Suggestions for companion to Garmin Nuvi 360 for Geocaching

[+DEZINR]

Last spring a friend showed me his Garmin and I went out and bought a Nuvi 360 the next week. It's perfect when I'm driving to client offices (in my city and especially when I'm out of town). My partner and I have used it on road trip vacations and it was a great stress reliever!!

 

Two weeks ago we discovered geocaching, went out, and found our first cache! Last weekend we went out and found 5 more. My sister joined us and we went to places we've never been to (and I've lived in Columbus 20 years!). What a great excuse to get outside and have some fune.

 

We even posted lots of pics with the logs and had a blast! We're hooked! We are even trying to figure out where we could hide a cache.

 

I've realized the Nuvi 360 is great for the car, but not really great when we're hunting. I'm eager to treat myself to a really nice unit.

 

I have a $300 Amazon.com gift certificate so that really helps!!

 

Without spending an enormous amount of money on top of that (although some is OK), what would you suggest to outfit our "expeditions?" We want to be sure it can give us coordinates (so we can eventually hide something) and that it works with geocaching.com (I joined there too!). Ideally, I could download my pocket queries (and they would come out by cache name, not just numbered 1-N like they do as a POI in my Nuvi). Other features....well... I'll trust your judgement.

 

I'll use the Nuvi 360 to drive us as close as we can, and then switch to this unit for the "on foot" hunt.

 

Ideas are very, very welcomed! And if you are near Columbus, OH and ever want to meet at a cache, that could be fun too!

 

Joe

 

Thanks!

joe

[+StarBrand]

I'll suggest the Garmin Legend HCx ("H" is important).

 

High sensitivity, color screen, long battery life, rugged, expandable memory, usb connections etc.

 

Use a Program like GSAK (Geocaching Swiss Army Knife) to alter the data before uploading to give friendly names etc.

 

Also create a POi file from the data to get more details in the unit - you won't get everything but can have something like 130 characters.

[+Corfman Clan]

I'm basically in the opposite boat. I have a Garmin Legend HCx that works great for geocaching. Now I'm looking for a GPS to keep in the auto to help me with the navigation to the cache area.

[+Barbarnero]

since you already have a unit that will do street navigation and probably wont need much in the maps department. and if you would like to save a little cash I would recommend either the Garmin Etrex Venture HC or Summit HC

 

i personally own the Summit HC and love it. and once I save up enough money I will be looking to purchase a road mapping unit liek a Garmin Nuvi or TomTom