USVI-On-Line

Case in point: http://thezac.com/ducttape/

But WAIT there's MORE: http://www.oddee.com/item_96822.aspx

Rope and bungee cords are to tie luggage and or beach chairs to the top of the jeep knife is I like to cook and hate dull knives I have one I keep on island now if I'm going to my normal villa they keep it locked a way.

I am packing now and it is so comical. The clothes I am bringing fit into one large ziploc, but we are still going to have two checked bags plus the usual carryons (granted, one checked bag is the cooler of food, but still).

One packing tip is to put everything you are bringing down into varying sized ziplocs. Protects your clothes if something spills, and then you have a bunch of ziplocs to use on the island.

We also use our smaller polar bear cooler as a carry on. No food in it, I stuff it with camera gear and a change of clothes/swimsuit, snorkel/mask for each of us. Then when we get there we use this cooler as the beach cooler.

Becky-- I do the same thing with zip locs. It's amazing how handy those things are when you are there to pack snacks for the beach and store leftovers.

On the boat, I only had a small space to put clothing items and there was no light so it was like storing things in a black hole. HAlf way through the trip I started putting each of my bathing suits (mostly 2 pc tankini's) into zip loc bags. Also did the same thing for undies and smaller items.

That way I just grabbed a bag instead of sifting through the entire darkened mini closet for separate peices. Made life a breeze!

PLUS if the boat went down I would definitely have dry undies and they would FLOAT!!

A few more items we don't always think to bring...

A Life Preserver - In case the island capsizes from all the extra tourists I keep reading about.

Two copies of Feet, Fins & 4WD – In case I want to read it more than once.

Island Time Tipping Reference Guide Card – In case I don’t remember much do you tip for a smoothie that's made with natural fruit in under 6 minutes by a smiling waitress who once met Kenny Chesney and has a tattoo of a dagger through a Mongoose's heart on her lower back...during the off season? 26.235% Thank God for the tipping guide.

A Lie Detector - In case I’m snorkeling and come across a Lyin’ Fish.

A Garmin – In case I need directions on how to Drink Right and Keep Left

A Laptop with mobile WiFi – In case I want look at myself looking at the St John Spice Cam looking at myself looking St John Spice Cam...

A black Snuggie with White Dots – In case anyone complains that they’ve never seen an Eagle Ray.

Walk-Of-Woe-Be-Gone Sea Sickness Skin Patches – In case I want to put one behind each ear before the last day ferry ride back to St. Thomas.

A Bridge – In case I miss the ferry back to St. Thomas.

stjohnjulie wrote:This kind of doesn't count since I live here and all of my junk is already on island but, when I travel to the states in July and visit Michigan, I bring back blueberries. They are just right when I am returning every year and I have been known to bring up to 20lbs of them back with me. It perplexes the TSA people, but I usually end up handing out a couple of pounds in transit because I haven't met a person who doesn't love them. They are about as expensive as gold on St. John and they are never anywhere near as good as the ones my son plucks off the bushes in Michigan. A lot of my West Indian friends have never even had a blueberry that wasn't in a muffin so I have a good time sharing them with everyone.

that's so nice--blueberries are the best--I once expressed fresh Maine blueberries to an elderly person who could no longer make the trip to his summer home (where I picked the berries) Are yours high bush or low bush in Michigan? in maine we get the low bush ones--

Just realized John has elite status on AA. This makes things easier. I might actually pack another ziploc worth of clothes.

Another invaluable packing tip: we always bring a noise cancelling machine. Sounds weird, but if you run it at full blast, it helps drown out the late night coqui frogs and also the early morning pearly eyed thrashers!

liamsaunt, that's so funny, i have a sound of gentle rain cd loaded onto my ipod and bring a little ipod speaker to play it all nite long on the nightstand. still wake up way early cuz i'm too excited.

hey 54B-- you forgot to add a machete....

shelli0001 wrote:liamsaunt, that's so funny, i have a sound of gentle rain cd loaded onto my ipod and bring a little ipod speaker to play it all nite long on the nightstand. still wake up way early cuz i'm too excited.

I can't sleep in there either. I think I've watched every sunrise from the porch of Luna Vista every night we've stayed there. It must be the Christmas Morning Syndrome. I can't wait to see what presents I'm going to get that day.

We are carry-on people. The hassle of lugging around a bunch of luggage pisses us off.

Beyond clothes & travel size toiletries, we bring our own snorkel gear (short lightweight split fins), ziploc bags, a few CD's, a few DVD's, a small portable DVD player and... that's about it.

Bringing the camera meant bringing the camera docking station and then worrying about leaving it in the Jeep etc etc so we chose not to.

Bringing the IPOD meant bringing the docking station with speakers (and ours is the size of a larger clutch bag) and we didn't want to bother so we just didn't.

The portable DVD player is a must due to flying anxiety. It worked really really well last time! Great distraction!

I have a bag of stuff that comes with us on every trip:

Plastic Cork (for the champagne for my mimosa's)
Super dooper suction cup hooks that I put on a sunny window/door to dry our suits.
Baby Wipes for refreshing ourselves after shopping or after the beach when we go straight to the bar (and a sample size baby powder)
thermal sippy cups (for cocktails to go)
Cholula (2 oz. size of my fav. hot sauce)
collapsable huggies for bottles and cans
rubber coasters
Spices in little "nickle" bags!
portable corkscrew and bottle opener (you never know if a place supplys one)

all of the above fit in those thermal sippy cups!

When we used to travel to Aruba I used to bring clips to hold our beach towels onto the chairs due to the tradewinds!

@Elisa-- LOVE the "sippy" cups!!!

I've been thinking about the stuff I need to bring for my June trip.

The essentials are:
Camera - DSLR, multiple lenses, etc etc. Also a smaller canon with an underwater housing.
Shorts - one for swimming, one for not
T-shirts - 2 or 3
Shoes (sandals light trail runners for hiking)
Wallet
Sunscreen
Camp Soap - use for everything and it's biodegradable
Bug Spray

That's all I really need. I might pack a book, but I won't miss one if I don't. I will have way more camera gear than clothing or other stuff.

But now I'm wondering if I need a machete...