Geocaching – A Great Way to Explore While Traveling! 8


Geocaching while we are traveling has showed us a great way to explore a new country or city while traveling. Sometimes the geocaching treasure hunt leads us on long hikes, into unknown places, or finds us fumbling through bushes and piles of rocks, but we’re always happy with the goal! There is a fun community of like-minded people looking to share their favorite places around the world with others.

Geocaching at Isla del Sol

What is a Geocache?

A geocache is something that a fellow geocacher has hidden so other travelers can try to find it with a GPS, like a treasure hunt. Usually it is a little tupperware box or jar with a paper log inside so you can write your name and a little message.

 Geocaching at Buenos Aires with Contact Lens Case Geocaching in the desert with an ammo box

Sometimes they are as tiny as a pencil eraser and other times as big as an ammo box or a 5 gallon bucket. The bigger geocaches often have little trinkets inside for people, and kids, to exchange when they find it.

A person navigates to the geocache using the online GPS coordinates and searches around in the area until he or she finds it. It’s important to be secretive about where it is so other people who don’t know what’s going on don’t just take it or throw it away. It’s exactly like a treasure hunt!

Geocaches are usually hidden near something fun to see, a prominent landmark in a city, or some neat place where you wouldn’t explore otherwise. They are sort of like a local guide saying, “Hey, check this out!”

What is a Travelbug? Fleas?

Nope, it’s a little metal tag that someone puts in a geocache, hoping it’ll travel around the or country, or even the world, one person at a time.

Travel Bug attached to an Old Style Key

Here’s how it works: One geocacher leaves a travelbug in a geocache and logs that he dropped it off there. Then the next geocacher picks it up and takes it with him on his travels and drops it off in another geocache, and logs it there too. Each travelbug has a unique code engraved on it that lets anyone track where it’s been by looking online.

People usually attach things to the travel bug to give it more personality. It’s a great way to see something you’ve made travel far and wide!

How to Find a Geocache While Traveling?

Geocaching iphone app showing geocache detailsAll the geocaches are listed on the geocaching.com website, so that’s the first place to visit. You can search for caches in your area and view the GPS coordinates and the details about them. There are quite a few geocaching apps for android and iPhone that simplify the process and allow you to search, navigate, and log your visit all in the same place.

I use the Geocaching app for iPhone and love it! It has everything on my phone I need to find caches – no papers with cache listings and no converting GPS coordinates. I really like that it has an easy to use feature for saving caches for offline viewing. This is super important in South America where we only have access to the internet at our hostel.

I subscribed for the premium membership because it lets me save hundreds of geocaches on my phone at the same time, rather than one at a time, a huge timesaver! I tried a few free apps, but wasn’t happy with them because of the limitations to how often you can search and how many you can store for offline viewing. There is a Geocaching Lite app that you can use to test out geocaching before getting committed and buying the full version one.

Scan the QR Code below with your iPhone or Android Smartphone to get started today!

iTunes Geocaching QR Code Android Geocaching QR Code

iPhone Geocaching App Android Geocaching App

Why Bother Geocaching While Traveling?

Isn’t the Lonely Planet guide book good enough to find cool places?

Geocaching with friends in San Martin de los Andes, Argentina

Found a Geocache with friends in Argentina

Sometimes we would arrive to a new city and not have much of an idea of where to go. The guide books often have too much detail about everything to do in a big city and leave us wondering where to start. Other times they only list 5 places to eat and sleep and we have no idea what is nearby to check out.

Geocaches are usually hidden next to a cool place that someone thought was awesome enough to hide a geocache next to. They are a perfect way to wander around and explore a new place with a purpose.

Geocaching with kids exploring in Conguillio national park in Chile

Geocaching With Kids

This is the one of the reasons geocaching got started – for people to go on a fun treasure hunt with their kids and trade trinkets in the geocache box they found. Kids absolutely love going geocaching! There’s nothing they’d rather do than dig around in the bushes or rock piles to find a secret little geocache box. Take your kids, or nephews and nieces, out around your neighborhood and see how many geocaches you can find!

Geocaching with kids treasure hunting in Conguillio national park in Chile

Geocaching Around the World

We have had a blast looking for geocaches on our travels! They give us a sense of greater accomplishment because we’ve connected with someone through this little box we found. We wrote our name beside hundreds of people who traveled sometimes thousands of miles and searched the same place we did to find a little hidden treasure.

Geocaching a great way to explore while traveling Laguna Verde, Bolivia Beautiful view of Laguna Verde, Bolivia

The left picture is the rock piles we had to search through to find a geocache in Bolivia, and the right picture is the view from the from the geocache – the beautiful Laguna Verde on the Uyuni Salt Flat tour.

Some countries have very few caches and they are difficult to get to – these were the more “valuable” ones to us. In San Diego, California there are more geocaches in a square mile than in the entire country of Bolivia. We were always super excited when we found one way out in the middle of nowhere next to some cool lake or rock sculpture.

Piedra de Arbol, Uyuni Salt Flat tour

Be sure to look for the Geocache next to the Piedra de Arbol (Rock Tree) in Bolivia!

I would always look on the Geocaching app map a few cities ahead of our travels to see if we could find any along our route. We were usually limited to geocache hunting in the cities we stopped at since the bus routes never stop at geocaches. There are usually a few good finds at popular destinations like Iguazu Falls, Machu Picchu, and Buenos Aires, so we made sure to plan enough time to find them.

Geocaching while traveling at Machu Picchu with GuideMy favorite geocache was on the Inca Trail in Peru, on our way to visit Machu Picchu. It was raining hard as we passed through the Sun Gate, but the clouds lifted enough for us to see the city of Machu Picchu for a brief moment, veiled in the mysterious fog. There was a park guard there wondering what I was looking for in the rain, so I explained what it was to him and told him to keep an eye on it.

What an amazing view of such an amazing place!

Geocaching in Machu Picchu

 Other Cool Geocaches

It’s the best when people get creative with the hiding spot for their geocache. Sometimes the geocache is in a super obvious place but fits in so well, or is camouflaged so well that it’s difficult to find.

Geocache shotgun shell in post

Shotgun shell geocache in post

Other times there’s something fun to do or see nearby, like the Tango step lesson in Buenos Aires below.

Learning Some Tango Steps While Geocaching in Buenos Aires

Learning Some Tango Steps While Geocaching in Buenos Aires

There are also some geocaches that just require a picture of you at the geocache because it’s on protected land, or floods every year like the Uyuni Salt Flats below. Others even have a little puzzle you need to solve to find the cache.

Geocaching at Uyuni Salt Flats Some are just survey markers at the top of mountains or along trails.

Survey Marker at Machu Picchu

Survey Marker at Machu Picchu

I hope you have fun geocaching on your next trip. It’s a great way to explore while traveling!

Leave a comment below if you have a favorite geocaching story!

 

Geocaching Products

Garmin GPSMAP 64 Worldwide with High-Sensitivity GPSGarmin GPSMAP 64 Worldwide with High-Sensitivity GPS

The Ultimate GPS designed for Geocaching. Comes with pre-loaded geocaches and a color base topography map. You can add waypoints and notes from your computer via the Bluetooth interface.

 

Garmin eTrex 10 Handheld GPS with Geocaching BundleGarmin eTrex 10 Handheld GPS with Geocaching Bundle

A simpler and cheaper option to get you started. Includes a starter kit for finding and hiding your first geocache. Store new geocache coordinates, notes, and hints with built-in paperless geocaching. Great for kids!

 

Travel Bugs to Send Around the WorldTravel Bugs to Send Around the World

Send your own travel bug off around the world and track their travels with a unique tracing code on each one.

 

Nano-Size Geocache ContainersNano-Size Geocache Containers

Hide your own “nano-geocache” only 1.5″ long. Also pick up a nano log sheet and a magnet to hide underneath things.

 

Photo Gallery of More Fun Geocaches

 

 


Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

CommentLuv badge

8 thoughts on “Geocaching – A Great Way to Explore While Traveling!