Are geocachers tourists?

[Skippermark]

I was just emailing with a cacher in another state because we're planning a visit there soon, and I made the comment that we will come back a second time in the fall when there aren't any tourists.

 

That got me thinking. Are geocachers tourists?

[Dinoprophet]

And more importantly, what do tourists call non-tourists?

 

Yeah, I'd say we are. You're a tourist if you go to Minnesota to see the biggest ball of twine, you're a tourist if you go to Orlando to see Mickey, and you're a tourist if you go to North Carolina to do Tube Torcher II.

[+Castle Mischief]

If I'm a tourist already, placing a GPSr in my hand and sending me off looking for ammo cans wouldn't make me less of tourist.

 

We frequently combine tourist activities with geocaching. It's ubiquitous to our travels.

[+luluonthego]

Absolutely! Since I began geocaching I have often felt like a tourist in my own home town. Geocaching has revealed amazing places, attractions and items of interest to me that I would probably have not known about if I weren't caching - and I'm sure this is the experience of other cachers who enjoy the journey as well as the find.

 

Geocaching is always high on my agenda when visiting any new place in the Pacific Northwest - and it will continue to be when I travel interstate or home to New Zealand. There are now many resorts around the world that have geocaching set up as a resort activity. In my opinion geocaching and tourism make great partners!

[+wimseyguy]

Not if you are caching in an area close enough to be part of your home turf.

But if you travel outside that radius, and it's different for most of us, then you are a geo-tourist.

[+DragonsWest]

I think GeoCachers can certainly be tourists, but they can also entertain tourists, by placing caches. Seems a symbiotic relationship. I wouldn't ponder it too deeply.

[+flask]

when i travel and geocache, i am not a tourist. i am a pilgrim.

 

if your style of caching travel differs significantly from mine, you are a tourist.

[knowschad]

And more importantly, what do tourists call non-tourists?

 

Yeah, I'd say we are. You're a tourist if you go to Minnesota to see the biggest ball of twine , you're a tourist if you go to Orlando to see Mickey, and you're a tourist if you go to North Carolina to do Tube Torcher II.

 

There's a cache there

[+Harry Dolphin]

That got me thinking. Are geocachers tourists?

 

You have found out my dark secret!

Was it the trip to Maryland for the A.P.E. Cache? The stop in Rhode Island on the way to Maine, and the stop in Vermont on the way home? The DeLorme Invasion of Maine with a side trip to New Brunswick? The eleven state trip to pick up five new states for me, and nine for my sister?

Yes. I am a geotourist!

[+NYPaddleCacher]

when i travel and geocache, i am not a tourist. i am a pilgrim.

 

Have you got one of those funny hats?

[+NYPaddleCacher]

And more importantly, what do tourists call non-tourists?

 

Yeah, I'd say we are. You're a tourist if you go to Minnesota to see the biggest ball of twine, you're a tourist if you go to Orlando to see Mickey, and you're a tourist if you go to North Carolina to do Tube Torcher II.

 

I went to Minnesota awhile back. Didn't see the biggest ball of twine, nor the Mall of America, but I did find a few geocaches and left another geocaching tourist in one of them (a King Boreas 1000 hides coin that originated in Utah but had never been to the Twin Cities).

 

I've become much more of a geocaching tourist this year. Almost 50% of my finds in the last three months have been out of state and I've only found 5 caches within 20 miles of home in the last two months..

[+NYPaddleCacher]

That got me thinking. Are geocachers tourists?

 

You have found out my dark secret!

Was it the trip to Maryland for the A.P.E. Cache? The stop in Rhode Island on the way to Maine, and the stop in Vermont on the way home? The DeLorme Invasion of Maine with a side trip to New Brunswick? The eleven state trip to pick up five new states for me, and nine for my sister?

Yes. I am a geotourist!

 

I've been caching since January 2007 and have found caches in 17 states, six countries, and three continents. In the next six months I may add 3 more countries, and one more continent. Yes, I am a geotourist too.

[+Woodstramp]

Using geocaching to find some place new is the main reason I do it. Found more cool places than I would have normally. This includes places I've lived close to for years.

 

I call Geocaching: "The World's Greatest LOCAL Tour Guide".

 

 

 

 

Also want one of those funny hats......

[+JBnW]

And more importantly, what do tourists call non-tourists?

 

Yeah, I'd say we are. You're a tourist if you go to Minnesota Cawker City, Kansas to see the world's biggest ball of twine , you're a tourist if you go to Orlando to see Mickey, and you're a tourist if you go to North Carolina to do Tube Torcher II.

 

There's a cache there

 

There's a cache here too!

 

edit: link

Edited August 8, 2009 by JBnW

[knowschad]

And more importantly, what do tourists call non-tourists?

 

Yeah, I'd say we are. You're a tourist if you go to Minnesota Cawker City, Kansas to see the world's biggest ball of twine , you're a tourist if you go to Orlando to see Mickey, and you're a tourist if you go to North Carolina to do Tube Torcher II.

 

There's a cache there

 

There's a cache here too!

 

edit: link

 

Good for Cawker City. Much like group caching vs. solitary caching, though.

 

The Wikipedia link

[+flask]

when i travel and geocache, i am not a tourist. i am a pilgrim.

 

Have you got one of those funny hats?

 

i'm a pilgrim, not a two-bit extra in a costume drama.

[knowschad]

when i travel and geocache, i am not a tourist. i am a pilgrim.

 

Have you got one of those funny hats?

 

i'm a pilgrim, not a two-bit extra in a costume drama.

 

I guess that means you're not gonna cook the turkey?

[+flask]

when i travel and geocache, i am not a tourist. i am a pilgrim.

 

Have you got one of those funny hats?

 

i'm a pilgrim, not a two-bit extra in a costume drama.

 

I guess that means you're not gonna cook the turkey?

 

neither am i going to slaughter the natives.

[knowschad]

when i travel and geocache, i am not a tourist. i am a pilgrim.

 

Have you got one of those funny hats?

 

i'm a pilgrim, not a two-bit extra in a costume drama.

 

I guess that means you're not gonna cook the turkey?

 

neither am i going to slaughter the natives.

 

Both the natives, and the turkeys will appreciate that.

[+geodarts]

I have always thought that I am a traveler and everyone else is a tourist.

[+flask]

I have always thought that I am a traveler and everyone else is a tourist.

 

depends what you're doing. as soon as you do a touristy thing, even in your own town, you're a tourist.

[+Hrethgir]

I know that since I started caching, when I go out of town, I make sure to bring a GPSr loaded up with some local caches.

[knowschad]

All I know is that I HATE feeling like a tourist. Especially when I once lived there. Going back to the Southwest, for example. I spent a wonderful seven years there and the whole place was my backyard. I tried to go back once and all it was for me was a bittersweet reminder that I'm now an outsider there.

[+The Waldo's]

Why do they call it Tourist Season if we can't hunt them?

[+mrbort]

All I know is that I HATE feeling like a tourist. Especially when I once lived there. Going back to the Southwest, for example. I spent a wonderful seven years there and the whole place was my backyard. I tried to go back once and all it was for me was a bittersweet reminder that I'm now an outsider there.

 

Eh... this place is so big that I don't think that anyone really is an outsider here. In individual little towns/pueblos sure but in the larger sense, one really wonderful thing about this neck of the woods is that is, in a sense, for everyone. No ethnicity, gender or appearance would really raise an eyebrow out here. I guess it depends on how you tried to back but even having lived here for 20+ years I don't feel like a native or an outsider anywhere. I'm here and that's enough for anyone. It's sorta freeing in a way after a few years in Guatemala where I was ALWAYS Other.

[Dj Storm]

I split the finds in two categories: home runs and vacation finds.

A "home run" is when I start and end the geocaching day (or night) at my house. A vacation find is when I start and/or end the day somewhere else, be it a hotel room, siblings' house, tent, etc.

 

Almost 80% of my finds are vacation finds, and more than half of the rest are borderline vacation finds (I left from and arrived to my residence, but arrived at 10 AM the next day, took a nap in the train back home).

 

People might consider me a tourist everytime I geocache, because I carry my camera.

[AZcachemeister]

I have always thought that I am a traveler and everyone else is a tourist.

 

depends what you're doing. as soon as you do a touristy thing, even in your own town, you're a tourist.

 

Never did a 'touristy thing' in your life?

If I do it once, am I branded forever??

Perhaps there is some pilgrimage I can go on to cleanse my soul???

 

I'd say that once you leave the perimeter where your reviewer would consider a cache placed by you 'maintainable', you are a 'touring pilgrim'.

[+Arrow42]

I was just emailing with a cacher in another state because we're planning a visit there soon, and I made the comment that we will come back a second time in the fall when there aren't any tourists.

 

That got me thinking. Are geocachers tourists?

 

Being a geocacher is a separate categorization then a tourist. However, these two categorizations can and often do overlap.

[+Viajero Perdido]

And more importantly, what do tourists call non-tourists?

Locals.

 

It's been said that a traveller is someone who doesn't know where they're going, and a tourist is somebody who doesn't know where they've been.

 

So... Do you follow a clear plan (tourist), or wing it (traveller)?

 

Did the caches take you to memorable places (traveller), or were they just P&Gs to fill out a map or something (tourist)?

[+flask]

 

 

depends what you're doing. as soon as you do a touristy thing, even in your own town, you're a tourist.

 

Never did a 'touristy thing' in your life?

If I do it once, am I branded forever??

 

 

 

it's not a permanent designation.

 

while you are doing the touristy thing, you are a tourist.

 

when you're not, you're not.

[+usyoopers]

And more importantly, what do tourists call non-tourists?

Locals.

 

It's been said that a traveller is someone who doesn't know where they're going, and a tourist is somebody who doesn't know where they've been.

 

So... Do you follow a clear plan (tourist), or wing it (traveller)?

 

Did the caches take you to memorable places (traveller), or were they just P&Gs to fill out a map or something (tourist)?

 

hmmm, we would be mostly travellers. We have a time or two been a traveling tourist.

[Skippermark]

I guess what makes caching so fun is that we can be a tourist but at places that an average tourist would never see.

 

The last time we visited my in-laws in FL, a geocache took us to a small park in the Banana River that is known for dolphin activity. A few minutes after we got there, a couple dolphins showed up, and we took pictures of them swimming and jumping in front of our son.

 

Probably one of our most memorable caches, yet something an average tourist wouldn't ever see, so in that regard we are "special" tourists thanks to fellow cachers giving us "personal" tours of interesting places.

[+Car54]

Hi! My name is Mrs. Car54 and I'm a geo-tourist.

 

[+Jeep4two]

This brings up an interesting idea. Maybe there are some Federal Stimulus dollars available to help fund a new U.S. Department of Geo-Tourism. Then we can have a Geo-Czar (I guess that would have to be Jeremy) and Geo-Summits where we can bring all the Geo-Tourism countries together and unite.

 

I think a few Billion $$'s would take care of getting me started. **heads off to call congressman**

[Skippermark]

I like the idea Jeep. We would definitely be helping to grow the economy by selling electronics, increasing tourism and so on.