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virtual geocaching at the airports


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Hi, just thinking about geocaching at international airports and I can Imagine regular caches are not allowed, but what about virtual caches? I tried searching for two airports : LAX and JFK and it only showed caches around the airport's vicinity but not inside of the airport(like terminal areas etc )

Im no expert but i don't think that would ever make it through publishing. Surely airport security would get very excited if people were to all stop and look around the same area too often.

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Yes, regular caches are allowed at airports :laughing: - it just depends on the type of airport. Now, obviously your larger airports (I know you asked about international airports specifically) featuring commercial airlines and with security (in the US) overseen by TSA... don't even think of trying to hide a traditional cache there. As for your smaller general aviation airports (the ones at which the chainlink fence serves nothing more than to keep neighborhood dogs from wandering onto the runway)- I've seen a number caches that were hidden in such places (granted, always with permission). Several of them have been approved quite recently. One was even hidden by an airport manager/geocacher who lives in a trailer beside the hangar, and the cache was at the side of the hangar. Another one involved parking within 10 feet of the planes, carrying a canoe ~200 feet to an adjacent boat launch, and canoeing to a small island at the boundary of the property.

 

As for your larger airports, caching opportunities are restricted to grandfathered virtuals unless you want to drive offsite. I know of another one at ATL, but it involves driving.

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Yes, regular caches are allowed at airports :laughing: - it just depends on the type of airport. Now, obviously your larger airports (I know you asked about international airports specifically) featuring commercial airlines and with security (in the US) overseen by TSA... don't even think of trying to hide a traditional cache there. As for your smaller general aviation airports (the ones at which the chainlink fence serves nothing more than to keep neighborhood dogs from wandering onto the runway)- I've seen a number caches that were hidden in such places (granted, always with permission). Several of them have been approved quite recently. One was even hidden by an airport manager/geocacher who lives in a trailer beside the hangar, and the cache was at the side of the hangar. Another one involved parking within 10 feet of the planes, carrying a canoe ~200 feet to an adjacent boat launch, and canoeing to a small island at the boundary of the property.

 

Even at the smallest of general aviation airports, going inside the pittiful chain link fence is a Federal Crime!

You have to have permission to go inside the laughable secure areas. That includes EVERY cacher who would go after a cache that has PERMISSION. This is one reason that airports are against the rules. Please tell the powers that be of any that you know of that you claim are inside airports.

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Hi, just thinking about geocaching at international airports and I can Imagine regular caches are not allowed, but what about virtual caches? I tried searching for two airports : LAX and JFK and it only showed caches around the airport's vicinity but not inside of the airport(like terminal areas etc )

No new virtuals are allowed, period. It's quite clear in the guidelines.

 

Waymarks, however, are allowed just about anywhere.

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I used to work security at STL. Basically what we did was BLEEP Patrol. The jobs thet the airport police didn't want to to. Traffic control, crowd control, building patrols and the like. The TSA did all the bag checking and such. To this day I can't help but get a little twitchy when I see an unattended bag. At any rate... I don't think that placing a geocache (since virtuals don't exist anymore) in a terminal is a good idea. In fact, it could be detrimental to your health. Or the health of the cache. Unattended, suspicious looking containers have a propensity for being exploded. Even with the "official" stickers... I mean, what a perfect way to hide an explosive. It'd likely be eliminated in short order.

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Even at the smallest of general aviation airports, going inside the pittiful chain link fence is a Federal Crime!

You have to have permission to go inside the laughable secure areas. That includes EVERY cacher who would go after a cache that has PERMISSION. This is one reason that airports are against the rules. Please tell the powers that be of any that you know of that you claim are inside airports.

 

Permission is the key. Every single airport cache I've seen states clearly that cachers had permission to hunt- and all but one of the ones I've found had a fence separating the cache area from the active runway (it was clear where you should and shouldn't go). One cache page even said something along the lines of "hidden by Joe- feel free stop by the main office and say hi". At another one, the employees knew what I was doing and while I searched for the cache, a plane taxied less than 30 feet away (again separated by a fence) and the pilot waved as he passed.

 

If a statement that permission was obtained by the airport is not present on the cache page, I avoid that cache. I've known of a few many years ago that were hidden adjacent to fences which I refused to look for, and which (no surprise) were later archived.

 

Now, it's been about a year since I've seen a new cache listed at an airport. Maybe the reviewers have cracked down on them lately?

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Recently did a Virtual in Chicago's Ohare Airport (GC5165) ORD Layover. I was wondering if anyone knew of a bookmark list of other airports with Virtuals in them?

Did you even look at the list of bookmarks on that very cache? If you did you would have found this bookmark list. :anitongue:

 

Of course I looked at the Bookmarks on that very cache but if you actually looked at that Bookmark list it doesn't contain many Virtuals and most of the caches in the list aren't actually in the airports...they are near the airports listed. I was hoping for a Bookmark list of caches IN airports. The only ones I personally know of are the ones in Chicago and Atlanta airports.

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There's a virtual cache at the Frankfurt Airport, in Germany. It was set several years ago. As Okiebryan wrote, you can't submit new virtual caches. Stick to www.Waymarking.com or check if there's a traditional cache placed nearby the airport. You can easily search at www.geocaching.com and/or check this http://www.airportgeocaches.com/.

Hmm the web page looks like it was created in 2010. Hyperlinks coming....when...

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Recently did a Virtual in Chicago's Ohare Airport (GC5165) ORD Layover. I was wondering if anyone knew of a bookmark list of other airports with Virtuals in them?

Did you even look at the list of bookmarks on that very cache? If you did you would have found this bookmark list. :anitongue:

 

Of course I looked at the Bookmarks on that very cache but if you actually looked at that Bookmark list it doesn't contain many Virtuals and most of the caches in the list aren't actually in the airports...they are near the airports listed. I was hoping for a Bookmark list of caches IN airports. The only ones I personally know of are the ones in Chicago and Atlanta airports.

 

There's a virtual called RWY 24 in Frankfurt, Germany Airport.

 

There's a webcam can in Zurich airport for which the CO accepts logs that essentially make it a virtual.

 

There's a physical cache IN Singapore airport (in a butterfly garden in the transit section of the airport...you don't have to go out/in through security)

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some international airports will let you go out and in again,

between your flights if you got time,

ok you need to pass security again.

but then you can run out and take a few normal (real) caches nearby,

this is a sport I tried a few times, it can be very fun and a bit stressfull

to see if you can make it back to the plane in good time :-)

but so far I was lucky.

 

let that be a hint to people who live near airports,

WE LOVE to see more easy and fast to find caches..

a few mins walk away, and a good hint in ENGLISH please..

 

in Denmark Copenhagen airport CPH

one exist INSIDE the airport, and 3 just outside, about 10 mins walk away

but they are not super fast and easy to find all of them.

Edited by OZ2CPU
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Recently did a Virtual in Chicago's Ohare Airport (GC5165) ORD Layover. I was wondering if anyone knew of a bookmark list of other airports with Virtuals in them?

Did you even look at the list of bookmarks on that very cache? If you did you would have found this bookmark list. :anitongue:

 

Of course I looked at the Bookmarks on that very cache but if you actually looked at that Bookmark list it doesn't contain many Virtuals and most of the caches in the list aren't actually in the airports...they are near the airports listed. I was hoping for a Bookmark list of caches IN airports. The only ones I personally know of are the ones in Chicago and Atlanta airports.

 

Yeah, I hear good things about that bookmark list. [:D]

 

The reason there aren't that many virtual caches on it is because...there aren't that many virtual caches at airports. You'd think there would be, but there aren't.

 

San Diego's got archived, they removed the sculpture it was based on.

 

Atlanta still has three (two of which I consider too far to be a plausible "layover cache," which is why I don't include them on the bookmark list).

 

Frankfurt has RWY 42.

 

LAX has one.

 

Male Airport in the Maldives has one.

 

Orlando has one right by the airport entrance.

 

O'Hare still has ORD Layover.

 

Raleigh-Durham has one.

 

Washington-Reagan was mentioned a couple times above.

 

Stuttgart and Zurich both have webcam caches.

 

Bradley International Airport in Hartford, Connecticut, has a virtual on the airport grounds, but it's on the other side of the flightline from the terminal. There's one on Fort Snelling/Minneapolis-St. Paul aiport property, but not reachable from the terminal. Same for the two that are right on the edge of McCarran Airport in Las Vegas. So, like the other two at Atlanta, these are also not on my list.

 

Technically, this is an airport cache, so I guess I'll be adding it to the list. (But good luck catching a flight there.)

 

Let's see...those are all the ones I can think of. If there are any others out there, I'd sure like to know about them so I could add them to my bookmark list.

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Technically, this is an airport cache, so I guess I'll be adding it to the list. (But good luck catching a flight there.)

 

Let's see...those are all the ones I can think of. If there are any others out there, I'd sure like to know about them so I could add them to my bookmark list.

 

If you're looking for caches that are *in* airports, this one is already on your list (GC1HA96). It's a traditional inside a butterfly garden that is in the transit section of the airport in Singapore.

 

There actually *is* a working airport very close to the Dawns of Aviation cache, but if I recall it's only used for private planes. I've been the the site a couple of times but before I started caching. There's also a really cool Earthcache not too far south of Dawns of Aviation and quite a few other caches on the island as well.

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Technically, this is an airport cache, so I guess I'll be adding it to the list. (But good luck catching a flight there.)

 

There actually *is* a working airport very close to the Dawns of Aviation cache, but if I recall it's only used for private planes.

 

I know. Airport code is FFA - that's how it made the layover list. I'm not about to include every two bit private airport on my list, but I figure that one could be the exception.

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A Little advice from an Expert on this subject, I'm a Terminal Manager at a major International Airport.

 

Unfortunately, since 9/11, security has been getting progressively tighter, whilst virtuals are not particularly a problem in the vicinity of airport facilities, the logging requirements need to be easy to find without drawing attention, such as reading a dedication plaque etc, anything that requires abnormal behaviour to answer, such as reading the serial number from the underside of a bench or such, is going to draw the kind of attention you don't want and unfortunately, my colleagues in security are not known for their sense of humour.

 

In the case of physical caches, anything inside the boundary of a major Airport or in many cases even minor ones, has the potential to get you landed in jail if you don't have permission, and the bigger the airport, the more redtape you'll have to wade through to get it. Anyone deliberately hiding an item within airport grounds for any reason is creating a security risk. Anything deemed as deliberate or potentially deliberate (I won't expand on that) will result in an escalated security alert, and anyone found to have deliberately placed such an item causing an alert will almost certainly be arrested ( this could apply to both the original hider and all subsequent finders in the case of a cache)

 

So, permission is paramount on an airport. I know for a fact that we would not allow a physical cache to be hidden anywhere on the airport, but, one method I have seen in the past could work, and wouldn't require too much red tape.

 

I once found a cache which was kept inside a barber's shop (anyone who knows me will know how ironic that is). You went to the co-ords listed, which put you in front of the shop, went inside and asked the guy inside for the geocache, he wasn't a cacher, but I guess he knew someone who was, and kept the cache on a shelf inside. This would work at any Airport retail outlet or information desk, as long as the cache container was completely clear, rather than the usual slightly cloudy tupperware, and contained nothing which could hide something else. Permission for this would only need to come from the Unit manager in the case of retail, or the Terminal Manager in the case of an info desk, but access would only be during business hours, and you would need to do a good sales job with plenty of information about geocaching if going in cold.

 

Outside the airport is also becoming an issue nowadays, anything on the final approach path is a no-no, anyone rooting around in the bushes under such an area runs the risk of explaining their presence in handcuffs at the business end of an M16. (Again I'll not expand on this)

 

We had a TB hotel once, quite a way from the perimeter, but as the location was causing security alerts from the calls about cachers rooting in the bushes, it had to be moved.

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Let me start by acknowledging how old this thread is... It still makes a good read.

 

I think it's relevant to add to the end of the thread an additional question; so far the discussion has focussed around only two potential types of caches: virtuals; which we know are grandfathered, and traditionals; which we know are not recommended due to the physical nature of the container and the alarm caused by people searching / hiding it etc.. - Fine...

 

But, what about event caches? - There's nothing physical there, there's nothing left anywhere. In some ways they are very much like virtual caches; there is nothing physical at all to draw any concern or attention. Indeed, the participants already have permission to be within the terminal, presuming that they are there, jointly for two purposes; the first to attend the event-cache, but legitimately with business in the airport taking a flight..

 

I'm considering the scenario of an event cache listing aimed at trying to meet other cachers while in transit, and I'm keen to explore, specifically the idea of transit, inside of the airport itself, on the flight side of immigration controls and security checks - Assuming too that this is in an airport where they do not allow public access into the areas past immigration.

 

I've read through the event listing guidelines... I can't find anything specific to events which should prevent this. There are general comments about airports, but these comments appear to relate to the security concerns which is addressed above; with traditionals or people's activities which would potentially cause some interest / concern for security / safety.

 

Holding a geocaching event deliberately at a part of an airport where people are expected to congregate, say, a meeting point, or a bar; would not in itself cause any alarm or concern. On what basis then, would such an event listing be denied by Ground Speak or the community reviewers? It seems reasonable to me that this type of listing would encourage the social interaction of geocachers, which is exactly what the event-cache listing type is intended to do...

 

So... I'm travelling soon and am considering listing an event in transit. Can anyone see any clear issue with this?

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Event caches are available to all geocachers, the listing guidelines say.

 

In the context of an airport, this means your event would need to be outside the security zone where only ticketed passengers are allowed. (That is, before you go through the metal detector and security line.)

 

Depending on the security profile of the airport, it may be an especially good idea to clear your event plans with airport management. Your reviewer might insist on hearing details about those arrangements.

 

The same principles are applied by reviewers for events in ports of call frequented by cruise ships. Such events take place outside the dockside area where only ticketed cruise passengers are allowed.

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Event caches are available to all geocachers, the listing guidelines say.

 

In the context of an airport, this means your event would need to be outside the security zone where only ticketed passengers are allowed. (That is, before you go through the metal detector and security line.)

 

I can think of one airport that is an exception. It's definitely an exception though as I've never seen another setup like it. At Changi airport in Singapore there is a security checkpoint and metal detectors at each gate so a non-ticketed passenger can access most of the airport (and its huge). You do have to go through passport control entering and exiting the airport but that only excludes those that don't have valid identification. It also is the only airport that I've been through that has a traditional cache in the airport (in a butterfly garden) and is, by far, the best airport I've ever traveled through.

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A Little advice from an Expert on this subject, I'm a Terminal Manager at a major International Airport.

 

Unfortunately, since 9/11, security has been getting progressively tighter, whilst virtuals are not particularly a problem in the vicinity of airport facilities, the logging requirements need to be easy to find without drawing attention, such as reading a dedication plaque etc, anything that requires abnormal behaviour to answer, such as reading the serial number from the underside of a bench or such, is going to draw the kind of attention you don't want and unfortunately, my colleagues in security are not known for their sense of humour.

 

This whole post (including the parts I cut) make a whole lot of sense.

 

I've seen a small local airport in the US with a multi cache there - the first stage is to read a plaque in the departures area (open to anyone regardless of whether they are flying) and then the cache is a fairly short distance away. I don't know how far, I never got around to finding it, but given it's been there for years I assume it's far enough that it doesn't cause the "sense of humour failure" incidents you describe.

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A Little advice from an Expert on this subject, I'm a Terminal Manager at a major International Airport.

 

Unfortunately, since 9/11, security has been getting progressively tighter, whilst virtuals are not particularly a problem in the vicinity of airport facilities, the logging requirements need to be easy to find without drawing attention, such as reading a dedication plaque etc, anything that requires abnormal behaviour to answer, such as reading the serial number from the underside of a bench or such, is going to draw the kind of attention you don't want and unfortunately, my colleagues in security are not known for their sense of humour.

 

This whole post (including the parts I cut) make a whole lot of sense.

 

I've seen a small local airport in the US with a multi cache there - the first stage is to read a plaque in the departures area (open to anyone regardless of whether they are flying) and then the cache is a fairly short distance away. I don't know how far, I never got around to finding it, but given it's been there for years I assume it's far enough that it doesn't cause the "sense of humour failure" incidents you describe.

 

I had to duck under the wing of a small private plane at an airport in New Jersey while caching once. Rails to trails ran right along the side of the runway. :)

 

I don't want to be a downer for Cretti, and I'm sure their proposed event could be published. I'm speaking as an American here, and I see they're not, and I have no clue where they want to hold this proposed event. But if you're leaving the secure area yourself, why not just take a taxi to a nearby establishment, and hold the event there? Personally, if something like this was published in my area, I wouldn't be paying $10 to park at the airport, and walk a mile to the terminal. :D

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A Little advice from an Expert on this subject, I'm a Terminal Manager at a major International Airport.

 

Unfortunately, since 9/11, security has been getting progressively tighter, whilst virtuals are not particularly a problem in the vicinity of airport facilities, the logging requirements need to be easy to find without drawing attention, such as reading a dedication plaque etc, anything that requires abnormal behaviour to answer, such as reading the serial number from the underside of a bench or such, is going to draw the kind of attention you don't want and unfortunately, my colleagues in security are not known for their sense of humour.

 

This whole post (including the parts I cut) make a whole lot of sense.

 

I've seen a small local airport in the US with a multi cache there - the first stage is to read a plaque in the departures area (open to anyone regardless of whether they are flying) and then the cache is a fairly short distance away. I don't know how far, I never got around to finding it, but given it's been there for years I assume it's far enough that it doesn't cause the "sense of humour failure" incidents you describe.

 

I had to duck under the wing of a small private plane at an airport in New Jersey while caching once. Rails to trails ran right along the side of the runway. :)

 

I don't want to be a downer for Cretti, and I'm sure their proposed event could be published. I'm speaking as an American here, and I see they're not, and I have no clue where they want to hold this proposed event. But if you're leaving the secure area yourself, why not just take a taxi to a nearby establishment, and hold the event there? Personally, if something like this was published in my area, I wouldn't be paying $10 to park at the airport, and walk a mile to the terminal. :D

I might show up to the terminal for an event. It is convinient, and $10 isn't that costly. I think Cretti was actualy intending to meet up with other travelers, rather than the local cache community, so that likley isn't a huge concern anyway. What I would be concerned about is if there were any cachers who were aware of the event who would be passing through the airport at the correct time, and have sufficient layover time to attend. This would be even more of a concern if you had to leave the secure area. My first thought would be that no one would show up. And there would be a reasonable chance that Cretti, as the organizer, wouldn't show up either as flight scedules often get messed up (due to weather or mechanical trouble).

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A Little advice from an Expert on this subject, I'm a Terminal Manager at a major International Airport.

 

Unfortunately, since 9/11, security has been getting progressively tighter, whilst virtuals are not particularly a problem in the vicinity of airport facilities, the logging requirements need to be easy to find without drawing attention, such as reading a dedication plaque etc, anything that requires abnormal behaviour to answer, such as reading the serial number from the underside of a bench or such, is going to draw the kind of attention you don't want and unfortunately, my colleagues in security are not known for their sense of humour.

 

This whole post (including the parts I cut) make a whole lot of sense.

 

I've seen a small local airport in the US with a multi cache there - the first stage is to read a plaque in the departures area (open to anyone regardless of whether they are flying) and then the cache is a fairly short distance away. I don't know how far, I never got around to finding it, but given it's been there for years I assume it's far enough that it doesn't cause the "sense of humour failure" incidents you describe.

 

I had to duck under the wing of a small private plane at an airport in New Jersey while caching once. Rails to trails ran right along the side of the runway. :)

 

I don't want to be a downer for Cretti, and I'm sure their proposed event could be published. I'm speaking as an American here, and I see they're not, and I have no clue where they want to hold this proposed event. But if you're leaving the secure area yourself, why not just take a taxi to a nearby establishment, and hold the event there? Personally, if something like this was published in my area, I wouldn't be paying $10 to park at the airport, and walk a mile to the terminal. :D

I might show up to the terminal for an event. It is convinient, and $10 isn't that costly. I think Cretti was actualy intending to meet up with other travelers, rather than the local cache community, so that likley isn't a huge concern anyway. What I would be concerned about is if there were any cachers who were aware of the event who would be passing through the airport at the correct time, and have sufficient layover time to attend. This would be even more of a concern if you had to leave the secure area. My first thought would be that no one would show up. And there would be a reasonable chance that Cretti, as the organizer, wouldn't show up either as flight scedules often get messed up (due to weather or mechanical trouble).

 

That's pretty much what I was thinking. If I had a sufficient amount of layover time to attend an event I'd probably leave the airport and try to find a few local caches.

 

 

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A Little advice from an Expert on this subject, I'm a Terminal Manager at a major International Airport.

 

Unfortunately, since 9/11, security has been getting progressively tighter, whilst virtuals are not particularly a problem in the vicinity of airport facilities, the logging requirements need to be easy to find without drawing attention, such as reading a dedication plaque etc, anything that requires abnormal behaviour to answer, such as reading the serial number from the underside of a bench or such, is going to draw the kind of attention you don't want and unfortunately, my colleagues in security are not known for their sense of humour.

 

This whole post (including the parts I cut) make a whole lot of sense.

 

I've seen a small local airport in the US with a multi cache there - the first stage is to read a plaque in the departures area (open to anyone regardless of whether they are flying) and then the cache is a fairly short distance away. I don't know how far, I never got around to finding it, but given it's been there for years I assume it's far enough that it doesn't cause the "sense of humour failure" incidents you describe.

 

I had to duck under the wing of a small private plane at an airport in New Jersey while caching once. Rails to trails ran right along the side of the runway. :)

 

I don't want to be a downer for Cretti, and I'm sure their proposed event could be published. I'm speaking as an American here, and I see they're not, and I have no clue where they want to hold this proposed event. But if you're leaving the secure area yourself, why not just take a taxi to a nearby establishment, and hold the event there? Personally, if something like this was published in my area, I wouldn't be paying $10 to park at the airport, and walk a mile to the terminal. :D

I might show up to the terminal for an event. It is convinient, and $10 isn't that costly. I think Cretti was actualy intending to meet up with other travelers, rather than the local cache community, so that likley isn't a huge concern anyway. What I would be concerned about is if there were any cachers who were aware of the event who would be passing through the airport at the correct time, and have sufficient layover time to attend. This would be even more of a concern if you had to leave the secure area. My first thought would be that no one would show up. And there would be a reasonable chance that Cretti, as the organizer, wouldn't show up either as flight scedules often get messed up (due to weather or mechanical trouble).

 

Hey, I said I wasn't trying to be a downer. :lol: I just imagined if this was held at the Airport 15 miles from my house, which has a mega commercial strip of places to eat on the same road (and hotels, of course). You know, it never occurred to me before today, that out of all the airport's I've been too (and I'm no NY Paddle Cacher by any means), I've only ever driven a vehicle to, and parked at, two of them. (Buffalo and Rochester, N.Y.). But in both cases, yeah, at least 10 bucks and a LONG walk. :P But like I say, we don't know any details about where Cretti wants to try this.

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Here's a slightly different twist. I was traveling last week and did this earthcache inside the Denver International Airport. It's well done and seems to meet the requirements of an earthcache. There may be opportunities for more of these, if the airport has the proper content.

That is cool and well done. In the middle of Concours B (the larger one) and conviniently located near the awesome Mexican restaurant. Perfect if you have a 1/2 hour (or more) layover.

 

I used to connect through Denver a lot. I miss that airport. I still hold it up as the best layed out airport I have ever visited.

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Here's a slightly different twist. I was traveling last week and did this earthcache inside the Denver International Airport. It's well done and seems to meet the requirements of an earthcache. There may be opportunities for more of these, if the airport has the proper content.

That is cool and well done. In the middle of Concours B (the larger one) and conviniently located near the awesome Mexican restaurant. Perfect if you have a 1/2 hour (or more) layover.

 

I used to connect through Denver a lot. I miss that airport. I still hold it up as the best layed out airport I have ever visited.

I go through there every so often. I'll have to keep this EC in mind next time.

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Here's a slightly different twist. I was traveling last week and did this earthcache inside the Denver International Airport. It's well done and seems to meet the requirements of an earthcache. There may be opportunities for more of these, if the airport has the proper content.

 

Sooooooooooo en-route to DEN I noted the EC at DEN had a ton of time to spare (4 hrs.) during the time it took to drop the rental car and grab the shuttle my brain fizzled on me.

 

I blame the brain fizzle on the altitude. LOL, LOL.

 

Sitting at my gate with 20 minutes left I pulled up the cache page ... Duuuuhhhhhh-Ooohhhhhhhhhhh.

 

Siiigghhhhhh, can't get them all in one day. LOL, LOL.

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Hi, just thinking about geocaching at international airports and I can Imagine regular caches are not allowed, but what about virtual caches? I tried searching for two airports : LAX and JFK and it only showed caches around the airport's vicinity but not inside of the airport(like terminal areas etc )

Im no expert but i don't think that would ever make it through publishing. Surely airport security would get very excited if people were to all stop and look around the same area too often.

Not a thing they could do. It's not illegal to look around. And there's no problem blending in, because 80% of travelers are wandering around and looking around. (The other 20% are running.)

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Hi, just thinking about geocaching at international airports and I can Imagine regular caches are not allowed, but what about virtual caches? I tried searching for two airports : LAX and JFK and it only showed caches around the airport's vicinity but not inside of the airport(like terminal areas etc )

There is one virtual cache in ORD (Chicago) that I've found on a two hour layover there before. One problem is definitely the GPS signal; staying near the windows is required.

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Here's a slightly different twist. I was traveling last week and did this earthcache inside the Denver International Airport. It's well done and seems to meet the requirements of an earthcache. There may be opportunities for more of these, if the airport has the proper content.

 

As the cache owner, I hope all who go through DIA have an opportunity to do this one. It was (honestly) not easy to get published, but my local EarthCache reviewer worked with me and, after an appeal to EarthCache HQ with some specific issues addressed, it was good to go. I do not see this as a very common airport cache, but when I saw the fossils there it was the perfect opportunity I thought. So far feedback has been good and I even met some cachers there while I was en route through DIA (which I have been more and more lately).

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Here's a slightly different twist. I was traveling last week and did this earthcache inside the Denver International Airport. It's well done and seems to meet the requirements of an earthcache. There may be opportunities for more of these, if the airport has the proper content.

 

As the cache owner, I hope all who go through DIA have an opportunity to do this one. It was (honestly) not easy to get published, but my local EarthCache reviewer worked with me and, after an appeal to EarthCache HQ with some specific issues addressed, it was good to go. I do not see this as a very common airport cache, but when I saw the fossils there it was the perfect opportunity I thought. So far feedback has been good and I even met some cachers there while I was en route through DIA (which I have been more and more lately).

I think that us (geocachers) should attempt to get earth caches published in all of our airports. Next time I am flying out of YYC (my airport) I will look for some inspiration.

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Recently did a Virtual in Chicago's Ohare Airport (GC5165) ORD Layover. I was wondering if anyone knew of a bookmark list of other airports with Virtuals in them?

Did you even look at the list of bookmarks on that very cache? If you did you would have found this bookmark list. :anitongue:

 

Of course I looked at the Bookmarks on that very cache but if you actually looked at that Bookmark list it doesn't contain many Virtuals and most of the caches in the list aren't actually in the airports...they are near the airports listed. I was hoping for a Bookmark list of caches IN airports. The only ones I personally know of are the ones in Chicago and Atlanta airports.

 

Yeah, I hear good things about that bookmark list. [:D]

 

The reason there aren't that many virtual caches on it is because...there aren't that many virtual caches at airports. You'd think there would be, but there aren't.

 

San Diego's got archived, they removed the sculpture it was based on.

 

Atlanta still has three (two of which I consider too far to be a plausible "layover cache," which is why I don't include them on the bookmark list).

 

Frankfurt has RWY 42.

 

LAX has one.

 

Male Airport in the Maldives has one.

 

Orlando has one right by the airport entrance.

 

O'Hare still has ORD Layover.

 

Raleigh-Durham has one.

 

Washington-Reagan was mentioned a couple times above.

 

Stuttgart and Zurich both have webcam caches.

 

Bradley International Airport in Hartford, Connecticut, has a virtual on the airport grounds, but it's on the other side of the flightline from the terminal. There's one on Fort Snelling/Minneapolis-St. Paul aiport property, but not reachable from the terminal. Same for the two that are right on the edge of McCarran Airport in Las Vegas. So, like the other two at Atlanta, these are also not on my list.

 

Technically, this is an airport cache, so I guess I'll be adding it to the list. (But good luck catching a flight there.)

 

Let's see...those are all the ones I can think of. If there are any others out there, I'd sure like to know about them so I could add them to my bookmark list.

 

LA/Orlando/Hartford are all outside the airport. I've logged all 3, and if you have time and want to hire a taxi, they can be done within an hour. Chicago is inside the terminal and easily reached no matter what terminal you come in to.

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My favourite airport cache is : D DUS International TB-Hotel

 

A large locked box, completely in the open. Inside the terminal building (but before security).

I travel to Dusseldorf often for work, and I visit this box on every trip. I go up to the box like I have a purpose and nobody notices me.

 

I've seen pictures of that one. It looks quite interesting. So far I haven't gone through DUS but it's been a possible layover airport when I've been searching for flights to other places.

 

As for virtuals; I've found the one at Frankfurt, and the webcam at Zurich.

 

Ditto. I might be stopping in Zurich on the way to Nairobi, Kenya at the end of the month.

 

If I recall you also found the traditional at Changi airport in Singapore. I got that one too.

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If I recall you also found the traditional at Changi airport in Singapore. I got that one too.

 

Yes... well sort of. It was missing and I replaced it with the cache owner's prior permission. A great location, unfortunately the cache often goes missing.

 

 

Fortunately it was there when I looked for it though the log was a bit damp. Although it's "in" the airport, it's open to the sky and it was raining (and at night) when I looked for it.

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If I recall you also found the traditional at Changi airport in Singapore. I got that one too.

 

Yes... well sort of. It was missing and I replaced it with the cache owner's prior permission. A great location, unfortunately the cache often goes missing.

 

 

Fortunately it was there when I looked for it though the log was a bit damp. Although it's "in" the airport, it's open to the sky and it was raining (and at night) when I looked for it.

 

I did a great one in Zurich airport - it was an ammo can in the ceiling of a parking structure. But I believe it has since been archived.

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