Geocaching

[LetsDialDownTheIanPaisley]

I'm looking for fun things to do outdoors with my 3 year old son and keep seeing geocaching brought up on MN. I've never heard anyone discuss it in real life so I am curious to know more.

How far do people travel? Is it actually fun?

Hopeful bump

It is fab! DH and I have found over 1000. We love it as it gives us a focus when we are out walking and we have geocached abroad too.
Some of the bigger caches have kids' toys to swap in.
There was a geocaching thread on here. Maybe on Outdoor Living.

Thank you for your reply. 1000 is a lot! How far do you travel?

It's good fun. I can't do the really hard puzzles though!

I've downloaded the app but can't work it out really. Do you have to pay a subscription?

Its great fun :) I do the easy ones mainly

You can do some for free (you still need an account) but some are restricted to paid subscribers. We don't go out of our way to do them but try and do them whenever we are somewhere new

Which apps do people recommend?

I prefer the c:geo app rather than the official one.

I think most will be to difficult for a 3 to to find - some are tiny, and up trees etc. You would need to check the description carefully.

There are loads to find even if you don't pay. There are usually some wherever you go.

C geo is the app we tend to use. Is there a local geocaching FB group in your area? We have one. It might be an idea to post on there. There are usually a few people who wouldn't mind coming out with you to get you started. The 1st one we looked for had been moved andmlost, the 2nd , we couldn't find butbjust as I was about to strop off home, the cache owner came out and had a chat withnus. He gave us hints to locate it, hidden in the mouth of a toy snake curled around a branch of a tree! He talked us through a few of the different types of caches and encouraged us.

I prefer c:geo too. Really enjoy it, although now the DC are older it's harder to peel them off the sofa. Recommend the fb groups, both local and the UK one.

I do recommend saving the caches you plan to find to your phone so you're not relying on a data connection. Had a nightmare once before I learnt to do that.

That's really helpful, thank you. What's the best age for a child to have some understanding of what's going on?

Just treat it like a treasure hunt! I love it, haven't got many finds but it's good fun. On the official app you can see how far you're away from the cache so following the compass is good!

We wanted to love it, and it would be a great reason for us to walk now we don't have dogs, but we are utterly useless at it.

Can't even find the easy ones. After 4 or 5 failed attempts at different ones we gave up.

Thank you for the app recommendations!

As your little one is only 3 do you know if they do the painted pebble finding thing (sorry don’t know the official term) in your area. Not quite as high tech as geo caching. There might be a local Facebook page. Basically you paint some pebbles and hide them and then try and find other ones.

It's fun, although we don't do it so much these days. DS2 (then four) called it 'finding secret treasure'. If I'm caching with him I choose carefully what we look for and keep it easy, because I have limited time to search before he gets bored and he wants to find something cool, not a tiny nano. We found some great dinosaur ones where he could play with the figures while I signed the logs.

When DS1 was a young teen we had a great time finding more adventurous ones and solving puzzles. He's now too old to play with his mum

And I definitely echo saving them first - I find caching in quieter locations much more fun because the containers can be bigger and more creative and you aren't overlooked and making people wonder what you're up to, but there's more risk of losing the signal.