Four Fun Travel Games Perfect for Wasting a Work Day

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Are you a geography nerd? Do you routinely rout your Jeopardy! opponents in the travel and places categories?

Then get ready to try our hand at these four geolocation games. Each gives clues about a location around the world; simply drop a pin where you think the answer is and the quiz will tell you how much of a geography expert you really are. Best part? They’re all web-based, which means you can play on your computer while you work. (Not that we’re doing that, like, right now or anything.)

Chime in if you know of any other fun, time-wasting geolocation games on the web.

BBC Travel Geoguessr

Using Google Map functionality, the BBC Geoguessr game virtually plops you down somewhere in the world and tells you to figure out where you are. Swivel around 360 degrees and search for clues. Are those palm trees? Is that car driving on the right- or left-hand side of the road? You can even set a time limit or challenge that particularly annoying know-it-all pal of yours!

Smartypins with Google

Smartypins from the folks at Google uses the same pin-drop functionality as the Geoguessr game, but this one has word clues, not images. Trivia about a location will pop up on the right-hand side of your screen, with questions like “This city shares its name with a semi-hard American cheese.” Drop the pin to reveal the answer. You’ll play this one forever. (That answer was Monterey, by the way.)

Cruise IQ

“Can you navigate the ocean like an ancient mariner, or do you have trouble finding your cabin?” asks CruiseCritic, who developed this fun Cruise IQ quiz. Different levels of play ask you to find cruise ports in the U.S. and around the world. You’ll have to race the clock and accrue points in order to advance to the next, more difficult level. (We were totally tricked by Canada. Sorry, neighbors to the North.)

TripAdvisor Traveler IQ Challenge

Built on the same platform as CruiseCritic’s Cruise IQ game, this simple but super-fun Traveler IQ Game simply asks you to locate a city or a famous place on a world map. Drop a flag and find out just how accurate you were. You’ll need a certain amount of points to advance to the next level. It starts out easy (New York City! London!) and gets darn near impossible (today, I learned that Russia is very, very big.) Happy pinning.

 

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