# NSEW: How far have you been in each cardinal direction? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 28, 2011, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nsew-how-far-have-you-been-in-each-cardinal-direction/587135 "2011-06-28T14:00:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2011, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nsew-how-far-have-you-been-in-each-cardinal-direction/587135/1 "2011-06-28T14:00:25Z")
My travels have been within the USA except for Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The extremes have been: West to Texas, South to Sarasota, Florida, East and North to points in Maine. Maximum distance from my current address: ~1400 miles to the NE (Maine). You? ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2011, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nsew-how-far-have-you-been-in-each-cardinal-direction/587135/2 "2011-06-28T14:11:58Z")
N - Point Barrow, Alaska S - Santiago, Chile E - Cyprus, Turkey W - Apollo Bay (12 Disciples), Australia ---
**Author:** ![Art\_Rock](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/art_rock/32/525_2.png) [@Art\_Rock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Art_Rock)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2011, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nsew-how-far-have-you-been-in-each-cardinal-direction/587135/3 "2011-06-28T14:13:15Z")
Lived in Europe (Netherlands, France) and Singapore, traveled extensively over all continents except South America and Antarctica. Furthest north: Toronto (Canada), Copenhagen (DK), Fushun (China). Furthest south: New Zealand South Island (Invercargill), Cape Town (South Africa). East and West becomes too relative if you travel this widely. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2011, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nsew-how-far-have-you-been-in-each-cardinal-direction/587135/4 "2011-06-28T14:14:29Z")
Does being somewhere in an aeroplane count? North: Somewhere over Alaska on a flight between Osaka and Detroit. (On land: Fort William, Scotland) South: Southport, Tasmania East: the 180th Meridian, many times, in a plane. (On land: Wellington, New Zealand) West: the 180th Meridian, many times, in a plane. (On land: Honolulu airport, Hawaii – but in a plane) (On land, outside a plane: Victoria, British Columbia) ETA: Maximum distance from current address: Fremantle, Western Australia, unless being on a ship in the Indian Ocean counts. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2011, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nsew-how-far-have-you-been-in-each-cardinal-direction/587135/5 "2011-06-28T14:18:15Z")
North: Inverness, Scotland. South: Puerto Vallarta, Mexico East: Budapest, Hungary West: San Francisco, CA. ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2011, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nsew-how-far-have-you-been-in-each-cardinal-direction/587135/6 "2011-06-28T14:20:56Z")
Incidentally, earlier threads on this topic are: [Your geographical extremes](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=534075) (2009) [What Are Farthest Compass Points You’ve Been To?](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=375768) (2006) ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2011, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nsew-how-far-have-you-been-in-each-cardinal-direction/587135/7 "2011-06-28T14:21:41Z")
> [@Giles](#): > > Does being somewhere in an aeroplane count? Yes, it should count in terms of actual position over points on the ground, but the idea I had was ground travel. The side issue of actually having both feet on the ground at whatever point seems like a way of limiting things _for this thread’s sake_. List both, if you prefer, but stress the ground portion. Thanks for pointing out the issue. ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2011, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nsew-how-far-have-you-been-in-each-cardinal-direction/587135/8 "2011-06-28T14:26:18Z")
> [@Giles](#): > > Incidentally, earlier threads on this topic are: > > [Your geographical extremes](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=534075) (2009) > > [What Are Farthest Compass Points You’ve Been To?](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=375768) (2006) Excellent links! Thanks, **Giles**. We seem to meet often in these types of threads. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2011, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nsew-how-far-have-you-been-in-each-cardinal-direction/587135/9 "2011-06-28T14:32:12Z")
North: not quite to the Arctic Circle, on the highway north from Fairbanks, Alaska South: Cabo San Lucas, Baja California East: the island of Rhodes West: Somewhere in the wilds of Alaska, west of Anchorage Distance from current address: 6000 miles more or less to the east ---
**Author:** ![BetsQ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/fbc32d/32.png) [@BetsQ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BetsQ)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2011, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nsew-how-far-have-you-been-in-each-cardinal-direction/587135/10 "2011-06-28T14:43:32Z")
North: Edinburgh, Scotland South: Dunedin, New Zealand (I hadn’t realized this before, and it’s strangely appropriate, as Dunedin gets its name from Edinburgh.) I can’t really say for East and West; I’ve gone all the way around the globe on one (very extended) trip. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2011, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nsew-how-far-have-you-been-in-each-cardinal-direction/587135/11 "2011-06-28T14:45:00Z")
East: Southern Maine North: Southern Maine West: San Francisco South: Nassau ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2011, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nsew-how-far-have-you-been-in-each-cardinal-direction/587135/12 "2011-06-28T14:46:05Z")
> [@BetsQ](#): > > North: Edinburgh, Scotland > South: Dunedin, New Zealand (I hadn’t realized this before, and it’s strangely appropriate, as Dunedin gets its name from Edinburgh.) Strictly speaking from the Gaelic name of the Scottish capital, Dùn Èideann. ---
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2011, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nsew-how-far-have-you-been-in-each-cardinal-direction/587135/13 "2011-06-28T14:49:59Z")
North–Canada, right above Glacier National Park South-A couple hundred miles over the Gulf of Mexico East-A couple hundred miles over the Atlantic Ocean West-Pacific Ocean, from a beach in Washington State ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2011, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nsew-how-far-have-you-been-in-each-cardinal-direction/587135/14 "2011-06-28T14:51:05Z")
North: somewhere in Scotland South: Tasmania East/West: Not sure how to define this. In terms of the 180th Meridian, Tasmania would also be the farthest east, and Lanai, Hawaii, the farthest west. ---
**Author:** ![Crotalus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crotalus/32/41_2.png) [@Crotalus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crotalus)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2011, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nsew-how-far-have-you-been-in-each-cardinal-direction/587135/15 "2011-06-28T14:56:01Z")
North - Amsterdam at 52 22 N South - Gatun, Panama at 9 16 N East - Hong Kong at 114 09 E West - Muir Beach California at 122 34 West These are places I’ve been on the ground. If flying counts, I passed approximately over the North Pole flying from Hong Kong to Newark, NJ. Distance from current address: 8,047 miles over the pole to Hong Kong. My coordinates came from Wikipedia. My distance came from [here](http://www.geobytes.com/CityDistanceTool.htm). ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2011, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nsew-how-far-have-you-been-in-each-cardinal-direction/587135/16 "2011-06-28T14:57:13Z")
Never been off North America, and I’ve only traveled a couple miles from the border in Mexico. So: North: Minnesota, around Minneapolis South: Orlando, Florida East: Baltimore, Maryland West: Los Angeles, California ---
**Author:** ![GrandWino](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grandwino/32/67_2.png) [@GrandWino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrandWino)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2011, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nsew-how-far-have-you-been-in-each-cardinal-direction/587135/17 "2011-06-28T15:00:12Z")
N: Banff, Canada S: Puerto Vallarta, Mexico E: New York City W: Port Angeles, WA ---
**Author:** ![Philster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/13edae/32.png) [@Philster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Philster)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2011, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nsew-how-far-have-you-been-in-each-cardinal-direction/587135/18 "2011-06-28T15:04:26Z")
I live in Philly, PA, USA metro area (NE USA). North: Minneapolis, Minnesota South: Southern Puerto Rico East: Mumbai, India West: Seattle, WA . ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Scud](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f08c70/32.png) [@Tom\_Scud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Scud)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2011, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nsew-how-far-have-you-been-in-each-cardinal-direction/587135/19 "2011-06-28T15:09:18Z")
Hm. Only counting places I left the airport: North: A smaller city in Denmark, whose name I forget, which is a bit northwest of Copenhagen (55 40 N) South: Fiji (18 S) East: Fiji (175 E - can’t top that by much) West: Portland, OR (122 39, to Seattle’s 122 20) With airports, I can stretch further west to Honolulu and further south to Christchurch NZ (or wherever the big international airport is). ---
**Author:** ![Philster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/13edae/32.png) [@Philster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Philster)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2011, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nsew-how-far-have-you-been-in-each-cardinal-direction/587135/20 "2011-06-28T15:11:50Z")
Correction: North: Seattle, WA South: Southern Puerto Rico East: Mumbai, India West: San Francisco, CA [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nsew-how-far-have-you-been-in-each-cardinal-direction/587135.md?page=2)