Geocaching‪®‬ ٤+

While I agree with Doris45, that operating the app under a basic membership has its limitations, the app still does what it says it will do. The features available with a premium membership are because those people pay for the service. Groundspeak / Geocaching is no different than any other service that has a free basic and a paying premium membership system. The bottom line is it does what it says it will do.

That being said, I am giving it 4 stars (I would give it 4.5 or even 4.75 if I could, just not a full 5) because I still find little glitches and some limitations that annoy me (i.e. only being able to see /load caches if zoomed in under a certain level / limit on number of caches visible at one time). Where I am, caches are spread out and I would rather see a wide view rather than needing to scroll over and then load a new area. But given the option of the app on a phone or a GPS that I have to upload and its other limitations, I choose the app on a smart phone any day (where I still have cell service).

The reason why I started geocaching was we did a family road trip from Ohio to Mount Rushmore and the kids were bored when we would stop so I decided to do geocaching to get them moving around and to look for things. When I was in Florida visiting family and friends I decided to go geocaching with the kids again and we found a playground right down the street from my mother-in-law‘s house. They have never been to.

some free advice to anybody is thinking about doing this. Keep in mind I can travel rules never travel alone. And use some type of Google Maps or other type of map identifying app to make sure you know where to park the car so you don’t have to walk so far or if the area you’re looking at is under construction. And check on the activity of the cachet you’re going to!!

I started geocaching almost 10 years ago - hubby and I loved all aspects of it enough to fork over the $10 for the full app (pricey back then). But, then, the app stopped working because groundspeak required more money from users. This seemed unfair, as half of the community were happily volunteering time and supplies to create the caches in the first place. Then, the subscription model of $5/month! To access data that is uploaded by others on caches that are maintained by others! And, that the majority of users only access a few times per year, and usually as a fun and leisurely activity with kids or friends! I spend less than half that for hardcore business and productivity apps that I use DAILY, like several times a day! Sadly, I left geocaching for several years because I was so turned off by this. I just came back as several people have asked me about it and I find that there still have been no major developments to justify this cost. Just basic design tweaks here and there. This is so disappointing, as geocaching is a fantastic activity that once brought people from all over the world together and relied on the volunteer efforts of placers and maintainers. It still has those aspects but is definitely tainted by greed somewhere in the mix. 😢