Refuging predators are under selective pressure to minimize not only the time needed to find a prey patch but also the distance from this patch back to the refuge. A simple geometrical model of a search path reveals that minimizing search time and minimizing commuting distance require conflicting search-path characteristics. Search time is minimized by paths with relatively low rates of turning, as these reduce the chances of searching over areas previously searched. Commuting distance is minimized by paths with relatively high turning rates, as these improve the chances of encountering a prey patch nearer the refuge. The relative importance of searching vs. commuting depends on the number of return visits a predator makes to a known patch. The model predicts that even for predators which return to a known patch many times, total foraging time is minimized by a search path expected to find not the nearest patch but one a few times more distant. Many of the prey patches within the commuting radius of an optimally foraging predator will remain unknown to, and so unused by, that predator. This may explain why the foraging ranges of some animals can be so broadly overlapping.