The world of geocaching is full of adventures and treasures to be found. But, for beginners who may not have a GPS device or have not used it outside of city directions, it can be a little daunting to get started. The only rules with geocaching are to sign the logbook, don’t let Muggles (people who don’t geocache) see you getting the cache, replace the cache exactly how you found it, and leave something if you take something. And have fun. It’s that simple!

Here are a handful of things to consider once you decide to try your hand at treasure seeking.

Do Your Research

There are several different websites where you can log geocaches, each with their own pros and cons. The most common is geocaching.com, by far one of the largest geocaching sites. Sometimes the geocaches are a little questionable, but the sheer number of entries to choose from is extensive. Another slightly smaller site is TerraCaching, which claims to focus more on quality and nature with their caches than other bigger sites. Last, but not least, the Garmin-owned OpenCaching is still in beta, but has, understandably, a bit more compatibility with sending maps to your Garmin GPS. It also has a much smaller listing of caches.

If you’re just getting started, we recommend making an account on geocaching.com and working from there, depending on what you like. read more