The Best GPS For Geocaching Needs These Six Features

Now that you have played the exciting treasure hunting game of geocaching you will be shopping for your first GPS system, and you will be wondering what is the best GPS for geocaching? While in the end, the device you select will depend on several different factors, it should nevertheless have the basic features talked about in this article.

Before you even begin shopping for the unit you will be using in your geocaching expeditions, you have to decide how you will be using the device. For example, by now there are millions of caches stashed all over the world and in all different kinds of terrain. Will you be mainly a city geocacher, or do you plan to go after the difficult caches located in only God knows where. Or, will you be the type of cacher who will be happy to explore your local parks and nearby woods?

City geocaching requires that your GPS unit be able to continue receiving its satellite signal even when you are walking down a busy street with twenty story buildings on either side of you. Will you be targeting caches off shore; this exciting type of geocaching requires that your device have marine capabilities. Maybe you are the camping outdoors type of person who will be trekking through rivers, woods, and brush to find your targeted cache.

The Garmin GPSmap 478 GPS Receiver is an excellent system for tracking down off shore caches. It is already preloaded with a set of excellent up-to-date marine maps that will quickly guide you as you navigate the off shore waters and islands, however, most geocachers are not the hard core geocacher, the ones that will be targeting caches off shore.

The typical geocacher will be quite happy with an inexpensive yet durable handheld GPS device. These are the features that a handheld GPS unit should have in order to give you many years of geocaching adventures:

1. WATERPROOF - Irregardless of whether you are a city geocacher, a camping geocacher, or a rugged trekker, you can be sure that your GPS unit will be exposed to some unexpected water in the form of rain, puddles, creeks, and rivers. This is especially true if geocaching will be family activity where young members of your family will be handling the device.

2. RUGGED - It is essential that you choose a device that can withstand repeated blows, dropping, and banging around. Make sure that the housing is strong and durable. Think about where you will be using it. No doubt, you will be going through brush, crossing different forms of water, climbing over rocks, and following the way points through dense forests. You will fall, and the device will either be dropped or fall with you.

3. GOOD CONTRAST DISPLAY SCREEN - Some of the models do not have display screens that can be read in bright sunlight. You do not want to have to put the unit under a bush or your shirt in order to read it. Also, the screen is easy and simple to use, and again this is especially true if young members of your family will be learning and enjoying this wonderful outdoor hobby with you.

4. LONG BATTERY LIFE - The one you should settle on should have at least a ten hour battery life. If this type of unit does not fall within your budget requirements, then get one that lets you take lightweight extra batteries.

5. LIGHTWEIGHT - Try to keep the unit you buy at no more than 8 ounces, and see that it is tiny enough to easily fit into your top shirt pocket, a jeans or jacket pocket, or will easily slip into one of your backpack side pockets.

6. KEEPS GOOD SIGNAL - Check reviews in geocaching forums or ask the sales clerk how the various units you are considering hold the signal under heavy tree and cloud cover and under tall buildings. There is not much worse that losing your signal when hot on the trail of a targeted cache.