Geocaching abroad

[blondefriend]

I'm relatively new to this geocaching business but am really enjoying it, as is my 3 year old daughter. We have been doing it so far using my iPhone and this has been more than sufficient so far. However in the summer we are camping in France and would love to do some geocaches whilst we're there. Obviously roaming charges and battery life make this relatively impossible. What recommendations do you have? Should we purchase a GPS device? It seems a very expensive choice. Also what is the best way of finding new caches? Before we go or on the road?

 

Thanks.

Edited April 13, 2012 by blondefriend

[+mellers]

I'm relatively new to this geocaching business but am really enjoying it, as is my 3 year old daughter. We have been doing it so far using my iPhone and this has been more than sufficient so far. However in the summer we are camping in France and would love to do some geocaches whilst we're there. Obviously roaming charges and battery life make this relatively impossible. What recommendations do you have? Should we purchase a GPS device? It seems a very expensive choice. Also what is the best way of finding new caches? Before we go or on the road?

 

Thanks.

I can't help you compare a GPSr and i-phone (I've only ever used the GPSr) but as a semi-regular cacher in France, I would say that do make sure you will have enough caches near your chosen venue before you fork out a lot of money (especially if the purchase will be PURELY because you're going to France). I say this because it seems that the French haven't quite taken to geocaching in the same was as us Brits (and strangely the Germans too) have. There are a whole lot fewer caches in France with some areas having none at all. Have you checked out the location yet?

 

If you're going to be camping (with no means of charging batteries) then you may HAVE to use a GPSr. I find the most ecologically friendly way to use my GPSr is to use 4 sets of rechargable batteries. One set lasts me about a day (That's being on and used all day, say 12-16 hours) and the spare 3 sets keep me going as I rotate them in the charger.

 

I use an Oregon 450 which I find excellent and given the amount of time I spend with it (I cache EVERY day at the moment) the cost per day works out to be relatively low, even though it was expensive at the outset. Do you have a birthday coming up? lol!

[+mellers]

Just to add, I've just seen the Q about the best way to find caches. For an ordinary member and a place like France (fewer caches than GB) deffo do a search first with the name of the nearest town you're going to be staying at.

 

Print out a map with them on, from a screen shot, then use the machine to search for specific ones when you get there.

[+eusty]

What app are you using? Most of them will allow you to save them to the phone so you can access them offline

[+Shanghai Joe]

Try contacting local cachers or caching group to see if you could borrow a GPSr, many people have more than one. Do as much preparation as you can before leaving the UK. Make sure you look up all the caches that you could possibly visit and print off the details. Don't forget that most French cache pages will only be written in French so if you don't understand the lingo get it translated before you go. It'll be no good looking at the screen of a GPSr (or idevice) if you don't understand a word of the description, hint etc . Have a great holiday. Jaloux? moi? Jamais!

Edited April 14, 2012 by Shanghai Joe

[jri]

I've done a fair bit of caching abroad with smartphones and PDAs. Now I mainly cache using an Android phone, so this advice might not be directly applicable to the OP, but the same principles apply.

 

The key thing is to get an app that allows you to store cache information offline (perhaps by importing a GPX file). It's also handy if the app supports offline maps - although check the quality of the maps available for the area you are going to. On Android, I use c:geo (which stores map and aerial photo snippets for each cache) with country maps downloaded from http://download.mapsforge.org/

 

Both because offline maps tend not to be as useful as online ones, and because you'll want to conserve power, I would only use the phone once you get to GZ, not for general navigation. As the other posters say, definitely plan ahead - print off maps from the website, or get a decent paper hiking map (shops like Stanfords are good for these), and mark on the rough locations. Read through the descriptions and recent logs before you go, to check which caches are going to be feasible for you. The density of caches is much lower than in the UK or Germany, so they tend to be further apart and visited less frequently. If you're on holiday with kids, the last thing you want is to go on a huge trip for a cache, only to find there's no sign of it, no-one's found it for ages and you can't understand the description!

 

For the battery life problem, the main thing to do is make sure the phone isn't wasting power looking for wifi or mobile networks. Putting it into Airplane or Flightsafe mode is normally a quick way of doing this. If you have to connect to the mobile network (for texting, etc.) only re-enable it when you need to. There should also be a setting to disable Data Roaming, which should stop automatic services on your phone spending your money for you. Oh and the simplest method - switch the phone right off when you don't need it!

 

Unless you're right out in the wilderness, there's generally some way of charging your phone. If you're driving, get a cigarette lighter adapter. Otherwise, get a european socket adapter, and look out for handy sockets in cafes, at the campsite shop, etc. If you're using an internet cafe, you might be able to top up from a USB port. I've tried using a solar charger (works OK for charging my old bluetooth GPSr, but the phone sucks it dry very quickly). You can also get "emergency chargers" that you feed AA batteries into.

[+skids181]

If you have a laptop or smartphone then you can get free wifi access in france at McDonalds "restaraunts" as you can in UK.

[blondefriend]

Thanks all. There seems to be some really good advice out there. And so quickly responded - cheers. I will definitely put the printer into action before we go and check it out. I can generally read French but can't speak it very well. **sigh**

 

Thanks again,

H x