New and Beginner - TOM TOM One

[Ella S.]

Hello, we are a family and want starting geocaching in Germany.

 

Can we use our Tom Tom One for this or need we an garmin product?

 

Our Tom Tom is normaly for cardriving, but I can use coordinates.

 

When we can´t use it- what kind of produkt we need from garmin for beginning?

 

This one

 

Garmin GPS eTrex H

 

or better this one?

 

Garmin GPS eTrex Venture HC

 

Thank you for helping did we need an geocaching book? Or can we start with simple caches near our home?

 

Many greetings Nicole & Family

[+Borst68]

Hello, we are a family and want starting geocaching in Germany.

 

Can we use our Tom Tom One for this or need we an garmin product?

 

Our Tom Tom is normaly for cardriving, but I can use coordinates.

 

When we can´t use it- what kind of produkt we need from garmin for beginning?

 

This one

 

Garmin GPS eTrex H

 

or better this one?

 

Garmin GPS eTrex Venture HC

 

Thank you for helping did we need an geocaching book? Or can we start with simple caches near our home?

 

Many greetings Nicole & Family

 

Hi Nicole! Welcome to Geocaching.

I am relatively new but can answer some of your questions.

 

I have heard that the Car-type GPS units can be used for geocaching but it can be difficult. I am not familiar with the Tom Tom but you need to be able to put the unit into pedestrian mode if you plan to use it for caching. As a newbie, it may be difficult to get a Tom Tom to work well enough to geocache. A eTrex Venture would be a much better option. The eTrex H would work but it uses a serial interface to connect to your PC. The Venture uses a USB cable, which is much easier.

[+Gitchee-Gummee]

Tom-Tom units appear (from what I read of in these forums) to be rather difficult to use for geocaching.

They work well for road navigation, but develop problems when one attempts to navigate off-road.

 

By far, of those units that you listed, the Venture HC is the best. You probably would be very happy with one.

 

All reading that you can do about geocaching is helpful. More than just reading then going out and geocaching, it is helpful if you geocache and read to supplement the caching. It helps to understand what the book is trying to tell you, when you have a small grasp of the concept.

 

Geocaching.com itself has much to read about it, sometimes though navigating through the site is the biggest challenge. Most all of the information is there, you must work to find it.

 

Welcome, and enjoy.

[hoosier guy]

Welcome! I'd vote for the Venture although there are some comparable units out there. Hope you have a grand time caching and let us know how it goes!

[+eightwednesday]

I really like using both the Tom Tom and a Garmin Venture HC. The Tom Tom helps us get the car to the closest place (though some caches list specific parking coordinates that should be observed rather than the closest road) and then we use the Garmin to guide us from where we park the car.

 

The Venture HC is a relatively inexpensive GPS unit and great for getting started. It was my first GPS and still the primary one that I use because it's simple to use and I've never had any issues with accuracy.

[+cache_r_joe]

I agree with eightwednesday, I often do just that. I have a TomTom that I use for road navigation and a Garmin for geocaching. I enter the caches in both and if I am looking for a specific one, I'll use the TomTom to get me to a spot on the road close to the cache, and then switch to the Garmin. If I'm just cruising along looking for something close, I'll allow the Dashboard on my Oregon tell me what the closest cache is, and go from there.

 

Joe

[+Lozzyo]

we have a colorado now but we used to use a tomtom xl..what you do if menus are same is find location by lat/long, this gets you somewhere close, by road or foot, then when you are somewhere near, you switch to the screen which says find help, then it gives you your lat and long readings which alter as you walk, its a case then of stumbling around till your readings are same as the cache, we found a few this way, quite simple but hard to explain

[ernc]

I'm very new and have used my Tom Tom one with success. I entered the GPS coordinates and drove to the nearby parking lot. Arrowed to "change preferences" and toggled to "planning preferences" then to "always plan walking routes. Then "done" back to the main screen. The checkered flag marked the coordinates and the dotted line led me to the spot. When I reached the checkerd flag I was within 5 feet of the cache. Hope this helps, itr works for me.

[+3billygoats]

WE used our TomTom One for the first 48 caches we did. It works fine in the open and is great for getting you to the nearest parking. It won't work in the trees or in canyons. But if you are just starting out it will be fine.