In winter 2019 we were visiting Tromsø for a few days. We found a nice host with Couchsurfing and we went to discover the city in the north. It was also the first time that we used geocaching and discovered that you can learn a lot about a city just by finding some caches that are hidden by locals.
What is geocaching?
Geocaching is, easily explained, a real-life treasure hunt. You can hide treasures (aka caches) and then other people can find them. All over the world, you have caches hidden. With the app for geocaching, you can find the location, and then you need to look for them! They can be in holes, under benches or just hanging in a tree. Some are more difficult than others and more than once you will not be able to find them. You can leave something in the cache, log it with the app, and put it back in its place for other people to find. Often those caches are hidden at interesting places. So even if you don’t find the cache you can still find cool places in cities or in natures (think of viewpoints, buildings, walking routes, etc).
So it is a very fun way to be visiting a city. At least, that is how we visited Tromsø and we had a blast. We discovered a lot of buildings and the harbour. Often in the app you will have an explanation about were the cache is hidden (about the place, building or the route you are walking). It is a little bit like a free tour guide sometimes and that makes it awesome in my opinion.