USVI-On-Line

Re the liquids and carry on, I bought the little size empty travel bottles from walmart and filled them with sun block, aloe, shampoo etc. They fit in those quart bags that the tsa allows you to carry on-we each took a bag and it worked fine. I believe that saline solution in the bigger bottles is acceptable. I've been lucky at our rentals and the places always seemed to have bug spray. Just make sure you label the bottles you fill-sometimes it's hard to tell shampoos from suntan lotion from moisturizer I

Do the same as Toni,lots of peeps leave bug spray at villas cause none of us carryoners can take it back home. Hey also make sure you mark what SPF the suntan lotion is if you bring different SPFs like we do. We haven't found a problem yet with our carryon but I here they are getting stricter. I always like when we get a smaller jet and they just put it in the belly just before we get on. Our sizes are legal but they are heavier sometimes than there supposed to be, so far we've been lucky. The only time we have had stuff weighed is when we return. The meat is all gone and weight is not a problem.

When carrying-on only, is there any way of getting a bottle of rum home?

We ship a flat rate box to connections with larger liquids like sun screen and bug spray. It is really high on the island so it is worth the cost. Any space we have left over we fill with food, then do the little bottles in the quart sized bags in our carry on for things we use less of. Some times we ship the box home agian if necessary, but we usually just leave the small amounts of liquids on island for others to enjoy.

PS We are finding Cruzan Rum here at home for very little more than we pay on STJ. The Rum prices just aint what they use to be.

We find that the sunscreen is not that much more expensive at the grocery stores there. We buy as little of it as we can and then leave the rest at the villa. I chalk up the expense to the price of not losing my luggage and going straight from the plane to the taxi/ferry.

I've never used bug spray there...but I also haven't been in the summer time in many years. I would probably buy that there too if needed.

We concur.

VT Whaler 19

BRY1105 wrote:When carrying-on only, is there any way of getting a bottle of rum home?

As referenced in one of my posts in this thread, one of our carry on items is a 24 can Polar Bear cooler of frozen food.

On the return leg we buy rum at the duty free shop at the airport and put that in the now empty cooler - piece of cake!

We took our kids last June, and they are very close to the ages of yours. It was their first trip and our second, and we did carry-on.

As a lot of people have said: We shipped a package to Connections. Yes, it was a BIG box, and the ladies there laughed at me, but it had 4 full-size sets of snorkel gear, sunscreen and bugspray, plus other liquid toiletries. It was still cheaper than checking bags! Also, if you are shipping the box back to yourself, remember to pack TAPE and a preprinted address label with your home address on it.

Clothes: You won't need half of what you think you need to bring. I told my wife and daughter they had a 2 shoe limit. One in their bag and one on their feet! (I think they each snuck an extra pair of into the box we mailed down!)

This made the trip SO much easier by being able to walk right off the plane at both ends of the trip!