Geocaching with your iPhone
It is a special activity – geocaching. If you loved treasure hunting as a child, then geocaching is definitely for you. In short: a treasure (cache) is hidden in a certain location. You search based on the geographical coordinates, using a GPS receiver. In this app list you will find the best geocaching apps to get started with this new hobby.
- Geocaching.com
- Cachly
- TBSScan
- Geo Bucket
- Geocaching Buddy
- GCTools
- More geocaching apps
Because the iPhone has a built-in GPS receiver, you don’t need to take any other equipment with you. The iPhone’s GPS receiver shows the way and geocaching apps show you what there is to discover. The iPhone also comes in handy in solving the puzzles that are often associated with finding the right location. In this episode of the iCulture Holiday Special we discuss five apps – and a few tips – for even more fun during your treasure hunting adventure.
Geocaching apps
Roughly speaking, there are three ‘communities’ where you can go for the first steps towards geocaching. The largest is geocaching.com of which this is the official app. Opencaching is an open source platform for enthusiastic geocachers and then there is – very confusingly – Opencaching.com, which is owned by Garmin, manufacturer of GPS receivers, among other things. Garmin once released the Opencaching app, but later withdrew it. In this list you will find various geocaching apps that you can get started with right away.
Geocaching.com
Geocaching.com has a Premium subscription, which gives you access to more information and exclusive caches. Furthermore, you can prepare the hunt at home on the computer and then send it to your GPS receiver so that you can find the cache without internet – useful to avoid roaming charges abroad. The app itself is free, but for the premium features you pay €29.99 per year, to access additional features such as offline maps, better filtering and searching more than 3 caches per day.
Based on your current location, you can immediately see the caches nearby, in a list or on the map. You can start right away and this is very pleasant for those who are going geocaching for the first time. If you want, you can also search for specific caches: by type, difficulty, terrain and size. You can save the search results as an offline list, including the map. What’s missing from Geocaching are the tools that can help you find specific caches (more on that later).
When you have found a cache, you can indicate this in the app. For this you must at least create a free Basic account. That is certainly recommended, because it is nice to be able to save the caches you have found and possibly show them to other cachers later. You can also leave a comment, the modern-day version of making notes in the logbook.
Cachly
If you prefer to pay once for an app, that is also possible. At Cachly you pay a few euros once and then have access to the same information. You therefore need an account with geocaching.com to use this app. It also means that you will encounter some limitations: with a standard account you can only load three geocaches per 24 hours in the app and you do not have access to the premium caches. But there are also advantages: you can download offline maps and you have an Apple Watch app at your disposal. This gives you hints and allows you to save found caches without needing your iPhone.
Cachly also contains some additional features that will especially appeal to experienced users. For example, you can choose between Apple Maps or Open Street Maps for the map material.
TBSScan
The TBSScan app has a very specific function: you use this app to recognize the numerical code of a trackable with the camera. Trackables are small vignettes that treasure hunters take with them to the next cache, allowing them to travel around the world. If you find a trackable, you can request more information based on the code. This way you immediately know which route the trackable has taken before it ended up where you found it. There are two variants of trackables, namely Geocoins and Travel Bugs. TBSScan works with both.
Geo Bucket
Geo Bucket is a free alternative to the Geocaching app. You must give the app permission to access your Geocaching account. This app displays advertisements, which you can remove via an in-app purchase. Geo Bucket is quite basic and not very intuitive. If you use a third-party app, as a Basic member you can only request 3 complete descriptions per 24 hours.
For the final treasure hunt, Geo Bucket uses an external navigation app, which you can set yourself. It’s a bit of a shame that this navigates you directly to the cache, so the idea of ​​a treasure hunt is somewhat lost. Although that does not mean that you have found him quickly, of course.
Geocaching Buddy
Geocaching Buddy is another handy app that helps you find your Geocaching treasures. Fortunately, this app has now been updated again after a period of downtime. Geocaching Buddy gives you a clear overview of how far certain treasures are from you. The app also contains a smart calculator, which makes it easier to solve the puzzles. This calculator automatically copies the required letters for you.
One thing to keep in mind: if you want to add new caches in Geocaching Buddy, you are limited to only three per day. No problem for the starting player, but perhaps an objection if you want to get started enthusiastically. If you want to add more than three treasures you will need a Premium subscription. However, Geocaching Buddy also shows treasures from openCache.
GCTools
An app of a completely different kind is GCTools. It is not an app to find caches themselves, but a tool for deciphering puzzle caches. Geocaching is of course all about the geographical coordinates. With puzzle caches, the coordinates are often encrypted in different codes in the description. The coordinates listed with the cache are then ‘fake’, although there are rules as to how much they may deviate from the real location of the cache. GCTools offers a lot of help with deciphering the codes. For example, there are cachers that use time-honored encodings such as ROT13, Morse or other conversions.
But there are also much more inventive methods for encrypting the coordinates. You will come across things such as the RGB codes for colors, the periodic table and even the color codes of electrical resistances. GCTools has them all. Some decryption tools require an additional in-app purchase. Once you have found the coordinates, you can enter them into the compass and start searching. As an extra, GCTools also has the option to use the phone’s flash as a flashlight. The app looks quite outdated, but offers many options.
Other geocaching apps
- Looking4Cache Pro (Free + IAP, iPhone/iPad, iOS 9.0+) – Offline maps, logging, carrying pocket queries or working online, this app has it all. An account with Geocaching.com is required.
- Looking4Cache Lite (Free, iPhone/iPad, iOS 9.0+) – The lite version of the app mentioned above.
- Geocaching Toolkit iGCT Pro (€1.99, iPhone/iPad, iOS 11.0+) – Useful tools for geocaching, similar to GCTools, but less extensive. Graphically it looks nice.
- Looking4Cache Pro (Free + IAP, iPhone/iPad, iOS 9.0+) – Also an app that uses Geocaching’s Live API. Can use offline maps. There is also a free version, in which the maps cannot be saved locally.
