Everyone knows that a sure-fire winner of a gift for Dad on Father’s Day is some kind of gadget. Here’s an idea that combines Dad’s gadget present with a family-friendly timeshare rental vacation – Geocaching.
What is Geocaching? It’s an outdoor game that uses a Global Positioning System (GPS). Players hide containers, called caches, and use GPS receivers to find them – the “geo” part – meaning out and about in the countryside!
The caches are hidden by fellow geocachers who post the GPS coordinates on geocaching.com. Dad can look up a cache and its coordinates on the site, take his brand new GPS receiver, and head out a’ hunting. Caches are everywhere – there are 900,000 worldwide!
So the second part of Dad’s great Father’s Day gift is to give him a timeshare rental vacation, perhaps someplace he’s always wanted to explore, and tuck in with it the coordinates of a cache hidden near-by.
Geocaching can be an experience that involves the entire family, right down to Dad’s little ones. Hunting for a cache is fun and exciting.
A cache can contain any number of things, big or small. There’s always a logbook to sign, along with notes from the cache’s previous discoverers. Often the cache contains small treasures, like maps, books, CDs, pictures, jewelry or games.
You can take one of the treasures, but you always have to leave something of equal value. You might also find a “travel bug,” an item that’s meant to be taken from one cache and placed in another.
The listing for the cache on the web site will also provide clues to help Dad and the family find the cache, such as the size, color and type of container. The listings have difficulty ratings, from easy to advanced.
Once Dad and the family have mastered the basics of finding a cache, it’s time to go to the next level and see how well you all can stump your fellow geocachers by hiding a cache of your own.
Dad and the kids will all have fun checking back on the web site to see how many people have discovered their hidden cache.
Geocaching – a fun time had by all, whether in the hills of Vermont, Arizona’s desert, or downtown Manhattan.
There’s a budget timeshare rental available just about anywhere geocaching takes you, and Dad.
Photo Credit: blog.geocaching.com