Geocaching is one of those rare hobbies that can be fun for people of all ages and there is so many ways to play the game. It attracts families, adventure seekers, retiree’s and more.

New to Geocaching?

If you are new to Geocaching and need some tips to get you going, head over to the section New to Geocaching for some steps and tricks to get you started.

Where to start with puzzles

Once geocachers are comfortable with hunting down traditional caches, Puzzles or Mystery Caches can be the next step. But often, new cachers may not know where to start. Remember this style of caches are NOT hidden at the coordinates, but rather within a 3km band of the virtual coordinates. You first have to solve the puzzle to confirm the real location of the cache. Many puzzles will have a checker, where you can confirm if your solution is correct before you go and find the cache. To help get you started on puzzle solving – here is a list of sites that assist you in your puzzle quest.

Chasing Numbers

Many players love the numbers…. love the data and go in hunt of caches to help them complete different goals. If number crunching and geo-data excite you, then you may want to check out project-gc to see how much data analysis can be done with your finds. From this data, challenges can be set. Some of the common ones are listed below:

DT/ Fizzy Grid

Each cache is assigned a difficulty rating and a terrain rating. Some cachers work to get one of each of the 81 combination of caches and complete grid like example below.

Finds by found Date

The aim is to collect a cache on every day of the year. This doesnt have to be done as a streak, but rather can be completed over multiple years.

Finds by hidden month

Geocaching started in the US in May 2000 and so geocaches aim to get a cache from each hidden month, since its inception. There are two challenges that are often assosiated with this Jasmer and Ausmer.

So you want to hide a cache!

Having found a few geocaches, you are beginning to wonder if you are ready to place one of your own. We recommended that you have at least 100 geocaches found, before you place your first cache because it will broaden your own geo-senses as to the different types of hides and placements that are possible, as they do vary grately.

Also before you rush outside and dig a hole to bury a container in your local park, you may want to read the geocaching hiding guidelines to help you place and publish a geocache successfully.

Make sure you read our Beginner Blog Series too for more tips and tricks about geocaching!