing north. The direction that the shadow’s tip points generally indicates what hemisphere we are in- in this case the Northern Hemisphere.
Another technique I use if the sun is obscured is to exploit society’s addiction to TV and search for visible satellite dishes. These almost universally point towards a satellite orbiting above the equator in geostationary orbit. If a satellite dish points south then you are likely in the Northern Hemisphere and vice versa. A satellite dish pointing directly upwards means you may be near the equator. On occasions I have played a timed round and stumbled across a satellite dish in Brazil and its angle has helped me determine an approximate latitude. I for one stand against streaming services such as Netflix due to their potential destruction of TV satellite dishes potentially jeopardising future usage of satellite dishes for GeoGuessr rounds.
Notice the dish facing south at quite an extreme angle (almost perpendicular to the ground). This indicates that we are in the Northern Hemisphere and probably relatively far north.
Left vs Right Driving and Miles vs Kilometres
Another key clue to pinpoint the country you are placed in within GeoGuessr is to observe the side of the road that vehicles are driving on. This of course ignores drunk drivers, hoons and those overtaking the chug-chug steady paced Google Street View car. As a general rule, countries of British origin (not Canada) drive on the left hand side of the road as well as island countries (not the Philippines or Iceland). Most other countries drive on the right-hand side of the road. Finding a left-hand side of the road car in GeoGuessr is akin to finding a dragon’s egg, wrapped in unicorn hair in the possession of a justifiably famous Kardashian.
Within the restricted versions of GeoGuessr and in some remote locations, cars aren’t visible (they aren’t invisible, there are just no cars around). In these instances other clues must often be attained to determine what side of the road the drivers are using. A fairly accurate indicator is to look for signposts. They tend to lie on the side of the road that drivers drive on. For instance a ‘warning Lannister army approaching’ sign situated by the right hand side of the road (from your perspective) will likely mean that drivers in that country or fictional HBO world drive on the right side of the road.
Look at these nice round numbers: 1 mile equals 1,760 yards or 5,280 feet or 63,360 inches. In contrast, look at these arbitrarily and hodgepodge numbers: 1 kilometre equals 1000 metres or 100,000cm. For some reason only the sensible USA, UK and the might of Liberia and Myanmar use miles. In contrast, every other country on earth uses kilometres. When will the other countries catch up to these four avant-garde areas? Nonetheless, signs on Street View often denote speed limits or distances using kilometres or miles. If you see miles, then you are probably in the USA or UK. This technique is especially useful for distinguishing Canada from the USA. The below map shows what countries drive on the left vs right and what countries use kilometres vs miles. If the road is one way, you suspect a drunk driver is not obeying the country appropriate side-of-road driving law or cars are parked facing both directions then a handy tip is to look for the side of the car’s steering wheel; a left side of car steering wheel indicates a right side of the road driving country and vice versa.
The red countries drive on the right hand side of the road and use km. The orange countries drive on the right hand side of the road and use miles. The dark blue countries drive on the left and use km. The light blue countries drive on the left and use miles. (Source: Benjamin D. Esham, Wikipedia). A larger map can be viewed here.
Roads
To most muggles, roads are made from asphalt and concrete. Enter the magical world of GeoGuessr where so much more information can be gained from glancing at the road. Line markings are particularly useful in determining what region you are in. Yellow centre lines are prevalent from the top of North America to the base of South America (an exception is that most of Chile has white lines). The odds are if you see a yellow centre line you are somewhere on the American continents. A faded yellow middle line normally indicates Mexico or a country south of this. South Africa also has yellow centre lines sometimes as does Japan. White centre lines are more predominant throughout Europe and Australia.
Most of North and South America have some iteration of yellow centre lines.
Most European and Australian roads have some form of white centre lines.
Dashed white lines on the edges of roads are quite common in the countries of Denmark, Norway, Iceland and Sweden. Norway tends to have yellow centre lines and Sweden tends to have white centre lines. Finland often has centre yellow lines and centre white dashed lines; it doesn’t have dashed lines on the edges of its roads. Russia has a road line that is thinner than other countries road lines. There are of course exceptions to these rules. One such exception is that parts of France occasionally pop up with dashed white street lines. Another exception is the Dutch islands south west of Rotterdam that are connected to the Netherlands via road bridges. This area mainly has dashed white lines on the sides of their roads.
Dashed white lines on both sides of the road are most commonly found in Sweden, Norway and Iceland.
Norway also commonly has yellow centre lines and white side lines.
Sweden commonly has the aforementioned white dashed side lines and a white centre line.
Many main roads in Denmark have this distinct short-dashed edge marking.
The four countries of South Africa, Botswana, Eswatini and Lesotho tend to have simultaneous yellow edge road lines and white road centre lines for their major roads.
Yellow side lines and white centre lines are a common sight in South Africa, Botswana, Eswatini and Lesotho.
The condition the road is in tells us information about the type of country we find ourselves. The richer a country, the better maintained their roads are on average. Russian’s lengthy road network can sometimes be easy to detect due to the crumbling roads. Another road quirk I’ve noticed involves the typical width of roads in certain regions. European roads tend to be fairly narrow, contrasting the wide roads of the USA and Canada. Although roads in Turkey are often wide with many lanes.
If there is one thing I like looking at more than roads, it’s guardrails. These guardrails can also provide clues to your whereabouts. Russia and the Ukraine tend to have black and white coloured stripes painted on their guardrails over areas such as rivers or on twisty roads. Guardrails in the majority of the remainder of Europe tend to be simply silver. One final road quirk I will mention is the ‘rumble strip’. Despite the name suggesting this is someone named Rumble’s strip club, the term actually refers to a long series of raised stripes on the side of the road to alert inattentive drivers to their veering off the road/failed GPS systems directing the driver into fields. I have mainly encountered these Rumble strips in Canada and the USA. On occasions I have seen them somewhere else such as Sweden. The Rumble Strip appearing below is of the type I have observed. Note that the image below comes from Asphalt Magazine (I struggle to believe that a whole magazine can be dedicated to such a substance. Sand I can understand, even concrete but asphalt!)
A Rumble Strip, typically found in the USA and Canada. (Source: Asphalt Magazine)
Tactics
Whether you are trying to win a game of chess, attempting to rig a FIFA World Cup vote or trying to score highly in GeoGuessr, tactics are required. When the location loads it is often a good idea to initially analyse your surroundings and rotate around 360 degrees. On occasions, a player who races off down the street will miss a sign behind their back or some other clue. This patience and rotation is also useful in timed games. *Insert more updated tortoise and hare reference*.
Firstly I will mention some basic gameplay tactics. To move one step at a time, click on one of the two white arrows that appear below you (more arrows will appear at junctions).
There is a quicker way to move in GeoGuessr- The location on the road you place your computer’s cursor will show up with a circle containing an arrow akin to a symbol resembling some superheroes logo (GeoGuessr Man- He doesn’t save lives but improves people’s esoteric geographical knowledge slightly). As you move this logo further down the road, the circle will become narrower. As soon as you click, you will be transported to this location. If the superhero logo becomes a parallelogram in shape and you click, you won’t be able to move forward to your desired location, instead you will probably move forward just the one space. To move a great distance, place the circular superhero logo as far down the road as you are permitted, making sure it doesn’t transform into the parallelogram and then click.
On the left of this image is the circle containing an arrow. Placing this as far down the road as possible whilst it retains its circular shape is the key to moving quickly. On the right appear two white arrows that will move you one step at at time.
The flag icon on the left of screen takes you back to the start point and is useful for attaining a perfect score once you have moved around and worked out your general location. When you do move, remember the path you have taken and direction you have moved in; this will come in useful when retracing your path or if you find a familiar sign.
If you are the type of person who listens to podcasts on quantum mechanics at 4x speed then you can probably skip this paragraph. There are some GeoGuessr keyboard short cuts to shave seconds off your gameplay time. In case you are using a laptop, press + and – to zoom in and out of Street View. The left and right arrows are used predictably to pan left and right. Previously in GeoGuessr I was acting like an elderly person who crosses the road absentmindedly then gets honked at by an obstructed car and then takes a prolonged time to turn around to examine said car by which time said car has long passed. The left and right arrows have changed this. The up and down arrows are useful in moving back and forward in case you have just narrowly passed a sign and want to go back and look at it. Double clicking on the map will zoom in to that location faster than the conventional zoom buttons on the map. Using a mouse makes GeoGuessr gameplay much easier and efficient. The mouse wheel of the non-rodent variety can be used to zoom in quickly on Street View signs as well as the map. Playing on a laptop touchpad is disadvantageous and akin to not having one of those secret motors some cyclists use in races. If you aren’t sure what specific buttons to press with your setup then I recommend pressing random buttons and observing what happens, much like how this article has been written.
When decided on the direction to travel, heading towards nearby signs, houses, shops, major roads, towns and around corners can be useful. When faced with a dilemma as to which way to travel, think of yourself as a lazy, hitchhiking busker- they will want to travel downhill, towards a town and preferably onto a main road. The downhill aspect of travelling is important as interesting things seem to lie at the bottom of hills such as towns, rivers, bridges and key roads.
If you see the name of a towns on a sign, eg XYZ 6 km away and ABC 56 km away then generally search the map for the town further away (or preferably both towns) as the further away town is likely to be bigger and easier to spot on a map. Depending on how far you have narrowed down your region, it can be sensible to even search for tiny towns on the map. This is often contingent on the region’s size. For instance, if I notice a Dutch town name, I know the Netherlands is small and I can zoom quite far in on the map and look for towns matching the name I have found. Contrastingly, this won’t work well in vast Russia.
When I am uncertain on a country whilst playing a timed version of GeoGuessr, I brainstorm a handful of countries that I think might match where I am and try and work through each of them- looking at how well they fit the environment around me.
The zoom feature in the form of the plus sign in the GeoGuessr Street View format is one of the most useful tools in the game. It turns what are optometry tests in the form of signs that are illegible into slightly easier optometry tests. Zooming in to view any writing anywhere in Street View is key to working out clues to tessellate together.
If you are not quite sure on the precise location and want to click somewhere, try and match the road direction you are on to one going the same way on the map. You can always determine the road direction by using the compass.
If you are keen for a perfect score and have narrowed down the street, try counting houses to get to your precise start location and match this with houses visible on the map. If no houses are around, try and survey your surroundings and match up a bend in the road with where you are or some other feature.
When travelling make a map in your head of the general path you are moving from the starting point. When you start a round, take note of any distinguishing features of your starting location: this may include rivers, lakes, bridges, railway tracks, specific shop names etc. doing both of these things will come in useful if you have to pinpoint in a timed round. For instance, you may work out the town you are in/near and now know what direction you travelled to get to the town. If you started on a bridge, you can probably now pinpoint unless you are in Venice.
After you have made your guess and found out how far you are from the real location, take some time to zoom in to the actual location so you can learn what the real place looks like on the map. Also, try and see if you missed any clues near the real location such as towns or geography that you can learn from. Essentially, try and learn from your mistakes every round.
If you are after a perfect score and are trying to pinpoint the final place on a flat stretch of road with no markers, one technique is to count the number of forward clicks required to move to the nearest notable feature eg a bend in the road. Do this for both directions then work out the ratio you are away from each feature in order to make an accurate guess.
Scoring well in the 3 minute Daily Challenge (which passes in about 10 seconds for me due to my slow Australian internet) involves several techniques. Firstly, the key is to have fast internet. Secondly, travel at the speed of an F1 driver (who isn’t driving on wet roads) searching for a city sign or highway sign. Whilst travelling, try to pick up clues as to what country you are in. I’ve linked to several GeoGuessr experts YouTube videos at the end of this section and watching them play the Daily Challenge is a good guide to the best techniques in GeoGuessr.
The most surefire way to improve at GeoGuessr is like most other things (skydiving not included) failure. By making mistakes and learning, your game will consistently improve. Also, don’t compare yourself to people getting 25,000 point perfect scores in 10 second world rounds. Some of these people cheat. There is a way to cheat in GeoGuessr that I won’t describe here that gives you the co-ordinates for the location and these high scorers cheat. They are the athletics dopers of the GeoGuessr world. Having said that, there are some genuine GeoGuessr geniuses (or is it spelt genuses?) out there. These supernatural beings with eidetic memories capable of identifying familiar patches of road; I’m looking at you Granis (the Tony Hawk of GeoGuessr) are capable of a genuine 25k score in quick rounds.
Practicing GeoGuessr and familiarising yourself with what different regions and countries look like is key to the game. Another excellent way to improve your game is to watch YouTube videos of GeoGuessr experts playing. For light hearted fun I recommend watching GeoGuessr Wizard’s YouTube channel, found here.
To improve your GeoGuessr game, I recommend those channels that show players getting perfect 25k scores or close in the Daily Challenge. RadoX1988 has his channel here. Geography Challenges GeoGuessr videos can be viewed here. Granis has his GeoGuessr videos that can be viewed here. Killer Mapper’s GeoGuessr videos can be viewed here. Despite his homicidal name, Killer Mapper’s dulcet French tones make for relaxing listening. The GeoGuessr subreddit has many challenges in which you can compare yourself to the best players in the world.
Speed Limit
Although you aren’t technically driving the Google Street View car, you are obeying the speed limit as you move down the road (thanks to slow internet loading the page). In reality, you will encounter many speed limit signs whilst playing GeoGuessr. Being aware of the maximum speed limit in certain rural areas can help you narrow down your GeoGuessr guess if you notice a speed limit sign whilst playing the game. Note that high speed limits listed are typically for rural areas, not urban areas unless ‘Need for Speed’ is being played. The below map shows these maximum speed limits. The key for the map shows the km per hour as surrounded by a red circle and the equivalent miles per hour written on a black and white sign. The actual signs you see won’t necessarily match these shapes and colours. Notice that the bulk of the eastern USA states and western USA coastal states have a maximum speed of 70 miles per hour. The central USA states typically have 75 or 80 miles per hour. New Zealand appears on the below map as having a maximum speed limit of 110km/h however this limit only applies to a small portion of Kiwi road totalling less than 100km; the maximum speed limit for most of the country is 100km/h.
A map indicating the maximum speed limit by region. The key shows both km/h within the red circle and miles/h written on the black and white sign. (Source: Amateria1121, Wikipedia) Note that NZ has a maximum speed limit for most of it’s country of 100km/h (only two of its roads have a limit of 110km/h). A larger map can be viewed here.
Signs
Any serious GeoGuessr player will get slightly aroused when they encounter a road sign. These are perhaps the most important clues within the entire GeoGuessr game. Those teenagers that have a stolen ‘Booger Hollow Rd’ hung up in their bedroom should be themselves hanged by the country on account of depriving GeoGuessrs their rightful signpost clues.
Location Names
The crème de la crème of signs in this game are place names. Often a larger city with a direction sign will help narrow down your region. Local street names or highway numbers may further tighten your search. Even if a location name isn’t known by you, if it is large enough population-wise, you may be able to find it whilst searching on the map. The street names and locations on signs should help you to at least determine the country or region you are in. I will elaborate on languages in a subsequent section.
Often you will encounter signs with a place name followed by a number e.g. New York 42. This indicates the distance until you reach the place. In this instance you are 42 miles away from New York. (Be mindful of the kilometres vs miles differentiation depending on the country). Using the compass in a situation that you encounter a sign like New York 42 is vital. You can determine the general direction the road is travelling using the compass (don’t rotate and then drop your computer) and then work out approximately which road approaching New York you are on and estimate about 42 miles along this road.
Highway Number Signs
Most countries on Street View tend to have some form of highway numbering system. If you are in Japan and see a highway 112 sign, then by zooming in on the map you will see Japan’s numbered highway network. Sometimes it takes some time to pinpoint the precise highway on the map but persistence is key. Actually scrap that- intelligence is key. Maybe ingenuity is key. Let’s say decisiveness is key. Try and determine the pattern of the countries highway system you are searching. If you are looking for highway 112, then finding highways number 110-120 might lead to the adjacent or intersecting highway 112. I will detail some specific (and Pacific) highway numbering systems in this section.
As a handful of countries make up most of the GeoGuessr locations, it’s important to be familiar with their highway signs and how to pinpoint these numbers on the map.
USA Highways
Warning: prepare to be bored.
USA County Highways: As an alien to the USA, the highway system took me some deciphering akin to Egyptian hieroglyphics. Apparently there is something logical to this system. Firstly, the smallest highways that are numbered in the USA are county highways. County Highway signs typically have the word “county” on them as seen below. These highway signs appear on the map as bland rectangular shapes as seen below. County highways are largely useless unless you recognise the name of the county. The amount of zooming in required on the map makes county highways often useless to GeoGuessr players without further information.
The symbol for US County Highways as it appears on the map.
An example of a US County Highway sign
Another example of a US County Highway sign
Texas Farm Roads: These are essentially the Texas equivalent of County Highways. They provide more useful information than standard county highways as they tell you explicitly that you are in Texas with flashing lights (really just the word printed as ‘Texas’). A typical Texas farm road sign appears below. Each Texas road has a unique number (sometimes with a letter) making them useful for zooming in on the map and detecting. They appear on the GeoGuessr map as bland rectangular shaped signs. You need to zoom in quite significantly on the map to see these signs.
A Texas Farm Road as it appears on the map (the same symbol as US County Highways)
A sign indicating a US Texas Farm Road
State Highways: These types of highways traverse a solitary state (not liquid, gas or solid). Virtually each state has its own unique state highway sign with a few exceptions: Iowa, Mississippi, Delaware and New Jersey (the cultured area that gifted the world the TV show Jersey Shore). These four states share the same state highway sign that is essentially a black background enclosing a white circle. Also the proximate states of Maine and Massachusetts have signs that I can’t distinguish between featuring a white square with a thin black border. On the GeoGuessr map, the state highway numbers appear as quasi round white shapes. In order to notice the state highways on the map, you will be required to do some zooming but not quite as much as the aforementioned County Highways. State Highway shields are useful to spot in GeoGuessr as they narrow down your map search to a single state.
State Highways in the USA appear with this symbol on the map.
A map showing the specific State Highway shield for each USA state. (Source: Mdcastle, reddit)
United States Highways: These highways cross more than one state and the signs appear as a white shield with a black number and black outline to the shield. These highways appear on the map as the same design as the signs. US Highways appear on the map as yellow roads. There is a numbering system to US Highways (hallelujah!) that enables you to not waste time (let me change that to ‘more time’ as playing GeoGuessr wastes time). Odd numbered US highways typically run in the general direction north-south. Contrastingly, even numbered US highways normally run in an approximate east-west direction. If you spot a US highways sign numbered ‘40’ you immediately know that it runs across at least a couple of US states in an east-west general direction.
The sybol denoting United States Highways on the map
The United States Highway Shield
US Highways are will be numbered with 1, 2 or 3 digits. Highways numbered with 1 or 2 digits eg 7 or 49 are major US Highways. Routes numbered with 3 digits eg 160 are spur roads. These spur roads veer off from their parent road inheriting their 2nd and third digits from their parent road. US highway 160 spurs off from US highway 60 in Missouri. US 260 spurs off from US 60 in Oklahoma, US 360 veers off from US 60 in Texas and US 460 and US 560 spur off from US 60 in New Mexico.
There is a numbering system to US highways amongst all this craziness. Odd numbered US highways increase in number from east-west. Remember that odd numbered US highways are north-south running. Given this information, US highway 1 is north-south running and hugging the east coast. Contrastingly, US highway 97 runs through the western states north-south.
Even numbered US highways tend to increase in number from north to south. Remember that even numbered highways run east-west. Given this information, US highway 2 snakes just below the Canadian border and runs east-west. US highway 98 runs east-west through the southern states of Alabama and Florida.
If I haven’t bored you by running through the US highway numbering system, I will try and provide a technique to remember this information. I remember the fact that US highways that are even run east west by thinking of the Canadian-US border and thinking that the line is very even. Everything parallel with this line is also even. I remember that US highway that are odd run north south by thinking of the rugged coastline of the US as being uneven or ‘odd’. I remember the method of the increasing number that the US highways follow by thinking of the state of Maine which is in the north east corner of the US. This is the corner where the lowest number for both east-west and north-south highways originate. Every highway west of Maine increases in number and every highway south of Maine increases in number.
USA Interstates: Congratulations if you managed to read through the last section. Now onto the El Chapo of roads- interstates. These freeways run across the country. Signs are conspicuously blue and red and explicitly state ‘Interstate’. On the map they appear identically as blue and red shields and can be viewed fairly far out without much zooming in required.
Interstate Highways as they appear on the map
The shield indicating Interstate Highways for the USA.
Interstates that are odd numbered run north south and even numbered interstates run east-west. This is the same directional system as the previous section: US highways. What is slightly confusing is that Interstates are numbered in the opposite manner to US highways. In other words, even numbered (east-west running) interstates contain low numbers in the south and increase as you head north to the higher numbers near the Canadian border. Odd numbered interstates (north-south running) contain low numbers on the west coast and increase in number towards the east coast. I remember this interstate numbering system by thinking of California as the state with the lowest numbers both odd and even. Every interstate to the north increases and every interstate to the east increases.
Another key facet to interstate roads is the exit numbers. If a road runs off an interstate, then it will be numbered and appear on the map. If you know the interstate number, you can then zoom in on the map and follow the interstate until you intersect with the exit number road.
To elaborate on the memory side of things: US highways with a black and white shield have lowest numbers in Maine. Interstate highways with a blue and red shield have lowest numbers in California. Both of these road types have odd numbers north-south running (like the uneven US coast) and even numbers east-west running (like the even Canada border).
Canadian Highways
Trans-Canada Highways: as the name suggests, these highways span across the country of Canada. They are denoted by a marijuana leaf (I’m reliably informed that it’s actually a maple leaf) of white colour on a green background. The state is also sometimes listed on Trans-Canada Highway signs.
Trans-Canada Hghways as they appear on the map
A shield indicating a Trans-Canada Highway
Provincial highways: Like the USA, Canada has an array of highway types that are bamboozling. Each state has its own unique highway shield that is valuable within the GeoGuessr game and these can be viewed below. They appear on the map typically in a similar fashion to their real world appearance (I went outside and experienced this ‘real world’ once). Often there is no state provincial shield visible but rather a white trapezium shaped sign with a black outline. The map matches the real world mostly in these cases.
A possible symbol indicating a Canadian Provincial Highway on the map
One of many possible signs indicating a Candian Provincial Highway
A map showing the various Canadian Provincial Highway shields. (Source: Pyrobove, reddit)
Mexican Highways
Federal highways in Mexico feature a black and white shield with a number and the word Mexico at the top of the shield. These highways are easily visible when zooming in on the map. Nonetheless, the numbering system of these highways starts in the north-west of Mexico and increases towards the south-east. North-south running federal highways are odd and east-west federal highways are even numbered. Essentially don’t worry too much about learning this system as the federal highways of Mexico aren’t like playing Where’s Wally/Waldo.
A Mexican federal highway shield. Note the curved sides and word Mexico on top. These features distinguish the shield from a state highway shield.
State highways in Mexico have a slightly different shield; with straight as opposed to curvy sides. The state abbreviation is written at the top of Mexican state highways which can prove particularly helpful. If you zoom into the map of Mexico to the right level, the states are named and it is fairly self-explanatory to correlate the state highway abbreviation to the associated state. The only slight room for confusion with Mexican state highways involves the state of Mexico which surrounds Mexico City. State highways here are abbreviated on signs as ‘MEX’ and shouldn’t be confused with the federal Mexican highways which have ‘MEXICO’ written on them.
A Mexican state highway shield. Note the straight sides and flat top of the shield. The letters on the shield denote the specific state that the shield is from. By zooming in to the right level on the GeoGuessr map, you can work out the matching state. For this example, ‘SON’ represents the Mexican state of Sonora.
Brazilian Highways
I love Brazil. Its highway system is easier to explain than some previous countries *Cough USA Cough *.
Brazilian Regional Highways: These highways are numbered xx-yyy with the xx denoting the name of the state that the highway is running in and the yyy representing a number. An example is highway SP-280 which means the highway is in the state of São Paulo. Conveniently, the Brazilian states are listed on the GeoGuessr map (as well as the state initials) so you don’t require an in depth knowledge of them and can simply match up the initials with the state names. You can view the state’s names and initials at different levels of being zoomed in on the map. The below chart indicates what state the initials for each Brazilian regional highway represent:
DF= Federal District
AC= State of Acre
AL= State of Alagoas
AP= State of Amapa (an appropriate name)
AM= State of Amazonas
BA= State of Bahia
CE= State of Ceara
ES= State of Espirito
GO= State of Goias
MA= State of Maranhao
MT= State of Mato Grosso
MS= State of Mato Grosso do Sul
MG= State of Minas Gerais
PA= State of Para
PB= State of Pernambuco
PR= State of Parana
PI= State of Piaui
RJ= State of Rio de Janeiro
RN= State of Rio Grande do Norte
RS= State of Rio Grande do Sul
RO= State of Rondonia
RR= Roraima
SC= State of Santa Catarina
SE= State of Sergipe
SP= State of Sao Paulo
TO= State of Tocantins
I’m in a state of disbelief that Brazil has so many states. After this impromptu Brazil geography lesson, I should emphasise again that all of these Brazil regional highway abbreviations can be matched on the map using initials and without memorising the above list. Just remember to zoom in the appropriate amount to view state initials and zoom in slightly further to see the full state names.
Brazil National Highways: These are the highways that span multiple Brazilian states. They are named with the structure BR-xxx. BR denotes the country of Brazil and it can be handy to see these signs when playing GeoGuessr and immediately knowing what country you are in. The xxx doesn’t denote something rude but rather three numbers. There is a reasonably logical numbering system concerning these Brazil National Highways. Any number from:
000-099 denotes a highway travelling radially from the capital, Brasilia. In other words, think of Brasilia as a sun and any rays from the sun are these highways.
100-199 denotes highways running north-south.
200-299 denotes east-west running highways.
300-399 denotes diagonally running highways. Odd numbered highways run in the direction south-west to north-east whilst even numbered highways run south-east to north-west.
400-499 denotes a highway that connects two other highways.
A Brazil National Highway sign
Russian Federal Highways
Ah yes, we meet again my old foe. Russian highways are confusing partially due to some being renamed/renumbered and the original signs still being in place. Russian Federal Highways have either an M, A or P/R prefixing the road number.
M: Roads numbered M-1 to M-10 connect Moscow with a neighbouring country or connect Moscow with a Russian administrative centre.
P/R: Roads with a ‘P’ prefix are actually written in Russian with the ‘R’ symbol due to their writing system of Cyrillic. These ‘R’ symbols as they will appear in Russia are followed by a number. ‘R’ roads link administrative centres in Russia. I have noticed on a map that these roads tend to be numbered with lower numbers further north (numbers less than 120 being north of Moscow typically) and higher numbers further south of Moscow (above 120) but I haven’t read of this system online so be sceptical of my possibly crazy ramblings.
A: Access roads in Russia have the prefix ‘A’. Once again, be sceptical of my observations but roads numbered A100-A110 seem to commonly be cyclic roads around the outskirts of Moscow. Roads A146-A164 seem to be in the south-west corner of Russia.
Look for signs like this in Russia. This one says road A-166 in smallish writing.
These 3 types of Russian roads are the best maintained types of roads in the country and are normally paved and relatively well maintained. In the far east of Russia some of these roads may still be gravel. A map of Rusian Federal Highways can be found here.
Road Markers: Fortunately, amidst the geographical and language barriers of Russia there are some further clues. Poles (the objects not the nationality of people from Poland) on the side of the Russian roads with blue signs have numbers on them. These numbers indicate the distance to the start/end of the road. The numbers are printed on both sides of the poles e.g. 6 and 31. In this instance you can determine the road is 37 kilometres long and you are 6 kilometres from one end and 31 kilometres from the other end. In this case it is usually wise to travel towards the closest road end e.g. the 6 kilometre one and to try and gain information at the roads end/junction. An important stipulation with Russian km markers; as you approach a sign and read it as the driver of a vehicle, it tells you how far you have travelled on the highway, the other side of the sign which you have to turn around to see once passing it tells you how far you have left on the highway. For instance, if you are travelling on a 100km highway and have travelled 99km and are only 1km away from the end, the marker will say 99km. Contrastingly, if you have just started driving on the 100km highway and have travelled only 1km, the sign will say 1km. If a Russian road has numbers above 1000km on it, the road is likely the one to Vladivostok (the city situated just slightly north-east of North Korea).
A typical Rusian road marker pole. This one shows that the road has extended 238km to this point.
Great Britain Highways
M Roads
Motorways in the island of Great Britain start with an ‘M’ followed by a number eg M23. These motorways are major roads that are fairly easy to find on the map. Nonetheless, there is a method to their numbering system. The first digit of M roads indicates what region of GB the road resides in. For instance, if you are on the M53, then you focus on the first digit of 53 which is 5. On the below map, the M53 road must be in the zone marked ‘5’.
A map showing motorway zones for Great Britain. If you find a road starting with an ‘M’, the first digit of the road will indicate which area on the above map the road is in. (Source: Nilfanion and Dr Greg, Wikipedia)
A and B Roads
‘A’ and ‘B’ roads in Great Britain are typically harder to find on the map than M roads and thus you should read this section more carefully than the previous section (I should have put this before the previous section). Roads that start with an A or B prefix will follow with a number eg A606. The first digit of this number will determine where in GB this road can be found. The below map indicates these zones. You need to learn, nurture and perhaps even grow to love the below map.
A map showing the zones for ‘A’ and ‘B’ roads in Great Britain. The first digit of the ‘A’ or ‘B’ road indicates which of the above zones that road will be in. An example is that road A299 is found in the zone marked ‘2.’ (Source: Liftarn, Wikipedia)
It should be noted that Northern Ireland’s road numbers and letters resemble Great Britain’s road numbers and letters but they in fact have their own system. Be mindful that if you are spending an inordinate amount of time looking for a road in GB, it may actually be in Northern Ireland.
Spanish Roads
Anagram the country ‘Spain’ and you end up with ‘pains’. This is an apt description of their seemingly complexly numbered road network. Despite their challenging veneer, pinpointing roads in Spain can be done before you can say Don Quixote, just read ahead (and keep reading the rest of the article unless you for some reason are just a Spanish road aficionado).
Interurban motorways in Spain typically start with A or AP followed by a number eg AP-71. Radial motorways (R roads) and National roads (N roads) are two more types of roads in Spain. European roads (E roads) are clearly labelled and easy to find across Spain and indeed all of Europe. These European roads are doubly unique in Spain as they appear on signs with a dash between the E and the number eg E-90. This contrasts most of Europe that has no dash between the E and the number eg E25. This can make recognising or excluding Spain easy just by looking for the dash on E roads.
Many road numbers in Spain start with the letter of their region. Eg ‘EX-202’ for a road in the region of Extremadura. The following is a list of road code abbreviations and their corresponding Spanish province.
AC= A Coruna
AG= Galicia
A= Alicante
AL= Almeria
ARA= Aragon
A= Avila
AI= Aviles
AS= Asturias
B= Barcelona
BI/GI= Basque Country
Bu= Burgos
C= Catalonia
CA= Cadiz
CM= Castile-La Mancha
CT= Cartagena
CS= Castellon de la Plana
CO= Cordoba
CV= Cuenca
CV= Valencian Community
EL= Elche
EX= Extremadura
GJ= Gijon
GR= Granada
H= Huelva
J= Jaen
Le= Leon
LL= Lleida
LO= Logrono
LR= La Rioja
LU= Lugo
M= Madrid
MA= Malaga
MA= Balearic Islands
MU/RM= Murcia (How Americans pronounce “America”)
O= Oviedo
P= Palencia
PO= Pontevedra
PT= Puertollano
SA= Salamanca
SC= Santiago de Compostela
SE= Seville
SO= Soria
T= Tarragona
TO= Toledo
V= Valencia
VA= Valladolid
VG= Vigo
ZA= Zamora
Z= Zaragoza
There are some more Spanish road prefixes e.g. for Andalusia, the ‘A’ prefix exists with green or orange signs, contrasting the blue ‘A’ signs for interurban motorways.
The Spanish regions don’t appear on the GeoGuessr map. Despite this, memorising the Spanish regions isn’t necessary as on most occasions the region is named after the major city within the region. If you see a road sign eg TO-22, then look at the GeoGuessr map for large Spanish cities starting with ‘T’ or ‘To’. You will notice the city of Toledo just south of Madrid and within a few seconds you will see the road: TO-22.
A map showing the provinces of Spain. Many Spanish road numbers have letters preceding them indicating the province they are found in. (Source: http://www.travelrepublic.co.uk)
LZ, FV, GC, TF, HI, LP, GM/CV before a number indicates the specific island a road is on within the Canary Islands: LZ= Lanzarote, FV= Fuerteventura, GC= Gran Canaria, TF= Tenerife, HI= El Hierro, LP= La Palma, GM/CV= La Gomera.
Japanese Highways
In Japan, prefectural roads are denoted by a blue hexagonal logo containing a number. These are difficult to find on the map without more markers and if you decide to search for these numbers on the map without any clues, say goodbye to your weekend.
How Japanese prefectural roads appear on the map (they are hard to find).
How Japanese prefectural roads appear on signs: a number within a hexagon.
The most useful road numbers in Japan are the national highways. Their logo features a blue ‘triangle’ with rounded edges. *Cue hordes of mathematicians shaking their calculator carrying fists at me for calling the shape a triange.*
How Japanese national highways appear on the map.
The triangle with rounded edges denotes Japanese national highways.
These national highway numbers can normally be found on the map but often after some significant time searching. There is a method to finding national highway numbers on the map more efficiently. Below appears a table explaining the numbering mechanism of these national highways aka curved triangle roads.
A table indicating where to look for specific Japanese national highway numbers (the roads denoted by rounded triangles containing a number). An explanation of this table occurs in the next paragraph. (Source and more info on Japanese roads: https://sites.google.com/site/roadnumberingsystems/home/countries/japan)
The top section of the table details 1 and 2 digit national highway roads whilst the bottom section explains where to find 3 digit national highway roads. The right half of the table refers to roads on the northern island of Hokkaido and the left column of the table refers to the remainder of Japan. The place names e.g. Aomori to Okinawa explain where a specific road is found. Aomori is on the northern part of the main island and Okinawa Island is south of the main island. Using the table to find road numbers can take a bit of practise. If we see road number 338 within a ‘triangle’ in GeoGuessr we look at the table to see where it fits. “338-390 Aomori- Okinawa, direction of increase N-S”. This information tells us that road number 338 will appear near Aomori at the northern tip of the main island. The road numbers will get larger until road number 390 is found near Okinawa at the southern part of Japan. Some road number half way between 338 and 390 e.g. road 365 will be found approximately half way between these points.
Other Countries Highways: If anyone is actually reading this article and has read this far then you deserve a congratulations. I won’t go through any more countries highway systems at present. If you would like the highway numbering system of a country poorly explained by me then please leave a comment and I’ll update this article to include a new country. Some other countries highway shields can be found here.
Mile and Kilometre Markers
Mile and Kilometre Markers: I have already touched on the kilometre markers used in the vastness of Russia but many other countries also have signs with numbers on the sides of their highways. There is no universal rule for these numbered signs and even within the same country, different types of numbered signs indicate different things. Some countries have markers indicating how far the nearing exit road is, how far the nearest state is, how far the nearest county is, how far until the end of the road and various other listings. These mile and kilometre markers can be useful to GeoGuessr players as you decide which way to move in the game, it’s often sensible to move towards a zero marker indicating a new road/state or some other potential information. Also you may decide to change direction if you see mile marker 999 then 998 then 997 unless you want to spend the foreseeable future travelling on a desolate road.
Junctions
Junctions are sometimes the fantasies of GeoGuessr players. JCT is often the abbreviation used on signs which much to my surprise doesn’t stand for a new RnB group but the word ‘Junction”. These JCT signs pop up typically around 400 metres away from an intersection.
Warning Signs
Warning Signs: An object whose purpose is to inform citizens of impending danger has positive connotations within GeoGuessr. Warning signs that are diamond shaped and yellow are ubiquitous in North and South America, Australia (and New Zealand if you count it as a real country), Ireland (it’s very useful for picking Ireland from the rest of Europe), Japan and South-East Asia. If you spot a triangular warning sign with a red outline and a yellow colouring then you are in luck; not because you may be perilously close to a cliff but because only a handful of eclectic countries use these warning signs. These countries include: Greece, Finland, Sweden, Iceland, North Macedonia and South Korea. These yellow coloured and red bordered signs are useful for distinguishing Finland, Sweden and Iceland from the white coloured and red bordered signs of Norway and Denmark. Other shaped signs (such as circle-shaped signs) in Finland, Sweden and Iceland also have this unique red outer and yellow colouring. Poland is unique as it has the red outline and yellow filling but the red outline is very thin. Virtually the rest of the GeoGuessr world uses the standard triangle with a red border and white centre to warn of foreboding doom.
Road warning signs around the world. (Source: Fry1989, Wikipedia). A larger map can be viewed here.
This type of warning sign (a thick red outline with yellow colouring) with various images on it occurs in Finland, Sweden, Iceland, Greece, North Macedonia and South Korea.
This type of warning sign (thin red outline and yellow coloured) with various images on it occurs only on Poland.
This type of warning sign (yellow and diamond shaped) occurs throughout virtually all of North and South America as well as Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, Japan and most of south-east Asia.
This type of warning sign (with various images on it) featuring a red ouline and white middle occurs throughout most of Africa, Asia (not south-east Asia) and Europe.
Miscellaneous
Geography
Geography isn’t just a subject you choose at school if you want to bludge but it’s also a useful aspect to navigating and pinpointing locations within GeoGuessr. If you see what resembles the sea to your East and you are in the USA, then you know you are probably on the east coast of the country gazing wishfully into the Atlantic Ocean. If you see a mountain range to your north and you are in some obscure and tiny European country then placing the pin on the map just south of the mountain range is sensible. Even if you just see the semblance of a hill in the background, you can use this knowledge to your advantage. The map on GeoGuessr, when zoomed in the precise amount will show mountains. Forests are also clearly visible on the map and this is another point to use when placing yourself.
One of the most important aspects to GeoGuessr is to match up the colours of the grass and plants you are looking at in GeoGuessr with the colours on the map. For instance, if you think you are in the USA and you see lush, green surrounds then look on the map for what parts are coloured dark green; the eastern and far western parts of the country. If you see dry grass around you that is tinged yellow then click on the map where there is yellowish colours such as the central and western parts of the USA. This process holds true for the entire world- match the grass colours in GeoGuessr with the colours appearing on the map.
Houses
Becoming aware of the types of houses in different countries and regions is of the utmost importance in GeoGuessr. A general guide to determining what country you find yourself in is to evaluate the expensiveness of the houses. If you have a mansion in front of you then it’s unlikely you are in the midst of Uganda, unless it’s some warlord’s house. Are we still doing the stop Kony movement? Poorer and smaller houses are typically scattered across eastern Europe and Russia. A different style of poorer houses occupies everything south of the USA, including Mexico (Mexico sometimes has colourful houses) and South America.
A key point to remember in GeoGuessr is that if you see a red house or several red houses then you are probably in a Nordic country (Sweden, Norway, Finland, Iceland or Denmark). These coloured houses are seldom found elsewhere. The UK has its own distinctive style of houses that are closely packed together, in drab colours and often double storey.
A Nordic style house.
The house style that is widespread in the UK.
Navigating within the USA, I have found that the houses are heterogeneous enough to provide a reasonable location accuracy. For instance, Colonial style houses litter the north-east part of the USA. Ranch style houses often appear in the southern USA states. California bungalows appear (as the name suggests) through California. Conch houses are found in Florida. Significant information can be gained by examining the local houses although playing GeoGuessr and opening the door in your mind to the different house styles of regions is key (much like the key itself).
A Colonial style house
A ranch style house
A California bungalow home
A conch house
Flora
I won’t pretend to know anything about trees/plants (I know so little that I can’t think of any more categories of flora to list). If you do have a botanical-bend then I doth my fedora to you. Birch trees are found only in the northern hemisphere and if you are in the USA and see a bunch of birch trees then you are probably fairly northern. Eucalyptus trees are found almost exclusively in Australia and they can be useful for identifying this country on bland expanses of road. Pine trees are found in the northern hemisphere. Fir trees AKA Christmas trees are located in the northern hemisphere with colder northern areas and mountain regions home to these trees in abundance. A good general rule to determine your location using coniferous trees is to examine the density of these trees in the region. If you have wall to metaphorical wall of these trees then you are probably close to the Artic region. If these trees are intermingling with other trees then you are likely further south. Savanna trees have a unique look especially the umbrella thorn acacia and point to you being in Africa. Trees with leaves matching the colourful hues of the sunset are found mainly in North-Eastern USA and South-Eastern Canada in Autumn months. Many tree types that have been mentioned here are the genus names for a large number of specific species of trees. If you can work out the individual tree types then you should be able to pinpoint your location.
A Eucalyptus tree, typically found in Australia
Birch trees
Pine trees
A fir tree
An acacia tree
A type of palm tree
The palm tree as seen above has many variations that typically include a similar type of leaf. To fellow tree ignoramuses they should stand out and can be useful in pinpointing your location. The below map shows the distribution of palm trees across the world. They are mainly found in South America, Central America, Florida and California, Africa, Southern Asia and Northern Australia.
A map showing the distribution of palm trees across the earth.
If you actually understand trees then the below map may be of interest to you. It shows the woodland and forested areas on this pale, blue dot we call earth. It also indicates the specific type of tree found in each area. Warning: you may need to be a tree expert or someone treading the fine line between tree enthusiast and tree lover to interpret the map.
A map showing the forest and woodland distribution across earth as well as the specific type of tree found in each forest and woodland area. A larger map can be viewed here.
Cars
Stereotypically, ppl who rite lyk dis are car enthusiasts. These types of people are useful to have around in GeoGuessr but not necessarily other aspects of life. Much in the same ilk as being ignorant about trees, I have a similar blind spot for cars so please forgive any inaccuracies that I write. Within the GeoGuessr game, there is an assortment of things blurred out; sometimes this extends to car logos. Such is my automobile naivety, I struggle to identify specific car brands without the logos.
In the USA I have noticed a large amount of ‘expensive utes’ also known as personal trucks. Excluding major cities, a high portion of cars I see while moving along the street are these ‘expensive utes’. These ‘expensive utes’ are often Ford F150s and indeed this is the best-selling car in most parts of the USA, excluding coastal states. Canadians like the Ford F-Series. Brazil has the Chevrolet Onix as their most popular car whilst Argentina has the Toyota Hilux. Australia and South Africa also have an abundance of Toyota Hilux. Japan likes Toyota Aqua cars and Koreans enjoy Hyundai cars (as well as Korean food).
The Ford F150, the most popular car across large parts of the USA
European cars are typically smaller than cars in the USA and cover an assortment of European car brands. In France there is an abundance of Renaults, in Sweden Volvos rule, Norway= Volkswagen, Finland= Skoda, Denmark has many Peugeots, in Italy there are plenty of Fiats and in Spain, Romania and Bulgaria Dacia Sanderos. Russians have a penchant for Hyundai cars and typically Russia and Eastern Europe have rectangular shaped cars as more prevalent as opposed to curved cars. I personally mainly zoom in to determine car brands when I’m in Europe as this can help pinpoint or narrow down possible countries quite dramatically. South-east Asia has motorbikes as their primary transport. If you spot people on bicycles then the location is more likely to be Western Europe as opposed to North America. Below are maps showing the most popular cars for areas
This map indicates the top selling car model for each country in the world. The map can be useful if you observe a certain model of car repeatedly in GeoGuessr. A larger version of the map can be viewed here: https://uk.parkindigo.com/en/news/blog/the-worlds-top-selling-car-model-in-every-country
The most popular European cars
The most popular South American cars
The most popular North American cars
The most popular cars in Asia
The most popular new cars by US state. (Source: USA Today)
Utility Poles
Utility poles look different depending on where you are in the world. I haven’t been able to use utility pole differentiation for many GeoGuessr purposes however I’m sure the obsessed player can utilise these poles for some guesses. In South Australia, the poles are unique as they contain concrete joining two steel slabs. Similar poles can be seen in Darwin. Some more info on utility poles can be found here.
Stobie poles are unique to the state of South Australia
In Japan, there is a common feature of red and white striped arrows attached to utility poles. To my surprise, these abundant poles don’t indicate to the curious masses the direction of the core of the earth. The unique arrows instead have some purpose regarding snowfall and traffic. The arrows are typically found on the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido. Sometimes the arrows will also appear on the main island of Honshu near mountains.
The red and white striped arrow pointing downwards indicates that you are in Japan, most likely on the island of Hokkaido or possibly in the island of Honshu near mountains.
An assortment of other countries have a sprinkling of concrete utility poles with holes in them as seen below. Romania has a large number of these and I’ve seen them sparingly across other parts of Europe and indeed the world but I haven’t kept a running checklist of these countries. Keeping a record of countries with a specific type of esoteric utility pole is only a step away from keeping a rock as a pet. In the future I may keep this checklist and alas the obligatory rock as a pet.
These concrete utility poles are mainly found in Romania (Romania is pictured above). Romania also has a portion of standard wooden poles. The concrete pole above appears occasionally in other parts of Europe and the world.
Flags
There are many state and national flags flying around the world that serendipitously pop up in GeoGuessr. Being aware of the flags of the world (or at least flags of GeoGuessr countries) is vitally important. The national colours of countries also make frequent appearances on Street View. These appearances can include anything from the colours of chairs, colours of signs to writing on advertisements. For instance, if you know you are in Europe and spot a red, white and green setup of chairs then you may be in Italy or Hungary.
Flags of Europe. (Source for all flag- world map images is Transparent 6lue, Wikipedia)
Flags of North America
Flags of South America
Flags of Asia
Flags of Africa and a bit of the middle east
Being aware of the USA state flags can also be of importance in GeoGuessr as these are often visible. Below is a map featuring these state flags:
USA state flags. (Source: SiBr4, Wikipedia)
Other clues
Richer countries are more likely to have better maintained roads and thus you can use this information to include or exclude certain countries from your calculations. Also the general levels of poverty are worth noting. If you spot any people in GeoGuessr then use their appearance to match up to a mental list of possible countries of origin. As you zoom into a city on the map, the name of the city written on the map is typically where the centre of the city is.
Another useful clue in the game is finding internet suffixes on buildings or signs. The letters after .com. indicate the country of the domain name. For instance www.google.com.au means you are in Australia with the AU suffix. A website indicating the specific internet suffixes for each country in the world can be found here: http://www.dave-cushman.net/computing/country_suffix.html The suffixes of note that are conspicuous for their letters not matching the country’s name in English or not being 100% clear are: .at= Austria, .ch= Switzerland, .de= Germany, .ee= Estonia, .es= Spain, .hr= Croatia, .ie= Ireland, .is= Iceland, .ua= Ukraine and .za= South Africa.
Photospheres are locations in Geoguessr that haven’t been captured by the Google Street View car but rather a real humanoid (apparently they exist). These locations often appear at monuments, attractions or indoors e.g. at shops. Some of my favourite aesthetically pleasing GeoGuessr locations have been at photospheres of lakes. Normally these human captured photospheres mean that you can’t move.
There are a few tips to be aware of if you encounter a photosphere. Firstly, you can tell that it is indeed a photosphere because the photographer’s name appears in the bottom right corner of the picture (as opposed to the words ‘Google’ and a year). This provides a big clue into the location of the photosphere. Try working out the language origin of the photographer’s name. If they aren’t on vacation, then you are well set to make your guess. For instance, the photosphere below has the photographer’s name: Casper Van Hooren. This tells us that he is likely Dutch and thus we are likely in the Netherlands (we are actually in New York so this was probably a bad example). It also tells us that he either legally changed his name to Casper to honour the 90s movie ghost franchise or Casper is his real name. On the whole, photosphere locations are commonly places not covered by Google Street View and thus they are places that don’t typically pop up on GeoGuessr. India seems to have a high proportion of all photosphere locations.
In the bottom right corner of this photosphere appears the name ‘Casper Van Hooren’. Analysing the name’s origins can be useful in determining the photosphere location.
Certain events have occurred in the historical competitive arena that aren’t in the “spirit of the game”. These include Australia’s Trevor Chappell rolling a cricket ball along the pitch to a New Zealand batsman who couldn’t get under the ball to hit it over the fence. Another such incident occurred in a Major League Baseball game in which the St. Louis Browns signed up a player with dwarfism, Eddie Gaedel, who stood 3 feet 7 inches high to bat for their team. His strike zone was so small, the pitcher couldn’t pitch into this area and he walked to first base. This not in the “spirit of the game” conundrum hits GeoGuessr too in the form of bars visible on the Street View car only in certain countries.
In a handful of countries, if you pan down to look at the ground under the car, the Street View car you are driving in has 4 ends of bars that protrude from the car. The countries these bars are almost certainly visible in are: Guatemala, the Faroe Islands, Mongolia, Kyrgyzstan, Senegal, Ghana and Kenya. South African national parks also have bars visible (at least the bars aren’t around the animals; am I right guys?) Curaçao, a Dutch, Caribbean island, also has bars visible. Some further countries also have the 4 bars visible but only in certain regions of their country, such as Bangladesh. Also the small few towns in Laos that are covered by Street View outside of Vientiane will have bars. Many players use this knowledge to their benefit whilst playing GeoGuessr despite these metal bars not being a fixture of the environment. Being a more honest player, I accidentally bang my arm causing a reflex action that results in my right hand fingers serendipitously parting and hitting the laptop touchpad and click button simultaneously resulting in the GeoGuessr view panning down to reveal bars or no bars on the Street View car.
If you pan down in certain countries, the bars protruding from the Street View car are visible. This occurs in: Guatemala, the Faroe Islands, Mongolia, Kyrgyzstan, Senegal, Ghana and Kenya.
Ghana has black pieces of tape around one of the four bars.
Ghana can be recognised as it has a piece of black coloured tape around one of its four bars.
The Kenyan Street View car also has this black protrusion protruding from the front left corner of the car. This is often visible without having to pan down.
The black ‘thing’ at the front of the Street View car indicates that the country is Kenya.
In Uganda, the sides of the Street View car are visible. This isn’t true in the small sections of Ugandan National Parks that occur in GeoGuessr. Ugandan Street View coverage is centred around Kampala.
The edges of the Street View car can easily be seen in Uganda.
Mongolia can be recognised thanks to the bars appearing underneath the car in tandem with either red coloured side mirrors or something resembling camping equipment under the car. Kyrgyzstan has the bars underneath the car with only black/white coloured side mirrors.
This ‘camping equipment’ look is often found under the Street View car in Mongolia along with the bars.
The rear side mirrors are an alternate option to the ‘camping equipment’ view and also indicate Mongolia.
Earlier in this article I mentioned the hotspot locations for really blurry Street View locations. There is another clue that can be used when it comes to the Street View camera’s quality of images. This involves the distinctive 2009 camera used by Street View. This camera sometimes shows up when it produces a halo (not the game) around the sun as seen below. Other features of this camera involve brighter colours and slightly worse picture quality than the typical Street View images (but nothing like the really blurry images). If you notice this camera has been used by seeing a halo around the sun or spotting the camera’s other features then you can narrow down the country you are in. This 2009 camera is used in large parts of Mexico and is useful for distinguishing this country from the USA in which the 2009 camera has seldom been used. The 2009 camera is also used in large parts of Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain. Canada, Norway and Finland also have many locations covered by this camera. Google will eventually update images in all of these countries so this information will eventually be out-of-date.
The 2009 Street View camera often produces a halo around the sun, shows images as bright and is of slightly worse image quality than the subsequent cameras. If you recognise that this 2009 camera has been used, you can narrow down the country you are in.
If you are placed in a poor image quality location in Australia or the USA, the goal should be to reach a more major road than you are currently on; this will hopefully mean more crystal clear images.
In some areas, an antenna is visible on the back of the Street View car (behind the camera). Also, on many rounds, if you look down, the side mirrors of the car are visible by shadow. These are in fron of the Street View camera. By using either of these entities, you can determine if the Street View car is driving on the left or right of the street.
If you look carefully, you will see a floating antenna. This is mainly found on the back of the Street View car. In this instance we can determine that people drive on the right in this country.
License Plates
The Colour of Blurred License Plates
One of the first things I do when facing a location in GeoGuessr is to breathe. After breathing has been established I try and find a license plate. Despite the blurring, the colour of plates is still visible and sometimes the colour of the lettering or a design is also vivid.
Europe
The blue stripe on the left of the license plate is visible despite the blurring in GeoGuessr and indicates a European location.
Most of Europe have long license plates with a blue vertical stripe on the left end. These plates are clearly visible in GeoGuessr. Only several European countries have yellow license plates which are easy to identify besides the blurring: the Netherlands and Luxembourg have yellow front and rear plate. Contrastingly, the UK, Cyprus and Gibraltar have yellow rear plates and white front plates. France (and Corsica) had yellow rear plates allowed until 2007 so it’s common to spot some yellow rear plates still in these areas. It’s especially lucky to immediately realise you are in Europe and see a yellow plate meaning probably the UK or Netherlands. Only commercial vehicles in Hungary and Denmark have yellow plates. I will show images of the significantly coloured license plates from around the world. These will be blurred and appear like they do in GeoGuessr.
A license plate from the Netherlands. The Netherlands and Luxembourg have these yellow European front and rear plates. The UK, Cyprus and Gibraltar have yellow rear plates and white front plates. France has a small number of vehicles with yellow rear plates.
Portugal can be recognised because drivers normally have a yellow vertical stripe on the right hand side of the license plates to go with the vertical blue stripe on the left hand side of the plate.
A license plate from Portugal
Italy stands out because it has a light blue vertical stripe on both the left and right edges of its license plate. Albania also has a blue vertical stripe on the left and right edges of its license plate.
A license plate from Italy. Albania has similar plates.
In Belgium, the license plates are in red lettering which can sometimes just be distinguished despite the blurring. The blue vertical stripe may appear on the left (like most of Europe) or the right of the plate.
A license plate from Belgium. The lettering is red and this red hue is just visible.
Whilst most of Europe has the blue vertical stripe on the left of their license plates, some countries lack this idiosyncracy: Iceland, Liechtenstein, Russia, Switzerland plus an assortment of small territories or miniscule countries have no blue stripe. In these areas, it’s the lack of colouring on the license plate that makes them stand out for Europe.
A license plate from Switzerland. The European countries of Iceland, Liechtenstein and Russia have similar looking blurred plates; narrow and white coloured. These stand out for lacking the typical blue, left, vertical stripe of Europe.
Prior to 2016, Croatia had license plates that were just white. Post 2016, they have the quintessentially European blue, left vertical stripe. Due to this oddity, most cars on Street View in Croatia at present don’t have the blue stripe.
The license plate is a useful way of distinguishing Russia from other Cyrillic writing places. Russia doesn’t have a blue stripe whilst Ukraine often has light blue and yellow in place of the left stripe (which may be hard to detect depending on the blurring).
A license plate from Ukraine. Notice the small amount of yellow and blue on the left side.
The Isle of Man has a small vertical red stripe on the left side of the plate.
USA
Examining license plates is particularly useful in the USA to determine which state you are probably in. The following are the license plates that I recognise despite the blurring that deviate from the standard white plate.
Alabama has license plates containing a yellow top horizontal third with the remainder of the plate an inconspicuous light blue and green.
The main feature of the Alabama plate is the top third being yellow. Green and blue are more subtle colours on the rest of the plate.
Alaska has yellow license plates or plates with a blue upper horizontal stripe and yellow bottom horizontal stripe.
Alaska has many yellow license plates.
The other common license plate in Alaska contains a blue upper horizontal stripe and yellow lower horizontal stripe.
Arizona has a few different plate designs. Their most common appears below.
Connecticut has blue on the upper portion of their plates.
Connecticut has a light blue colour on the top of their plates.
Delaware has the wildly imaginative grey coloured plates.
Delaware has grey plates.
Florida has a big orange coloured orange (the fruit) in the middle of its license plate and it’s recognisable despite the blurring.
Florida has an orange in the middle of its license plates.
Idaho has a brown/maroon horizontal line covering the top ¼ of the licence plate.
Idaho has a brown/maroon thick line across the top third of its plate.
Illinois have some blue and white plates in various forms. The blue portion will either appear on top of the white or vice versa.
Illinois plates have blue and white on them with the blue either appearing on the top or bottom of the plate horizontally.
Iowa has a blue stripe along the top of the plate and a a stripe that appears as yellow when blurred along the bottom of the license plate. The Iowa plate looks similar when blurred to the Pennsylvania license plate.
Iowa has a plate with a blue top stripe and yellow bottom stripe.
Kentucky has various versions of blue and white plates.
Kentucky has blue and white plates in various forms.
Most Massachusetts plates have a faint red writing that is visible.
Massachusetts plates tend to have a faint red writing that can be seen if you look carefully.
Minnesota license plate’s have a light blue, upper, horizontal stripe.
The plates of Minnesota have a sky blue upper blue section.
Nevada has some blue plates.
Nevada has some blue plates.
New Hampshire has many partly green plates.
New Hampshire has green on the right side of their license plates.
The widespread plates in New Jersey have a yellow upper section.
New Jersey plates have this upper section of yellow.
New Mexico has a mixture of blue and yellow plates.
New Mexico has a portion of bluish coloured plates.
As well as blue plates, New Mexico also has many yellow plates.
New York state has gold coloured plates.
New York has distinctive gold coloured plates.
North Dakota has bluish plates with especially the top half of the plate appearing blue.
North Dakota has the top of the plates as light blue. I remember this as the ‘north’ of the plate is blue therefore North Dakota.
Ohio have some plates with a red top stripe and blue bottom stripe.
Some plates from Ohio have a red top stripe, a white middle stripe and blue lower stripe.
Oklahoma sometimes has the left section of the plate appearing blue.
Not all but some Oklahoma plates have this blue pattern.
Oregon has a light green strip running vertically down the middle of the plate.
Oregon has a green mid-section of their plates. I remember this as an anagram of Oregon is o-gren-o which to me looks a bit like the word ‘green’ in the middle.
Pennsylvanian plates have a blue top horizontal strip and yellow bottom horizontal strip. The Pennsylvanian plate appears similar to the Iowa plate.
Pennsylvania has a blue upper part of the plate and yellow lower part of the plate. These plates appear frequently in the TV show The Office. The Pennsylvanian plate appears similar to the Iowa plate.
South Carolina has the bottom 2/3rd of the plate horizontally appearing orange.
South Carolina has the bottom section of their plate as orange.
Utah has either orange as a horizontal 1/3rd strip across the top of the plate or a large orange pyramid shape.
Many Utah cars have the outline of a large orange pyramid on the right of their plates.
The second type of Utah plates have an orange top section.
Vermont has green plates.
Vermont has green on their plates. This can be remembered as Vermont (verd mont) means “green mountain” in French.
Washington state contains many plates with a wispy shaded, light blue colour on the bottom of the plate.
Washington state contains this blue smudge on many of its plates.
Wyoming normally has an almost all blue plate with yellow across the base and left of the plate.
Wyoming plates are mostly blue with yellow appearing on the base and left side of the plate.
An image of a USA license plate for every state can be found here.
USA license plates are useful for determining what state you are in.
Canada
Canadian provinces have their own unique colouring and design of license plates and these can be found here. Sometimes certain province’s license plates can be recognised despite the blurring. Cars in New Brunswick and Alberta tend to have license plates with red lettering. The lettering on the license plates of Newfoundland and Labrador are also commonly red but this province can be distinguished from New Brunswick due to the lack of front plate for Newfoundland and Labrador. Cars in Saskatchewan normally have green lettering. Nova Scotia typically has plates with blue on them. Manitoba has a distinctive green section on the left and right sides of their plate much like someone who eats healthy food. Plates in Quebec are either white or mainly white with a slightly blue hue in the upper left and upper right sections.
The above plate is from New Brunswick and has red lettering that can just be distinguished. Alberta and Newfoundland and Labrador also have similar red lettering on their plates.
Saskatchewan plates have green lettering that can normally just be seen.
Nova Scotia plates normally contain blue.
Manitoba has a green section on the left and right parts of their license plate.
Quebec has either white plates or plates with a delicate blue colouring in the upper right and upper left sections of the plate.
Other Countries
Australian license plates also provide clues as to where you are located. About one quarter of New South Wales license plates you see are yellow and clearly visible through the blurriness.
About 1/4 of license plates you see in New South Wales are yellow.
License plates from Indonesia, Malaysia and Macau are commonly black and clearly visible despite the blurring.
Indonesia, Malaysia and Macau have black license plates.
The black Indonesian and Malaysian plates contrast the white and green license plates of the Philippines.
The Philippines has various iterations of green and white plates.
Laos has yellow license plates.
Laos typically has yellow license plates.
Bhutan has distinctive red coloured licence plates.
Plates from Bhutan have a unique red colour.
Kyrgyzstan plates typically have a red vertical stripe on the left side of the plate.
Note the distinctive red vertical line on the plates of Kyrgyzstan.
Japan often has yellow plates.
Israel has yellow license plates, both front and back. They have a blue vertical stripe on the left of their yellow plates.
Plates from Israel shouldn’t be confused with UK or Netherlands plates despite their similarity. Israeli plates are narrow, yellow and have a vertical blue stripe on the left.
The front Sri Lankan licence plates are white and the rear plates are yellow. The initials on the left side of the license plates consist of two letters that indicate the region of Sri Lanka. CP= Central Province, EP= Eastern Province, NC= North Central Province, NE= North Eastern Province, NW= North Western Province, WP=Western Province, SB= Sabaragamuwa Province, SP= Southern Province and UP= Uva Province. Hong Kong and Botswana also have yellow rear plates and white front plates. These are two areas you don’t normally see in the same sentence.
The rear of Sri Lankan plates are yellow and the front plates are white. Hong Kong and Botswana also have yellow rear plates and white front plates.
In Africa, Tunisia mainly has black plates that are long and skinny.
Tunisia has black plates that are narrow and long.
Some plates in Tunisia have a red left section whilst the remainder of the plate is black.
Some plates in Tunisia have a red left side and black remainder.
Ghana has many yellow plates.
Many plates in Ghana are yellow.
Senegal has blue license plates.
Senegal has blue license plates.
The old license plate style in Kenya was yellow back plates and this is still largely visible across the country.
Many Kenyan back plates are yellow.
Ugandan license plates are white for front plates and yellow for back plates. Sometimes the plates are more elongated than the below image.
An example of a plate from Uganda. Sometimes the plates in Uganda are more elongated than this image.
In South America, Colombia has some yellow plates.
Colombia has a reasonable portion of yellow plates.
Brazilian trucks often have red license plates.
Trucks in Brazil have red coloured plates.
License Plates Extras
Europe License Plate Extras
Pray for a glitch in the matrix and the Google algorithm to be flawed in allowing us the heavenly sight of a non-blurred license plate. License plates are often blurred in GeoGuessr but on occasions they are visible to various degrees. If you see a long and skinny license plate with a blue end (often visible despite the blurring) then you are probably in Europe in a country belonging to the European Union. Each European country has its own system of combining letters and numbers for their license plate and a full list of what combination each country has can be found here.
A typical example of a European license plate. Note the letter on the left hand side of the plate. In this instance, the letter ‘E’ is visible. This means the license plate is from Spain (Espanol).
How the most widespead European license plate appears when blurred in GeoGuessr. Notice that the plate is long and skinny and has a blue vertical stripe on its left edge.
On the left hand side of European license plates (often under the country’s flag or European Union symbol of a blue background and white stars) is a one, two or three letter abbreviation denoting what country you are in. Sometimes it takes looking at cars for a while before you see a license plate that hasn’t got the country symbol blurred out. The following country symbols represent each country:
AL= Albania
AND= Andorra
AM= Armenia
A= Austria
AZ= Azerbaijan
BY= Belarus
B= Belgium
BIH= Bosnia and Herzegovina
BG= Bulgaria
HR= Croatia
CY= Cyprus
CZ= Czech Republic
DK= Denmark
EST= Estonia
FIN= Finland
F= France
G= Georgia
D= Germany
GR= Greece
H= Hungary
IS= Iceland
IRL= Ireland
I= Italy
LV= Latvia
FL= Liechtenstein
LT= Lithuania
L= Luxembourg
MK= Macedonia
M= Malta
MD= Moldova
MC= Monaco
MNE= Montenegro
NL= Netherlands
N= Norway
PL= Poland
P= Portugal
RO= Romania
RUS= Russia (although this appear on the right of the license plate)
SRB= Serbia
SK= Slovakia
SLO= Slovenia
E= Spain
S= Sweden
TR= Turkey
UA= Ukraine
GB= United Kingdom
In many countries around the word, if the heavens part and there is a glitch allowing you to glimpse into the soul of a license plate and read its actual letters/numbers then you can deduce what specific part of a country you are in. For example, the below plate reads: B KJ414. The B indicates that you are in Berlin. A map of all the German district license plate initials and correlating areas can be seen here. This license plate letter deduction process extends beyond Germany to many other countries.
The capital ‘B’ at the start of this license plate indicates that it’s from Berlin. Many cities and regions can be deduced or guessed if you see an actual license plate as opposed to the blurring.
Russia License Plate Extras
Russia has license plates with a small Russian flag on the right hand side. Above this flag is a two digit (occasionally three digit) number denoting what part of Russia the car is from. Cars do move throughout administrative regions of Russia so it’s probably safer to view two car’s license plates with matching numbers to confirm the exact region of Russia you are in (unicorns may appear twice). Some buses and other vehicles have the number printed largely on their rear above the letters ‘RUS’. The map below shows the number (sometimes several numbers) associated with each region of Russia. Only few players have memorised all regions. I’m guessing that Nightey has (the Magnus Carlsen of GeoGuessr).
An example of a Russian license plate. Note that the number above the Russian flag (in this case 78) indicates the administrative region of Russia that the license plate is from. 78 corresponds with St. Petersburg.
Note the number ’24’ on this bus above the ‘RUS’. This denotes the bus being from the region marked ’24’ on the below maps
A map showing the Russian license plate codes (the number that appears above the Russian flag) for each region in West Russia. Note that a list version of this information can be found here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle_registration_plates_of_Russia (Source: fremantleboy, Wikipedia)
A map indicating the Russian license plate codes for every region in East Russia
United States License Plates Extras
Most states in the USA require a front license plate in tandem with a back license plate. There are however a large number of states that don’t require a front license plate. This is a big clue in GeoGuessr in narrowing down where you are in the USA. The states not requiring front license plates are: Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Arizona, Michigan, Mississippi, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana and West Virginia. Most of these states are located in the South-East of the USA, with a band across the south of the country excluding Texas and a region stretching north to Michigan and Pennsylvania, excluding Ohio and Virginia.
A map indicating the states of the USA that don’t require front license plates. This can be particularly useful if you spot the lack of front license plates on cars.
If you are lucky enough to see a USA license plate that isn’t blurred, then the state’s name may be written on it.
Canadian License Plate Extras
A useful Canadian license plate fact is to be aware of is which provinces have rear only licence plates vs both front and rear. Just 4 Canadian provinces require front and rear plates: British Columbia, Manitoba, New Brunswick and Ontario. I remember these 4 provinces not by name but by numbers: 1,4,5,7. These are the positions of the provinces starting at British Columbia on the bottom row of Canadian provinces and moving from left to right. The remaining provinces and territories require just rear plates. This is illustrated in the below image/map/thingy.
A map showing which Canadian states require just rear license plates (blue states on the map) as opposed to both front and rear plates (green states on the map). (Source: bryan89wr, Reddit).
One aspect of license plate spotting that I should have preceded this entire section with is the fact that cars move. Unlike signs which remain static unless they sound like a humorous word and thus end up in teenagers bedrooms, cars can move between states and countries so be wary of this.
Language
As someone who has a tenuous grasp of my only language: English, the plethora of signs and foreign writing appearing in GeoGuessr was initially overwhelming. You don’t need to understand the meaning of words in other languages within GeoGuessr, often a sufficient task is to be able to identify what language is written eclectically and thus narrow down a specific country. A useful technique to identify a language you have read in Street View is to zoom in on the map to a country where you think this language may originate from and see if the place names use similar letters/symbols. If you are reading this article, then I assume you can read and identify English (unless you are using Google translate) in which case *Google could not translate this very funny joke*.
Asia
Japanese: At first glance this language looks similar to Chinese and Korean. Japanese is different in that is uses many simple curved strokes that make up their characters such as ノ, シ, い and く. There are two scripts of Japanese writing: one simple and appearing below and one more complicated and easily confused with Chinese. Some simple Japanese writing appears below:
Korean: The key aspect distinguishing Korean from other East Asian written languages is their usage of circles for instance 요 and 안. Other than the idiosyncratic circles, Korean looks quite blocky and rigid in its writing. Some Korean writing appears below:
Chinese: This language is spoken in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau and China. Chinese tends to have more complicated characters than Japanese and Korean. Chinese characters tend to be made up of more strokes than Japanese. For example, 麼 and 名. Some Chinese writing appears below:
Hebrew: This language is spoken in Israel. I identify this language by noting that many of the letters looks like lower case ‘n’ with an extra line added sometimes. Apologies for overwhelming you with these technical language terms. Some Hebrew writing appears below:
Arabic: This language is largely spoken across the middle-east and northern Africa. Its countries include: Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, UAE and Yemen. Note than many of these countries aren’t included in GeoGuessr. I recognise this written language due to its similarity to calligraphy and many of the words having a line underneath them. Some Arabic writing appears below:
Thai: Spoken in Thailand, the written Thai Language has many similarities to the Cambodian language of Khmer. I distinguish these languages by the abundant usage of small circles on the ends of most Thai symbols. The Cambodian written language does contain circles but these are far less common and not typically on the end of symbols. Some Thai writing appears below:
Cambodian: The Cambodian language, known as Khmer is quite similar visually (for me at least) to the above mentioned Thai language. I look for the small hooks on the top of almost every Cambodian symbol to recognise the Cambodian language. These hooks point to the right. The Thai written language lacks these ‘hooks’. Some Khmer (Cambodian) writing appears below:
Indonesian: This language is spoken in Indonesia and is distinguishable for its common usage of the letter ‘a’ within words. This letter occurs in a large portion of words sometimes more than once throughout the word. The Indonesian language is also recognisable thanks to the suffixes ‘kan’, ‘an’ or ‘i’ appearing frequently at the end of many words. Visually, Malay, (unsurprisingly spoken in Malaysia) is very similar to Indonesian. Below is an example of some Indonesian writing:
Lao: This language is spoken in Laos. It it fairly similar visually to the Thai language as it contains small circles in some characters. I distinguish it from Thai by looking for curved letters. The Lao written language has virtually every part of every character curved. This contrasts the Thai written language that contains a straight component to almost every character. Below is an example of the Lao written language:
South America
In the real world, South America is home to English, French and Dutch however the countries who speak these languages aren’t included on Street View thus we focus on Portuguese and Spanish.
Portuguese: A key dichotomy in GeoGuessr is the distinction between Spanish and Portuguese. Portuguese is only spoken in Brazil (and Portugal). Portuguese contains the ã character, which is a (I’m about to overwhelm you with technical jargon) ‘squiggle’ over the letter ‘a’- note that this is different from an accent. This ã character appears frequently and is in words such as São meaning saint. Ç is also a symbol that appears in Portuguese but not Spanish (it also appears in French). If you notice a word ending in ção, then you can be certain the language is Portuguese. Portuguese also uses the word “do” translated as “of”. Portuguese uses the letter “e” for “and”.
Spanish: This language is spoken in Spain, Mexico, much of Central America and all of the South American GeoGuessr countries excluding Brazil. Spanish doesn’t use the previously mentioned ã but does, like Portuguese, have a similar letter with an accent over the á. Contrasting the Portuguese word “do” meaning “of” is the Spanish word “de” meaning “of”. This shouldn’t be confused with the rarer Portugueses word “de” meaning “in”. In summary, if you see “de” you are likely in a Spanish speaking country. Spanish also has the letter ñ that appears in Portuguese as ‘nh”. In Spanish, the word “and” is represented by the letter ‘y’. This contrasts Portuguese which uses “e” for “and”. Microsoft Word now thinks I speak Spanish so virtually every word is misspelt according to spellcheck.
Europe: Now onto the melting pot continent of languages which is great to celebrate but unfortunately involves some research for GeoGuessr players.
Western Europe
French: This language is spoken across France, in the western part of Switzerland, in the south of Belgium and in Quebec, Canada (and partially in New Brunswick, Canada). It is reasonably easy to recognise if you read the words out loud and they sound French. Letters include the ç (also found in Portuguese), ë, è, é, ï and à.
German: This language is spoken across Germany and Austria, the North-east part of Switzerland and South Tyrol: a province in northern Italy. The language, like French is fairly identifiable if you read the words out loud and it sounds German. Letters of German include: ä, ü and ö. In Germany, the letter ß is also used.
Italian: This language is spoken throughout Italy and in the region to the south of the Alps in Switzerland. If you read the language out loud, it sounds Italian. Features of the language include: ì and à as well as ‘gg’ and ‘cc’. Most words end with a vowel in Italian.
Dutch/Flemish: These languages are spoken across the Netherlands and in the northern part of Belgium. Commonly occurring features are the abundance of z and w letters as well as the letter e appearing together as ‘ee’ and i and j appearing together as ‘ij.’
Welsh: This language is spoken only in Wales. The language sometimes appears concurrently with English on signs. The letters ll appear together commonly and there are a high proportion of y, w and c letters occurring.
Basque: This language is spoken in a part of Spain known as Basque country. Basque is spoken in parts of northern Spain and south-west France. The signs that appear in this region often have both Spanish and Basque on them. The letter x appears frequently in this language.
Greek: Although Greece is technically in Southern Europe, I’ll lob it into this section. Greek is spoken only in Greece and the southern region of Cyprus. This language uses the well-known Greek alphabet containing the letters alpha, beta, gamma, delta etc. α, β, γ, δ.
The Nordic Countries of Europe
Swedish: This language is spoken in Sweden and features å, ä and ö.
Finnish: This language is spoken in Finland and contains ä and a plethora of double letters such as aa and ii.
Danish: This language is spoken in Denmark and contains æ, å and ø. This ø is only used in Danish and Norweign. Ø also means “island” in Danish.
Norwegian: This language is only spoken in Norway and contains æ, ö and å.
North-Eastern Europe
Estonian: This language is only spoken in Estonia and has significant parallels to Finnish however Estonian also has the letter: õ.
Latvian: This language is spoken only in Latvia and contains many letters with different accents above or below them. These include: ļ, ķ, ņ with the line below the letter and ā”, ē, ī, ō, ū, ž with some form of line above the letter.
Polish: This language is spoken only in Poland and is a fairly easy language to recognise due to its abundance of the letter z (it’s only worth 1 point in Polish Scrabble). The letter z is often paired with other letters such as: rz, sz and cz. Other curious letters used in Polish include: ó, ł, ż, ś, ȩ and ń.
Lithuanian: This language is spoken only in Lithuania. The language is unique as it contains ė as its 9th letter of the alphabet. Essentially this e with a dot above it is only found in Lithuanian. The language also contains: š, ž, ū and č.
Eastern Europe (excluding Cyrillic)
Slovak: This language is spoken in Slovakia. It belongs to the Czech-Slovak group of languages hence is similar to Czech. Slovak uses: á, é, í, ý, č, š and ž. To distinguish the language from Czech, look for ä, ľ, ĺ, ŕ, ô, dz and dž.
Czech: This language is spoken only in the Czech Republic. It contains: á, é, ý, č, š, ž, ě, ů and ř. To distinguish it from Slovak, look for: ě, ř and ů. According to a Czech mate I’ve got, the letter ‘z’ is fairly abundant in this language.
Hungarian: This language is predominantly spoken in Hungary. It contains the letters: é, á, í, ó, ú, ü, ő and ö. Look for the letter ő with italic like lines above the o as this letter is unique to Hungarian.
Slovenian: Not to be confused with Slovak, this language is spoken in Slovenia. Slovenian is littered with the letter j. If you remember the capital of Slovenia is Ljubljana (containing two j’s) then this may help you remember the j and Slovenia link. Slovenian also contains: ž, š and č.
Croatian: This language is spoken in both Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia. The language uses: š, ć and č.
Romanian: This language is spoken in Romania and uses: ş, ƫ, ă and ȃ.
Turkish: This language is spoken in both Turkey and the Northern region of Cyprus. The language contains: ä, ö, ı, ğ and ş. Most signs I see in Turkey have the ‘ş’ letter appearing and this helps me confirm that the country I’m in is Turkey.
Albanian: This language is spoken in Albania as well as Kosovo. It features a glut of q and j letters appearing. It also contains ë and ç.
Cyrillic
We meet again Cyrillic. If you desire consistently high scores in GeoGuessr then a prerequisite is recognising Cyrillic which is not a language but a writing system. A second requirement for high scores in GeoGuessr is to know how to read Cyrillic; this isn’t as daunting as it sounds and working out how to sound the letters out to read place names can be done including memorisation within 10 minutes. Cyrillic is widely used across Eastern Europe and Western Asia. Countries such as Bulgaria, Macedonia and Serbia use a writing system that combines both Cyrillic and Latin. Countries using Cyrillic include: Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. Depending on the country and variant of Cyrillic used, there will often be unique letters/symbols that can help pinpoint your country. The below image shows what letters/symbols are unique vs which ones are shared for certain written languages.
A Venn diagram showing which Cyrillic symbols are shared and which are unique to certain countries. (Source: reddit, Porodicnostablo).
As the above Venn diagram indicates, “Ёё”, “ъ”, “ы” and “Ээ” are Russian letters not used in Ukrainian. Alternately, “Ґґ”, “Єє”, “Іі” and “Її” are Ukrainian letters not used in Russian. Spotting any of these letters can inform you of which country you are in if you are undecided between the two. If you don’t want to remember these obscure symbols that resemble hieroglyphics, the simplest memory technique to distinguish between Russian and Ukrainian written language is to look for the letter “ï” or “i” as this letter only occurs in Ukrainian, not in Russian.
A method teaching how to learn to read Cyrillic in a fun manner is here. The below image indicates the Cyrillic letter on top and the sound it makes below. Most of the letters are the same as English but there are some exceptions you will need to know. An example of this being useful is if you see a sign saying “POCTOB” and you can break it down letter by letter. P=R, O=O, C=S, T=T, O=O B=V hence the sign reads POCTOV.
If you don’t want to learn Cyrillic an alternative is to use the GeoGuessr map to make translations of Cyrillic words. If you zoom into Russia on the map, you will see each city with its English name on top and Cyrillic name on the bottom. You can use the map as a translation guide to the Cyrillic word you wish to translate. For instance, if you want to translate the Cyrillic letter ‘B’ then zoom in on the map and look or a Russian city containing a ‘B’ in its Cyrillic name. One city on the map is ПCKOB which has its English translation of PSKOV written above it. You can correlate these letters and determine that the Cyrillic B is the English ‘V.’ Another option in Cyrillic countries if you see a sign for a major city is to simply scan the map, looking at the Cyrillic names of cities to find the city you are seeking.
As I mentioned earlier, I lack language skills full stop (or exclamation mark, I’m not sure) so please forgive any mistakes I’ve made in this section, it serves only as a guide to help you pinpoint places. A more extensive explanation discussing language recognition can be found here.
Regional Differences
If you have read this far into the article then congratulations- I gave up after the first sentence- You must be an obsessive GeoGuessr player. My devotedness to the game has started to provoke instances in my personal life in which the real world and GeoGuessr world intersect. I dub this process ‘The GeoGuessr Effect’. If I see a photo on the wall, on someone’s phone or on TV of a random location in the world; my GeoGuessr instincts kick in and I imagine a world map in my head and I pinpoint the location. Disappointingly, I am seldom awarded with points and instead rewarded with loneliness.
Many clues have already been mentioned as to how to distinguish one place from another however there are some further hints to help you deduce the continent, country or region within a country.
North America
North America Street View coverage. The dots indicate Photo Sphere locations (ignore them).
At the beginning of this article I told a lie. I showed a map featuring entire countries covered by Street View and thus GeoGuessr. In reality, only parts of certain countries are typically covered. North American Street View coverage includes USA, Mexico and mainly southern Canada. Guatemala is also covered. Costa Rica is barely covered despite the above image indicating otherwise. Puerto Rico and the odd Caribbean island are also covered. Bermuda is covered. Anchorage, Fairbanks and a few other towns are covered in Alaska including paths between these areas.
If you are firmly in North America and tossing up between Canada and the USA, then searching for a symbol of American patriotism in the form of a flag is useful. There are flags scattered across the entire USA in front gardens and on buildings which direct you to a USA location. If you travel through a town and don’t see any American flags then there is a good chance you are in Canada.
A yellow line in the middle of the road is prevalent in North America in usually distinguishing the continent from Europe (although South America also has a yellow middle line widespread). The street width in the USA and Canada seems to be greater than Europe. That is, if you see wide streets and are tossing up between Europe and North America, then pick a North American location. Adopt-a-Highway signs are prevalent in Canada and the USA. As far as a I can determine, they encourage people to take part of the highway bitumen home with them in the hopes someone will care, nurture and even love the bitumen. These signs often have the state/province name on them.
An example of an Adopt-a-Highway sign. This one is from Colorado.
If you are trying to pinpoint your location in the USA, then the small, house satellite dishes may be able to help you. There is a satellite in geosynchronous orbit located just to the south of Texas. USA small satellite dishes almost universally point to this satellite. Using this to exploit higher scores in GeoGuessr isn’t too challenging. If you know you are in the USA and spot one of these small satellite dishes, observe which direction it’s pointing. If a dish is pointing south east, you on the west side of the country, if a dish is pointing south west, you are on the east side of the country and if a dish is pointing south, you are in the centre of the country. Also, observe not just the east-west general direction that the dish is pointing but the north-south direction. This can place you in one of the northern states or southern states (the dish will pointing close to east-west).
Mountains are fairly scarce in the USA with a few exceptions. If you notice an amalgamation of desert and mountains then you may be in the Utah-Colorado region. The American Rocky Mountains on the western side of the country tend to be more significant in GeoGuessr as opposed to the Appalachian Mountains on the Eastern flank. The Appalachian Mountains are typically more green, tree covered and comprise of rolling hills. Contrastingly, the Rocky Mountains are true to their name and resemble the 1976 boxing movie that I’m reliably informed they are named after. Also they look rocky.
Alaska has the most significant mountains of all and it’s important to be aware of this state in the game. Sometimes in Alaska you will see another Google Street View car about 100 metres away from you. This is an indicator that you are both being stalked and in the confines of Alaska. If you strike large mountains in Canada, then you are most likely on the western side of the country. Another place to be cognizant of in GeoGuessr that is often neglected by players guessing is Hawaii. The dual presence of Hawaiian and English with hilly sometimes volcanic terrain and tropical flora makes it a unique location as it also contains the typical American mainland signs. Sometimes there will be sand alongside the road in the South-East corner of the USA such as Florida and surrounding states (AKA the ocean). The South-East corner is also recognisable as it is generally swampy. If the Geoguessr location is blurry (as it has been taken with the poor quality camera) and is in the northern hemisphere, then try and determine if the land is flat. If so, then flat and blurry= likely North or South Dakota.
A map indicating the regional types of the USA Prairies. Light green = short grass, medium green = mixed grass and dark green = tall grass. (Source, Wikipedia: user: Theshibboleth)
A frequent occurrence in GeoGuessr is to be landed adjacent to a corn field. Knowing a general location of this corn field is useful. Fortunately there is a concentration of corn fields in: Iowa, Illinois and southern Minnesota. Some of the surrounding states have a sprinkling of corn fields including Nebraska however the rest of the country is largely void of corn fields.
A map showing the corn production distributions across the USA. The areas that are coloured dark-green are most likely to be the areas you are based around if you are positioned next to a corn field in GeoGuessr. (Source: The US Department of Agriculture).
A field of corn.
By looking at street/avenue signs in the USA, you may be able to narrow down your location. ‘Street’ to indicate the suffix for a road name is largely used in Iowa, southern Minnesota, eastern South Dakota, eastern Nebraska and Kansas. The below map shows the prevalence for different road suffixes across the USA. I’ve noticed a correlation between the above corn map and Street suffix map. Coincidence or conspiracy involving the government’s road naming department, corn growers and aliens?
A map showing the most common suffixes to denote roads across the USA. Note the yellow region representing the use of ‘Streets’. (Source: TIGER/LIne)
The southern central part of Canada appears similar to the central corridor of the USA. Indeed there are numerous places in the USA that resemble Canada and vice versa. This air of ambiguity regarding the USA vs Canada has a few clues leading to resolution. One key tidbit I use is to look at the pole holding up any form of road sign. Canada normally uses wooden poles, often painted white. Contrastingly, the USA typically has metal poles holding up their signs. Another key aspect to look for is letterboxes. If you see a personal letterbox outside someone’s house, then it’s probably the USA, not Canada. The lack of letterboxes doesn’t indicate Canada though as some areas of the USA also lack personal letterboxes. I can only assume that Canadians don’t receive mail. Another clue to look for in the Canada- USA conundrum is a specific road line. A continuous, single yellow coloured road line, with a road otherwise void of lines normally indicates Canada.
Spotting signs showing the speed limit can another clue to determining if you are in Canada or the USA. The USA has signs saying ‘SPEED LIMIT’ and Canada has signs saying ‘MAXIMUM’.
This ‘speed limit’ sign is from the USA.
This sign is Canadian as is says ‘MAXIMUM’.
Spotting a speed limit sign in the USA can be useful in narrowing down the state you are in (it can also be a useful guide in obeying the speed limit). On rural freeways, the maximum speed limit in the western half of the country (not Oregon or California) is 75 or 80. The maximum speed limit in the eastern half of the country is normally 65 or 70. The below map shows the specific maximum speed limits by jurisdiction.
If you spot a speed limit sign in the USA, especially on a rural freeway, the number written on it can help you determine in which state you are in. The 75 and 80 speed limits are mainly in the western states and the 65 and 70 limits are mainly in the eastern states. (Source: Terrorist96, Wikipedia) Yes, that’s actually his name.
The Canadian province of New Brunswick is bilingual so you may spot signs in French and English. Contrastingly, Quebec is an only French speaking province. There are swampy areas of land around Saskatchewan and partially neighbouring provinces. The prairie provinces in Canada are: Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. These areas especially in the southern parrts consist of typically just grass.
Pinpointing which Canadian province or territory you are in can be done relatively easily through license plates.
Front and Rear Plates
British Columbia: Front and rear plates + white.
New Brunswick: Front and rear plates + red lettering.
Manitoba: Front and rear plates + distinct green triangles on left and right edges.
Ontario: Front and rear plates + white. Distinguished from British Columbia as British Columbia is largely mountainous.
Just Rear Plates
Saskatchewan: Just rear plates + green lettering.
Alberta: Just rear plates + red lettering.
Quebec: Just rear plates + white plates or slightly blue in the upper left and upper right sections. French makes Quebec stand out in general.
Newfoundland and Labrador: Just rear plates + red lettering. Different from Alberta as Alberta is partly a prairie state whilst Newfoundland and Labrador has long sea coasts. (It should also be noted that Labrador- the continental part of this province essentially isn’t covered in Street View so only focus on Newfoundland).
Nova Scotia: Just rear plates + partly blue coloured.
The northern Canadian territories stand out for then environment rather than their plates. I haven’t listed the province of Prince Edward Island here, either for a long running grudge I have against this island or because their license plate set up is a bit too diverse (although they do have just rear plates).
In Canada, if you look up and see a number of white spots floating in the sky and often some large black spots, you are probably somewhere remote in the northern part of the country. Alternately, you may have a dirty computer screen.
White and black spots that are visible when you pan up indicate that you are in a remote Canadian area, probably in the northern part of the country.
Most cars in Puerto Rico haven’t got a front license plate, the area looks tropical and Spanish is the dominant language.
Mexico City is noticeable for its fleet of pink coloured taxis. In Mexico there is an abundance of signs with the letters “S.A de C.V.” written on them, typically after a company name. If you spot these initials, you are in Mexico.
If you see ‘S.A de C.V.” written on a sign, then you are in Mexico.
Europe
A map showing specifically what parts of Europe are covered by Street View. (Source: ThorsPanzer, Reddit also Google…) A larger map can be viewed here.
There are large holes across European Street View coverage. Very little is covered of Austria, Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Belarus, Moldova and Germany. If you land in one of these places you are likely in a largish city. Rural parts of Germany aren’t covered by Street View due to something called privacy laws yadda yadda. A useful clue in determining your presence in Germany is the blurring out of multiple locations.
A double white line in the centre of the road indicates that you are in Greece. Dashed white lines on the edges of the roads are quite common in the Nordic countries of Denmark, Norway, Iceland and Sweden (not Finland). Norway tends to have yellow centre lines and Sweden tends to have white centre lines. From the set of continental Nordic countries, dirt roads are far more commonly found in Finland. Wider roads often with a centre line are more common in Sweden whilst Norway more typically has narrow roads.
The presence of red houses also indicates this Nordic region. Although Greenland can be distinguished from similar looking Nordic countries thanks to its range of different coloured houses. Mountains or hilly terrain is a good way to make distinctions in this Nordic region of the world. Nordic mountains are typical in southern Norway or near the Norway-Sweden border. The rocky hills/mountains of Norway tend to be found in the south of this country. The rest of the Nordic region: Denmark, Finland and the rest of Sweden is void of mountains.The last Nordic country of Iceland is somewhere that also resembles the aforementioned places and has mountains. A clue for pinpointing in Sweden, Norway and Finland is to look for birch trees. These are typically found in the northern parts of these countries so if you don’t see birch trees then you are probably further south.
At first glance, Europe tends to stand out from other continents due to the presence of older architecture. Eastern Europe can look rather similar although Slovakia and Slovenia (who was the wise person that named these countries so similarly?) seem to be a bit visually richer than most other eastern European countries. The Netherlands often has houses with flat roofs and monochromatic coloured houses. The Netherlands also has another visual oddity: The Dutch islands south west of Rotterdam that are connected to the Netherlands via road bridges largely have dashed white lines on the sides of their roads.
Whilst there are several mountain ranges in Europe, including the Pyrenees on the French-Spanish border, the Carpathian Mountains arcing from the Czech Republic to Romania and the Apennine Mountains running along Italy, the most mountainous region in Europe is the Alps, centred around Switzerland. If you see snow-capped peaks somewhere in Europe the odds are it’s the Alps. These mountains stretch across France, Italy, Liechtenstein, Austria, Germany and Slovenia but their heart lies in Switzerland. The Canary Island are unique in being a Spanish island group off the coast of Africa. They stand out for their volcanic islands with generally sunny weather.
Malta and some other European owned islands have idiosyncratic high rocky walls. “Triq” means “street” in Maltese and therefore spotting this on signs indicates that you are in Malta. What do Paris Hilton and the Maltese language have in common? Lots of X’s. The letter ‘x’ appears frequently in the Maltese language. Malta is also a unique commodity in Europe as the cars drive on the left.
Scotland and Ireland have many low rock walls. The UK can be relatively easy to navigate is you travel towards roundabouts. Signage indicating the nearest large town is often present at these roundabouts and thanks to the UK’s small size, it usually doesn’t take long to scan the map and find the appropriate town. A confirmatory sign you are the UK is to look for house satellite dishes. These all point to the south east in the UK. Stereotypes are unfair, uncalled for and unjust. Having said this, the UK’s reputation for being cloudy and bleak rings true, especially in GeoGuessr. There are a few rare exceptions including the island of Jersey having a blue sky.
Another quintessentially European sign (that isn’t an actual sign) are the black and white reflection posts that skirt many rural roads. These appear along certain roads every few metres in Europe.
A traffic delineator post with a reflector on it. These posts are common throughout Europe
More specifically coloured posts can help narrow down the country you are in. White posts with yellow reflectors are native to Denmark. Yellow posts with white reflectors are found in Iceland. Posts with a light-greyish stripe surrounding them indicate that you are in France. White ‘poles’ with a red stripe on then are found in Poland (appropriately). Okay, they are tcchnically called ‘traffic delineators’ not ‘poles’ but they do match their flag’s colours. Posts with a red vertical stripe and black cap are often located in Serbia (and sometimes Hungary and a variant rarely appears in Russia). The Canary Islands contain posts with a yellow/orange rectangle within the black upper section of the post.
These posts are found in Denmark.
These posts are found in Iceland.
These posts with a grey stripe around them are found in France.
These posts are found in Poland. Cylindrical, similar looking (with the red stripe) actual poles not posts are occasionally visible in other parts of Europe.
These posts are the most common posts in Serbia.
Distinguishing the similar looking Baltic states can also be done through examining the roadside posts. Most roadside posts in Lithuania have an orange vertical stripe within the black section. Note that the orange stripe is in the direction facing the drivers (who drive on the right). Often the back of these posts have a white vertical stripe within the black. Ukraine rarely have these posts too. If they do occur they are sparser and not at the regular frequency of about every 5 metres like in Lithuania. A few other European countries also use these posts including North Macedonia.
Lithuania has a glut of these posts with an orange vetical stripe encased by the black. This can be useful in distinguishing this country from the other Baltic states.
Estonia and Latvia’s roadside markers normally have a white vertical stripes within the black colour and they use cylinder shaped poles as opposed to something resembling a plank of wood. On the back of the poles there are typically two white circles. There is now a folder on my computer named “Distinguishable roadside markers in Europe”. What a shameful day for my family if they discover this…
The front of roadside poles from Estonia and Latvia. Note that poles are used, not wooden planks. Also there is a white stripe within the black unlike Lithuania which has an orange stripe in the black.
The back of the roadside markers from Estonia and Latvia contain two white circles.
This type of post with the typical European white and black style enclosing an orange/yellow rectangle is found in the Canary Islands.
A further way to distinguish Europe from other continents is by the use of the blue pedestrian signs that litter the continent. Virtually every country in Europe has a variant of this road sign. The full array of the variants of this sign by country can be viewed here. Some notable variants include the Iceland sign which has a yellow coloured triangle as opposed to white and the Poland sign which has one straight horizontal black line as opposed to several vertical black lines that the pedestrian is walking on. Also, the Ireland sign is unique as it is yellow and diamond shaped like the road warning signs.
These blue pedestrian signs are uniquely European
Corn grows in parts of Europe that can be useful knowing if you are placed by a cornfield. The below map indicates the distribution of corn throughout Europe. The corn hostpots tend to be in France, Italy, Romania, Serbia and Hungary (ironically). If you are reading this and pondering if I have a corn infactuation (that sounds like something else when said quickly) as I keep mentioning corn, I can reassure you that I am neutral towards corn and don’t have any strong positive or negative feelings towards this specific grain.
A map showing corn production regions of Europe. (Source: Eurostat).
As well as corn, another common sight in Europe is olive trees. The below map shows their distribution in Europe. Olive trees appear across the entire country of Portugal, in Southern and Central Spain, Southern and Central Italy, coastal parts of Greece and many islands in the Mediterranean. It should be noted that olive trees also occur in Northern Tunisia although these don’t appear on the map.
Olive tree distribution in Europe appears above in a coincidental ‘olive’ colour. Mostly Mediterranean areas are home to olive trees, with the bulk in Spain, Italy, Greece and Portugal.
Olive trees.
Near the top of this article I described the road paint variations of the Nordic countries. An additional aspect- on the roads with just dashes on the side, we can normally work out if we are situated in Sweden or Norway (a few other countries have these dashes and they are mentioned at the top of this article). Norway tends to have longer dashed lines whilst Sweden has shorter dashed lines. Typically: the gap between the lines is longer than the lines themselves in Sweden. The lines themselves are longer than the gap in Norway.
A road with just long dashed lines mean you are likely in Norway as opposed to Sweden.
A road with shorter dashes lines indicates you are likely in Sweden over Norway. Note the paint gap between the lines is longer than the lines themself in Sweden.
Some Nordic regions can be distinguished based on their language’s suffix indicating ‘street’ or ‘road’. Finland uses ‘…äntie’, Sweden uses ‘…vägen’ and Norway and Denmark both use ‘…vej’. The colour of the signs indicating town/city directions used in this region can also help identify the country. Norway has yellow coloured directional signs, Denmark has white backing and red lettering signs whilst Finland and Sweden share blue coloured directional signs.
The yellow coloured backing of the above directional sign indicates Norway. Several Nordic countries can be identified by their directional sign colouring.
A normally European convention that is a regular feature of travelling through this continent is the sign framing a town name with a red line through it. This indicates the end of the built up area of a town.
A red line through a town’s name indicates that you have reached the end of the built up area of that town.
Bulgaria is a fairly hilly country and it uses a hybrid Cyrillic and Latin alphabet. Much of Bulgarian Street View was taken in winter and thus the trees are often without leaves and the Street View scenes in Bulgaria are often fairly bleak. In Bulgaria, the 3 digit roads feed in to the major 2 digit road. E.g. if you spot road 123 then you should look for the 12 road and the 123 should feed off it.
A row of barren trees on either side of the road in a depressing environment is typically Hungary. I believe the Street View car happened to pass through the country during the winter months.
Looking at the street sign colours is useful in Austria. (Attention: note the spelling of this country. Austria is not Australia. This comment is directed at the people who send the packages I order online to Austria instead of Australia). In Vienna, the street signs are blue coloured. In the city of Linz, street signs are white. In Graz the street signs are green not including the very centre of the city.
Within Austria, blue street signs mean Vienna, white signs equal Linz and green signs are from Graz.
Romania has distinctive red shields indicating their major roads. Roadside markers in Romania can only be described as resembling a tombstone. The ‘24C’ indicates the road number in the image below and the distance to the nearest towns is written on the marker.
A Romanian roadside marker. This holds information about the road number and distance to the nearest towns (and perhaps marks the location of a body).
In Spain, Romania and Bulgaria Dacia Sandero cars are everywhere and indeed looking for the car logo on cars is a quick method to identify these countries. The logo appears below.
Dacia Sandero cars are common in Spain, Romania and Bulgaria. Take note of the logo (not the licence plate which I’m reliably informed doesn’t appear on every Dacia).
Montenegro can be easily recognised thanks to a giant slit in the sky if you pan up and turn around. Whether this slit is indeed a portal to an alternate dimension or a camera artefact remains contentious but I have my suspicions. Various parts of Albania also have this slit in the sky. As a general rule, anything in Montenegro in a south-western direction from Montenegro’s capital, Podgorica has not got the slit in the sky although this is a fairly small area. 
A giant portal in the sky appears in Montenegro and is a surefire way to recognise this country if you look up and pan around.
France is a country with a neat cycling race and a neat division of telephone number prefixes. If you spot a phone number in France (often listed on businesses) starting with certain numbers, you can narrow down where you are in the country. The area around Paris has a 01 prefix, the north-west corner has 02, the north-east corner has 03, the south east corner has 04 and the south-west corner has 05. 06 and 07 prefixes don’t indicate some obscure French region that doesn’t make its way onto maps but rather mobile numbers. The below map should be fairly easy to remember- starting in the north west quadrant with 02 and working clockwise by quadrant until 05.
The above map shows telephone prefixes for France. For example, if you spot 03 at the start of a phone number in France, you are in the north-east quadrant of the country. (Source: Babsy, Wikipedia)
Australasia
A map showing Street View coverage in Australasia.
As the above map indicates, large areas of Australia aren’t covered by Street View. There isn’t much more covered in the centre of the country than a single road splitting the country in two. This road is largely north-south orientated.
I live in Australia and have never left the country hence you may think I have some great insights to distinguish parts of Australia from each other and from the rest of the world. You would be wrong. I’ve previously mentioned that the state of New South Wales that houses Sydney has a portion of cars with yellow license plates contrasting the white license plates across the rest of Australia. The state of South Australia is essentially the only place in the world with stobie poles (as well as Darwin)- these hold up the power lines and there are almost 1 million of them in the state hence these utility poles indicate the area as almost certainly being South Australia. Australian house numbers appear on the GeoGuessr map which makes pinpointing easier.
The greenest area and probably only green vegetation area of the country (depending on the season and droughts) is in the south east corner. Most of Australia is the outback- a desert land that features not much other than serial killers. Noting the direction the outback road is travelling in can be useful in working out where on the map you might be. The Northern territory (the part of Australia in the upper middle) abides by a maximum speed limit of 130m/h vs 110km/h for the rest of Australia. Finding a 130km/h sign ensures that you are in this part of Australia. The two types of typical Australian reflector posts can be seen below. Note that the red rectangle reflector posts also occur in Turkey and Romania.
A typical reflector post in Australia.
The second type of Australian reflector post.
Distinguishing between the eastern states and Western Australia can be problematic in Australia and a low score can result if you pick the opposite part of the country. There are some things I look for if I’m playing a no moving round and have to decide where to guess in Australia. Firstly, the trees in Western Australia tend to be lower and with a bushier foliage than the rest of Australia. The trees in the eastern states are normally higher and more sprawling. Another aspect to consider is the colour of the dirt. Although the below photos don’t support this, if the soil has a more reddish colour then you are more likely to be in Western Australia as opposed to an eastern state.
The trees in Western Australia are normally lower and bushier as seen above.
The trees in the eastern states of Australia are normally taller and more sprawling as seen above.
New Zealand resembles Australia but is typically greener and hillier. A useful clue to identifying New Zealand that I picked up is to look for small white poles with red reflectors on them besides the road at consistent intervals. The red on these poles wraps right around the pole and I have only seen this occur in New Zealand. The red on Australian small, white poles is contrastingly a circle or rectangle. New Zealand street signs are typically blue or green in colour whilst Australia normally has white street signs.
White posts that have orange/red reflectors on them that wrap around the post are common in New Zealand and unique to the country thus they are useful for the purposes of GeoGuessr.
Africa
African Street View coverage.
The Southern part of Africa covered by Street View
African Street View coverage encompasses: essentially Tunisia’s eastern coast, the Canary Islands, parts of Senegal, parts of Ghana, Nigeria primarily from Abuja to Lagos, Kampala in Uganda plus a few other small parts of this country, mainly southern Kenya, the island of Reunion, Botswana in parts, South Africa, Eswatini and Lesotho. As with all the continents I write about, there are additional areas covered such as a speck of Madagascar for Africa but these places occur so infrequently at present.
The savannah trees are a good indicator that you are in Africa and include the Umbrella Thorn Acacia. All of the countries in Geoguessr in Africa have predominantly English signs besides Senegal, Tunisia and Reunion which contain French signs (Tunisia also has Arabic). Warnings about various animals on signs is also a sign that you may be in Africa and a reminder that we don’t know what happened to the Google Street View driver in this area.
The southern and Eastern countries of South Africa, Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Uganda and Kenya are distinguishable from the rest of Africa due to left hand side of the road divers. I will briefly provide some details on these countries. In South Africa people are fairly security conscious and often houses will have high walls around them, sometime with spikes. South Africa has the Afrikaans language that resembles Dutch appearing on some signs. In South Africa there is a plateau between Eswatini and Lesotho and land in this area is normally fairly high up and flat relative to other parts of the country. You can see the bars protruding from the Google Street View car in South African national parks.
Botswana’s main roads are in excellent condition, looking almost brand new. The environment in Botswana is largely a mixture of desert and savannah. Eswatini is relatively hilly and green. Lesotho is also green and hilly with the absence of trees (besides the far north of the country). The four countries of South Africa, Botswana, Eswatini and Lesotho tend to have simultaneous yellow edge road lines and white road centre lines for their major roads. The white line combination featuring dashed centre lines flanked by white continuous lines sometimes pops up in South Africa, Botswana, Eswatini and Lesotho.
Yellow edge lines and white dashed centre line are commonly found in South Africa, Botswana, Eswatini and Lesotho.
The above unique road paint pattern is also commonly found in South Africa, Botswana, Eswatini and Lesotho.
The next left road driving country is Uganda. In Uganda, the white edges of the Street View car are normally visible. The soil in Uganda is largely reddish. Kenya has some yellow license plates and the big clue of the bars being visible when you pan down from the Street View car. If you can see camouflage paint on the edges of the Street View car then you are in Kruger National Park, South Africa.
The remaining countries in GeoGuessr within African: Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal and Tunisian drive on the right. Ghana has a large number of yellow license plates. The Street View car’s bars are typically visible in Ghana. There is a further idiosyncrasy of Ghana’s bars- In Ghana, one of the 4 bars has a black taped covering that covers the end and top of one bar. The southern part of Ghana is relatively green whilst the northern part has an environment more resembling a savannah. In Nigeria, Street View coverage is centred around Lagos. The license plates in Nigeria have a green tinge. There is a 4 wheel drive that constantly stalks the Street View car in Nigeria (and often in Kenya). This 4 wheel drive is silver coloured in greater Lagos. If you are followed by a white pickup truck with police lights you are outside of Lagos. A black 4 wheel drive follows the Street View car in two small areas in Nigeria: Benin City and the E1 south of Logbara. A silver 4 wheel drive follows the Street View car in some parts of Kenya.
Don’t feel too paranoid if this car is following you within these countries; it’s actually a useful tip (note: Despite my positive words about this stalking car; I don’t condone stalking).
In Lagos, Nigeria, this silver 4 wheel drive is always following the Street View car. This stalking also often occurs in Kenya. A white pickup truck with police lights follows you in most of Nigeria with a black 4 wheel drive following in a couple of small areas.
Finally, onto Senegal and Tunisia. These two countries are the only French speaking mainland African GeoGuessr countries and in both countries drivers drive on the right. Senegal stands out in GeoGuessr for a few reasons: It is French speaking, the Street View car’s bars are visible in Senegal if you pan down and finally, Senegal has blue license plates. If you encounter red soil in Africa, you are perhaps in Senegal. Senegal also has French road signs. The Senegal environment typically resembles a Savannah. Finally, the last GeoGuessr mainland country in Africa is Tunisia. Tunisia is Arabic and French speaking and has a sandy desert vibe unique from the other GeoGuessr locations in Africa. The license plates in Tunisia are black.
The French island of Reunion in the Indian Ocean is a place that you can see the extremities of the Street View car you are travelling in. Is using this perhaps against the spirit of GeoGuessr? Is it fair noticing this as it’s something everyone has access to? Do I like asking myself unclear questions and not answering them? Reunion also has the French language as widely visibe, appears tropical and houses large, visible hills/mountains.
Asia
Northern Asia Street View coverage.
Southern Asian Street View coverage.
Asian Street View coverage includes: The Philippines, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, parts of Indonesia, most of Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Cambodia, 4 cities in Laos, Sri Lanka, sections of Bangladesh, portions of Bhutan, small segments of India, the UAE, Jordan, Israel, Palestine, a bit of Qatar, parts of Lebanon, small sections of Kyrgyzstan, segments of Mongolia, Macau, Guam and Hong Kong. Also Turkey if you count it as Asian.
Bhutan sometimes pops up in GeoGuessr and is noticable for not being flat and having small white painted stones with a yellow small sign on them. They also have a regularly occurring collection of small white stone/brick/non-Newtonian substance stacks on the side of some of their roads. Hong Kong can be recognised fairly readily thanks to the distinctive red coloured taxis that are a frequent fixture here. It also contains regular cars with yellow rear plates and white front plates. Macau stands out for its black license plates.
In Japan, if you have determined that you are in a Japanese urban area, then looking at how cramped the buildings and streets are can be useful in determining how far north or south you are. As a general rule, the southern cities are more closely packed together in terms of roads and buildings whilst the northern cities are slightly more open. If you see a palm tree and are in Japan, then you might be on a far southern island. Often in Japan you will notice signs referring to prefectures. Prefectures are akin to states and they total 47. You don’t need to memorise this lengthy list- if you zoom in the right amount, all of the prefectures are labelled on the map of Japan within the GeoGuessr game.
Cambodia is an area that surprisingly has red soil on some of its land. Angkor beer signs are scattered frequently throughout Cambodia. White stone markers with a red top appear on the sides of some roads. These often have road numbers and distances to the nearest town.
A Cambodian roadside marker.
Thailand can be distinguished from its neighbours as they drive on the left side of the road in Thailand whilst Cambodia and Laos civilians drive on the right (excluding those breaking the road rules). Thailand is also unique as many roads have a yellow centre line. The eastern part of Thailand has reddish coloured soil. South-east Asia can often be identified by the numerous rice fields. Rice fields are rarely found outside of south east Asia in GeoGuessr.
Taiwan stands out for its yellow and black striped stickers on some of its utility poles. These stripes tend to wrap around the poles and are at a slightly diagonal angle. South Korea also has yellow and black stripes on some of its poles and these are diagonal. Japan tends to have its yellow and black stripes on poles as vertical. On occasions the Japanese stripes are diagonal but this is fairly rare. These countries also have the distinctive cylindrical utility poles.
Japan, South Korea and Taiwan have yellow and black stickers on their utility poles. The Japanese stickers typically have their stripes as vertical. On occasions the Japanese stripes are diagonal.
The United Arab Emirates has wide, high quality roads. Typically only the northern part of the country is covered. The UAE often contains curbs with yellow and black or white and black striped lines. The UAE also contains black and white striped poles along the streets. Indonesia and Malaysia sometimes have black and white striped poles on the road side (as does Peru). Malaysia likes their black and white stripes as they also have black and white guard rails in some areas.
Pinpointing in Indonesia can be notoriously difficult however there are some tricks to reduce a 30 minute pinpointing time and thus adding 30 minutes to your day (which can be spent playing GeoGuessr).
Telephone code prefixes can be used to determine with high accuracy the region of Indonesia you are in. These prefixes contain 4 digits and there are plenty of them. To my knowledge no GeoGuessr player has learnt them all. I like to utilise just the first 2 digits of the telephone codes to narrow down my region. The first digit is always a ‘0’ followed by a digit between 1 and 9 (not 8). 08 numbers are mobile numbers in Indonesia and don’t belong to a province. There aren’t any maps online documenting these Indonesian phone area codes so I’ve made one myself that illustrates both my low level of computer skills and the Indonesian phone area codes.
A map indicating what provinces the first two digits of Indonesian phone numbers belong to. Note the anti-clockwise pattern from 02-07. Indonesian phone numbers are found on many shop fronts and signs. (Source: my poor computing skills).
The above map information can be compressed into: everything on Java from central Java to the west is 02. Then we go anticlockwise and increase to 03, then 04, then 05, 06 and 07 in southern Sumatra. We do not speak of the 09 area as it seldom appears in GeoGuessr.
A phone number beginning with ’07’ appears on this sign. Using the above map, we can determine that we are in central or southern Sumatra.
Another method to pinpoint your province in Indonesia involves signs. The province name is sometimes listed on shop/building signs. Indonesian province names and boundaries are visible if you zoom into the map the precise amount thus you don’t need to memorise the provinces. On occasions a direction accompanies the province name indicating where in the province the shop is located e.g. north, east south, west or central. These directions are written in Indonesian. In brackets are my memory tricks for recalling these directions.
North = Utara
East = Timur (sounds like East-Timor)
South = Selatan (both begin with an ‘s’.
West = Barat (Borat actually comes from the western world in the form of Sacha Baron Cohen)
Centre = Tengah (Tengah sounds like centre)
Many Indonesian companies will list “PT” before their name. If you see PT on a business sign then you are in Indonesia.
Many company signs in Indonesia start with ‘PT’.
In Malaysia, the letters ‘Sdn Bhd’ appear regularly on signs, after the name of the business.
The letters ‘Sdn Bhd’ appear on many Malaysian signs.
Indonesia and Malaysia have black license plates. Distinguishing between these countries can be challenging. Some Chinese characters often appear in Malaysia whilst they seldom appear in Indonesia….unless there is a Chinatown.
The large southern island of Mindanao within the Philippines is where the majority of Muslims reside in the Philippines (especially in the west of this island). If you see Muslims wearing headwear in this country, then you are probably in this part of the country. The rest of the country is majority Christian. The Philippines, can stand out as it is one of only 3 countries to drive on the right in south-east Asia, the other two being Laos and Cambodia. There are an abundance of English words in the Philippines; often visible on business signs. A further sign that you are in the Philippines lies quite literally in front of you: the roads. Many Filipino roads are composed of large concrete rectangular blocks. Some other south-east Asian countries also have this concrete-block feature but normally to a lesser extent.
Large concrete, rectangular blocks that make up the road are a common feature of the Philippines.
Turkey straddles both Europe and Asia but as I’m not keen to start some geo-political conflict I’ll put Turkey in this ‘Asia’ section as opposed to Europe, namely because this section is shorter. Turkey has red and white coloured road arrows that are fairly unique to their country (the Philippines and Argentina have them too). If you think you are in Turkey and see the ‘ş’ letter appearing on signs, then you are in Turkey.
Turkey has these fairly unique red and white road arrows.
The northernmost of Japan’s main islands, Hokkaido, stands out for its red and white arrows pointing down as mentioned in a previous section. Hokkaido (and northern Honshu) also contain a unique type of vegetation that I can only describe as cabbage-esque. This bizarre botanical bush (it’s not a bush but alliteration) appears below.
This distinct vegetation appears in Hokkaido and northern Honshu.
South America
South American Street View coverage.
South American coverage incorporates: northern Colombia, most of Ecuador, most of the western half of Peru, the main cities in Bolivia and their connector roads, the majority of Chile, most of Argentina, mainly eastern Brazil but also roads connecting cities in western Brazil, most of Uruguay and the island of Curacao.
Brazil is a large country that is frequently occurring in GeoGuessr. Its notable features include its diverse flora and often reddish clay like soil. The states containing this distinctly reddish soil are mainly Rio Grande do Norte, Pernambuco and Ceara as well as places to the west of these regions. The more densely rain-forested region is to the west of the country as well as near Rio de Janeiro. The southern part of the country is quite similar to Argentina and features people with fairer complexion. Large satellite dishes in South America are typically Brazilian. The petrol/gas stations in Brazil are often the company known as ‘Petrobras’ their company has a green, orange and white sign.
The major petrol/gas station in Brazil has this logo.
The list of Brazilian area codes for phone numbers can be useful as many businesses and signs contain these. A full list can be found here. For those not keen to memorise all this info, I’ll condense it here: States around Sao Paulo= teens, Near Rio de Janeiro= 20s, south of Brasilia= 30s, south west of Sao Paulo=40s, the very south of Brazil=50s, the central and western regions=60s, around the state of Bahia=70s, the north east corner of the country=80s, and the northern and north western part of Brazil=90s.
A map indicating the phone area codes in Brazil. Often advertisements and signs feature a phone number and this prefix can be matched with the above map to determine locations in Brazil. A list of the phone codes for Brazil can be found here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_dialling_codes_in_Brazil (Source: Magno Brasil, Wikipedia)
Argentina is a location that sometimes resembles Australia, South Africa, Brazil and the USA. The central region of Argentina is flat with grass fields and as you progress south, the country gets drier and rockier. The very south part resembles a desert that has a cold climate. The petrol/gas stations in Argentina are often run by the company known as ‘YPF’. They have a blue sign with white lettering. For some reason, I get many locations in Argentina near Cordoba. The country is more affluent looking in parts than I realised prior to playing GeoGuessr.
The major gas/petrol stations in Argentina have this logo.
Uruguay has many similarities to Argentina. It may look like a slightly poorer version of Argentina with roads a bit more deteriorated and signs slightly more run down. Ecuador can be sneaky as they have the same style as the USA interstate shield for their major highways. The country is green in vegetation and appears similar physically to Colombia. Colombia can be an easier country to work out as its commercial vehicles have the license plates on their sides and these are regularly not blurred. These license plates have the names of the city on them. Colombia has a mountainous landscape with dirt roads being a common feature.
Peru contains mountains throughout its eastern flank that resemble the famous Machu Picchu. It has windy roads that are often deteriorating. It also has black and white striped poles on the sides of many roads. Similar to Colombia, the license plates in Peru of taxis appear on the sides of the vehicle.
Peruvian sign poles are striped black and white and provide a good mechanism to recognise the country.
Bolivia has mountains running from the North West (not the celebrity) to south of the country but it is flat away from this area. Finally, Chile is largely desert in its northern region and Mediterranean looking around Santiago. It has lush, green vegetation and a cold climate in its south. The Andes Mountain range runs right along the entire east side of the country. A unique feature of Chile- it is essentially the only place in South America that doesn’t use yellow road lines. Most Chilean roads have white lines which can make Chile easier to detect. Chile only uses yellow lines sparingly within the southern part of the country near snowfall.
As a general rule, South America rarely has any visible English on the continent and thus if you spot any English writing you are most probably outside this area. South America is the only place that has the word ‘PARE’ on their stop signs (Spain and Portugal don’t use this). Contrasingly, Mexico and Guatemala have ‘ALTO’ written on their stop signs
Russia
Russian Street View coverage mainly encompasses western Russia however also includes various towns and their connector roads right across the country to Vladivostok. A few more remote corners of the country are also covered in isolation.
I have saved this enormity of a country for last (a position that some of their athletes have now been regulated to). Russia is the quantum mechanics of GeoGuessr: hard to understand and making up a large portion of the universe. Russia can be distinguished from similar countries through several methods. If I have a suspicion that I’m in Russia I normally confirm this by looking at the license plates that are long, narrow and white (the blurring occurring on the Russian flag makes it invisible). Ukrainian license plates have the left vertical stripe comprising light blue on top and yellow on the bottom which can only just be made out. The written language of a specific Cyrillic is also another key indicator of Russia. The utility poles in Russia have a diagonal support on many poles. This is found right across Russia but sometimes in other countries such as the Baltic states. There are an abundance of Lada cars in Russia. These are uniquely shaped cars and one appears below.
The Lada car is popular in Russia.
Large green fields in Russia are most commonly found near the Ukrainian border. Further north, the land and trees resemble Finland more closely. The Russian regions closest to Europe sometimes have bilingual signs making pinpointing your location easier. The parts of Russia to the east of the Ural Mountains tend to be somewhat forested areas that can be swamp-like. The most extreme eastern part of Russia resembles the Canada and Alaskan areas. The most extreme east, near coastal areas of Russia are fairly hilly besides Vladivostok. The island of Sakhalin, located north of Japan, has few trees and vegetation like virtually nowhere on earth. The roads largely lack concrete here. You are likely in the north part of Russia is there is a lack of vegetation, just low, sickly looking branches that look like they are coming from the ground. Large pipes that look like something out of Mario Brothers and traverse roads are typically Russian and more specifically clustered around central Russia. House numbers appear on the GeoGuessr map for Russia which can make the unenviable task of pinpointing slightly less excruciating.
These large pipes that pass over roads tend to be clustered around central Russia.
The regions of Russia (and entering into the neighbouring countries) near Mongolia and Kyrgyzstan are barren areas with virtually no trees. The Street View car you are in has its peripheries partially visible in Kyrgyzstan #NotSureIfCheating. UlaanBaatar, the capital of Mongolia has mountains just south of the city. Mongolia can be recognised as it has Cyrillic and less elongated license plates compared to other Cyrillic places. The south western part of Russia near the Black Sea resemble southern Europe resort towns. Overall, the bulk of Russia is fairly flat and it is fairly rare to be landed in a mountainous Russian area on GeoGuessr. The Ural Mountains are surprisingly narrow and the eastern part of Europe is also largely void of mountains. Magadan is a city in far Eastern Russia that I’ve spawned in several times. It has distinctive hills visible over the city and you are on the fast-track to a high score if you identify these hills.
If it’s sunny, you are statistically less likely to be in northern Russia and more probably near the Black Sea. If there are more Japanese/Korean type boxy cars as opposed to European cars then you are more likely on the Eastern side of Russia. Indeed if you graph the ratio of European cars to Japanese/Korean cars you will probably find a match with the GeoGuessr location’s proximity to Europe and Japan. If you are bored then making this graph may be a fun way to spend a week (sarcasm partially intended). In Russia, many drivers in the far-east have cars that have the driver’s seat and steering wheel on the right hand side of the car.
Being aware of the largest cities in each GeoGuessr country is important however this is doubly vital in Russia, a country so vast that searching on the map is akin to finding a needle in a haystack swallowed by an alien within area 51. The 15 biggest Russian cities appear below. Being cognisant of their Cyrillic names is useful if you notice these letters on a sign.
The 15 biggest Russian cities are in order of population:
Москва/ Moscow
Санкт-Петербург/ St. Petersburg
Новосибирск/ Novosibirsk
Екатеринбург/ Yekaterinburg
Нижний Новгород/ Nizhny Novgorod
Казань/ Kazan
Челябинск/ Chelyabinsk
Омск/ Omsk
Самара/ Samara
Ростов-на-Дону/ Rostov-on-Don
Уфа/ Ufa
Красноярск/ Krasnoyarsk
Пермь/ Perm
Воронеж/ Voronezh
Волгоград/ Volgograd
These cities appear on the map below:
A map showing the locations of the largest 15 Russian cities by population. (Source: https://blogs.elenasmodels.com/en/biggest-russian-cities/)
Conclusion
Thanks for reading this article about the top tips, tricks and techniques for GeoGuessr. If anyone accuses you of taking this fun, light-hearted geographical game too seriously, tell them they aren’t taking it seriously enough. Don’t divert your eyes away from the GeoGuessr screen when replying to them. If you can gain a perfect score in GeoGuessr, then you deserve to be the person in your car giving directions…..in the rare instance that the GPS is broken.
