Geocaching Teenage Birthday Ideas

Table of Contents

What Is Geocaching?
Who Can Play?
What Will We Find?
How To Plan A Geocaching Party
Don't miss out on more great birthday party ideas perfect for older Kids:
Plus, check out this Awesome Outdoor Camping Birthday Party

Embark on a high-tech treasure hunt with a geocaching party! It is so hard to think of birthday party ideas for teenagers. But this theme will surely make you the coolest mom in the neighborhood: a geocaching party.

Suitable for all ages and abilities, a GPS device, a set of coordinates, and a sense of adventure are all you will need to begin your quest. Check out these tips for throwing a fun day for your older kids and their friends.

What Is Geocaching?

Geocaching (pronounced jee-o-cash-ing) is a game of hiding and seeking “caches” of treasure. Players can place a cache anywhere in the world, pinpoint its location using a GPS device, and log their cache online or share it with friends. Anyone with a GPS device or smartphone can then try to locate the cache.

Who Can Play?

Everyone! Visit www.geocaching.com and choose your hunt. Similar to other online resources for hiking and trails, its listings include difficulty and terrain ratings; this means that there is a fitting cache for just about anyone. First-timers and groups with young children select a 1/1 difficulty and terrain rating, so participants are assured of a successful find and can get a feel for how the caches are placed.

What Will We Find?

Common treasures include stickers, key chains, small toys, and trackable items like Geocoins and Travel Bugs. Traditional caches are placed in a Tupperware-type container and hidden, never buried, off-trail. Seekers who take an item from the cache should leave something of equal or greater value in its place.

How To Plan A Geocaching Party

Enterprising treasure seekers may wish to place their own cache for a birthday party or a special event and include items related to the special day. Caches logged online for others to find should never include food items and should always be family-friendly. There are as many options for organizing your high-tech hunt as there are personalities attending. Let’s get started with the basics.

Timed Geocache
Participants attempt to find as many caches as possible within a specified time limit. Caches contain a ticket or envelope to be taken by the players to verify their find. Divide teams up equally, according to ability, or develop a handicap system to allow older and younger teams to compete with highly experienced or athletic participants.

Hide and Seek
Participants provide their own cache containers, purchased or made, and hide them for the officials to find. Players are judged by their creativity in creating and hiding the cache. You can even make a fun activity out of creating and decorating your cache containers from items in nature and craft supplies. Award prizes for style and originality.

Puzzle Caches
Use your imagination to come up with games to keep players guessing and using their creativity. One example is to place items in caches that, when found, require participants to make something with the contents. Another idea might be to have players find envelopes containing trivia questions and coordinates for the next cache. Players receive points for questions answered correctly. Other options include Multi-Stage searches, Letterbox Hybrid caches, Earthcaches, and Micro Caches.

Don’t miss out on more great birthday party ideas perfect for older Kids:

Plus, check out this Awesome Outdoor Camping Birthday Party

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