Urban treasure hunt in Vienna, Salzburg and Klagenfurt: Geocaching

Monday, 13 July 2009 00:00

Tourist guides are out – new ways to explore the city

Technology lovers and adventurers now discover the country in a new way. Get out of your room! Call up the Lara Croft or Indiana Jones inside of you and get to know Vienna, Salzburg and Klagenfurt in a completely different and wonderful light…

Exciting and free – what counts is the fun factor
For technology lovers – that’s how it’s done
Variety is everything - Mystery-Caches, Multi-Caches and more…

Geocashing Tours in Vienna, Salzburg and Klagenfurt

Mysteries, ogres, Harry Potter - Cache „Fantastic Beasts“ Vienna
Hiking, strolling, shopping – discover Salzburg’s caches
The legend of Viktring - Caching in the south of Klagenfurt

Geocaching is a global game that resembles a modern treasure hunt. The new and exciting outdoor trend is about using a GPS-receiver to detect a cache which contains interesting information on the hiding place. The finder can also state his achievement in a small logbook and trade small items to take something with him. Very often such a cache can show a nice spot in a completely new light…

Exciting and free – what counts is the fun factor

Geocaches are found at ancient monuments, in parks – nearly everywhere you can hide something and there is something interesting to discover. The most important thing is that the place is open for everyone and that there is no commercial interest behind it. Information on the local gastronomic scene is of course always welcome because after a successful treasure hunt there has to be some refreshment. On the whole geocaching is interesting, free of charge and a lot of fun if you want to get to know new places.

For technology lovers – that’s how it’s done

To start the treasure hunt you first have to decide which route to take. (Below we have some tips for Vienna , Salzburg and Klagenfurt.)
At the matching website you get the coordinates for the starting point or the treasure itself. Now you’ve got two opportunities to interpret them:
For technology lovers this is the best reason to finally get a GPS-receiver. PDAs, mobile navigation systems or modern mobile phones normally offer the needed functions too.
Just feeding the data into Google Earth and printing a map is the cheap solution. This, however, has to be done at home which means that you can only track down traditional caches for which can get the coordinates of the cache in advance. But this shall not spoil the fun.

Now just find out the coordinates of your first cache and get going.
Descriptions and coordinates can be found at http://aj-gps.net. There are of course countless others that offer more – so you’ll surely find something that matches your taste.

If you have further questions on the procedure find help at www.geocache.at/cms/faq. Info and photos on the topic are of course also found at wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geocaching

Variety is everything - Mystery-Caches, Multi-Caches and more…

The coordinates of a traditional cache you get right away. Therefore you know the location of the treasure, which is usually located at a particularly interesting spot, before the hunt. Some coordinates, however, you only get, if you solve a riddle and most often those riddles lead you to the most mysterious places of a city. That’s why these caches are called Mystery-Caches. Particularly challenging and a lot of fun are Multi-Caches where you only get the coordinates of the first of a series of checkpoints. Once you have reached the first spot you find the necessary information you need for the next search until you reach the end (if you are clever and enduring enough).

Mysteries, ogres, Harry Potter - Cache „Fantastic Beasts“ Vienna

Besides many others the cache „Fantastic Beasts“ in Vienna is a great tour that leads you to the city’s beasts and monsters, even making a connection to Harry Potter. Find the magic word that reveals the treasure. With children our without – get to know Vienna’s most beautiful spots from a completely new and fantastic side...
opencaching.de

Hiking, strolling, shopping – discover Salzburg’s caches

In Salzburg you can also prove your sporting skills. There it can happen that you have to climb mount Kapuzinerberg to find a cache. But don’t worry – you can also have it more laid-back: one cache is on a bridge over the beautiful Salzach river centrally located in the city and in the vibrant Getreidegasse two caches are said to be hidden. Maybe that is just a rumour, planted by shopping-crazy ladies to have a good reason to drag their tired men from one shop to the other.
But who knows? Just find out yourself…
opencaching.de

The legend of Viktring - Caching in the south of Klagenfurt

For Klagenfurt-holiday-makers, a trip to the other side of the River Glanfurt is recommended - "The legend of Viktring" takes the visitor on a forest walk through Klagenfurts southern district and is also suitable for those new to the rules of geocaching. Those who are still not satisfied with this tour can take a trip out of the city on a treasure-hunt around Lake Wörthersee. There are 4 caches hidden all around the lake, each one positioned near a shipping pier and only if you find all of them you will be able to solve the final mystery! Find out for youself...
www.geocashing.com

Now you just have to grab a GPS-receiver, start your trip to Vienna, Salzburg or Klagenfurt and be on target for your first Geocache. We would be happy, if you chose one of our hotels as your homebase in the city centre.

Good luck with the treasure hunt!