What is PassportQ?
PassportQ is a free daily geography game in the same spirit as Wordle. Each morning a new mystery city goes live somewhere in the world, and you have five guesses to figure out where it is. The first clue is the city's high temperature for the day, in your preferred unit. Every wrong guess unlocks the next piece of information: elevation, population tier, architectural style, and a one-line vibe tag from the editorial team.
Wrong guesses also show the great-circle distance and the compass direction to the right answer, so even when you miss, the next guess is meaningfully closer. Most players solve the puzzle in three or four. The harder days lean on second-tier cities like Lyon, Porto, Ljubljana, and Kaohsiung, where knowing your regional hubs really pays off. No sign-up is required. The whole thing takes under two minutes on a phone. If cities are not your thing, try SkyQ (guess the flight), AirportQ (name the airport from its airlines), CityQ (3×3 geography grid), or RailQ (Amtrak routes).
How to play PassportQ
- Read today's temperature. The first clue is the high temperature for the mystery city today, shown in your preferred unit. This alone narrows the hemisphere or climate zone.
- Guess a city. Start typing any city name. The autocomplete handles common alternates, accented characters, and frequent misspellings.
- Use the distance and compass feedback. Wrong guesses show how far off you are and which direction the answer lies in, so you can triangulate.
- Unlock the next clue. After each guess you get one more piece of information: elevation, then population, then architecture, then a vibe descriptor.
- Solve in five. Lock in the right city before your five guesses run out to keep your streak alive. Missed it? The answer is revealed and you can still play the other daily games.
Reading the climate clue
Temperature is the single most powerful clue in PassportQ and it is always the first one revealed. The trick is reading it against the calendar. A high of 30 degrees Celsius in January means the Southern Hemisphere or the tropics, which cuts the world map almost in half before you have even typed a guess. A high of 5 degrees in July means somewhere unusually cold for that time of year, which points to high altitude or near-polar cities like the Andean capitals, the Tibetan Plateau, Patagonia, or the Norwegian coast.
Pair the temperature with elevation as soon as the second clue lands. A warm coastal city is a completely different shortlist from a warm city at 2,000 meters. Above 2,500 meters the world narrows to a handful of usual suspects: La Paz, Cusco, Quito, Bogota, Lhasa, Addis Ababa. Below 10 meters tends to point at coastal or delta cities, especially in Northern Europe or Southeast Asia. By the time the third clue lands you usually only need to confirm a region rather than search one.
Capital cities by continent
The PassportQ city pool is global by design. Africa is represented by Cairo, Lagos, Nairobi, Cape Town, Marrakech, and Addis Ababa, plus a long tail of regional capitals like Dakar, Kigali, and Windhoek. Asia leans heavy on East and Southeast Asia, with Tokyo, Seoul, Bangkok, Singapore, Hanoi, and Kuala Lumpur as anchors. South Asia adds Mumbai, Delhi, Karachi, Dhaka, Colombo, and Kathmandu, and Central Asia rounds it out with Tashkent, Almaty, and Baku.
Europe covers the obvious national capitals plus a deliberate selection of second cities: Lyon and Marseille in France, Hamburg and Munich in Germany, Porto in Portugal, Thessaloniki in Greece, and Lviv in Ukraine. The Americas include the major capitals north and south alongside regional favorites like Quebec City, Buenos Aires, Medellin, and Salvador. Oceania is the smallest pool but includes both metro hubs and remote outliers like Hobart, Christchurch, and Noumea, which is where the puzzle gets genuinely hard.
Other daily games
- SkyQGuess the daily mystery flight from airline clues.
- AirportQName the airport from the airlines that serve it.
- RailQGuess the Amtrak route from stops and duration.
- CityQFill a 3×3 geography grid with cities that fit each row and column.
Frequently asked questions
Is PassportQ free?
Yes. Every daily puzzle is free, with no account required. Premium is optional and only removes ads.
How often do new PassportQ puzzles drop?
A fresh mystery city goes live every day at midnight Eastern. The same city is the answer globally, so you can compare scores with anyone on the same day.
How many guesses do I get?
Five. After each wrong guess a new clue unlocks, and you also see the great-circle distance and the compass direction to the correct city.
What kinds of cities does PassportQ use?
A global mix. Big capitals like Tokyo, Paris, and London show up alongside second-tier cities like Lyon, Porto, Kaohsiung, and Ljubljana, plus a handful of travel-nerd favorites like Ushuaia, Reykjavik, and Kathmandu.
Does PassportQ work on phones?
Yes. The whole game is built mobile first. Add the site to your home screen from Safari or Chrome for a full-screen install experience. No app store required.