Hi, I am quite new to geocaching and have been using my Iphone 4s to do it with which I have been quite pleased with, however, the battery life whilst on gps is absolutely terrible and we are off to Wales next week on holiday so thought we might treat ourselves to a reasonably priced gps. Knowing absolutely nothing about these can someone please point me in the right direction, it looks as though you dont get any maps included with them, is that right? in which case do you have to buy new maps for every area visited?
I would like something reasonably priced, completely compatible with geocaching website so I can download the searches and get the hints, logs etc from the gps without the need for my mobile, has a good battery life and is accurate! Currently under trees my gps can send me about 50ft in either direction which isnt a lot of good when you are looking for a tiny container!
Will be following this post with interest as we currently have to borrow a phone to do it!!!!
Although my brother has a charger thing for his iphone that can charge it in full 4 times before it needs charging itself!!!!
I've done some geocaching, and I'd definitely recommend getting a proper GPS handheld, as it won't care if you get it rained on - whereas an iPhone will!
I've always used Garmin receivers - there are a few other good makes, but I use Garmin because their customer service has always been excellent.
A lot depends on your budget - You can get a secondhand eTrex for maybe £50-60 on eBay and it will give you just the basics (no mapping, just a direction to follow) or you can go right the way up to £500+ worth of touchscreen, full mapping model like the Oregon and Montana models.
If you go for one of the older eTrex style ones, make sure you go for the later H series high sensitivity models, as they are much, much more sensitive, and cope fairly well even under wet trees, where older ones could not.
we use a garmin extrex which has been brill for our 320 cache finds. it does not have maps on it which aint been a problem for us as we tend to do the series. we do have the app on the iphone which does come in handy when you need a map and also to look for caches in the area. where abouts in wales you going? if its the north i can suggest some good caches.
Quote: Originally posted by Gareth + Sam on 18/7/2012
we use a garmin extrex which has been brill for our 320 cache finds. it does not have maps on it which aint been a problem for us as we tend to do the series. we do have the app on the iphone which does come in handy when you need a map and also to look for caches in the area. where abouts in wales you going? if its the north i can suggest some good caches.
Is it the Etrex 10 you have? I have been looking at these all to death and some of the ones with maps on you seem to have to pay a fortune to get the maps! We havent done badly with the iphone (73 caches in less than 3 weeks) but the battery life is horrendous when using gps
We are going to Fforest Fields, Llandridnod Wells - went to the north last year and absolutey loved it.
Amazing family weekend with old steam engines, classic car displays, market stalls, and full catering and bar. And camping on site - Save £25 by booking in advance.
Topic: Geocaching GPS advice pls
