USVI-On-Line

We have stayed at Gallows - and have LOVED it- but are now considering a villa (never thought I'd say that!)... Do they often have safes for small personal items - you know- money, etc.? What about the safety of the villas themselves - since many are off the beaten path - and somewhat secluded & isolated... do some have alarm systems? This villa thing is all new to me - but seems very exciting

Thanks all!

I never bring anything that I would worry about, so the only thing that ever gets but into the safe is our passports.

My camera and phone are always with me and my good jewelry stays at home.

Yes... I guess an alarm would be kind of silly.

After looking at some of the villa sites, I see that many do offer a safe. I don't take anything of value either -I'm not a jewelry person anyway - but I do like a safe place to store my passport, etc.

Thanks

we stayed at Villa Capiz and there was an alarm and an electric gate

We stayed at a villa with an alarm system and it was a PITA. We were always tripping it because we kept forgetting about it.

Lots of villas have safes - some big enough to put a laptop in. We put our cash and jewelry in them and don't hesitate.

Stayed in Long View Villa and they had a safe. Awesome place.

I'm pretty sure all 7 villas we've rented have had safes. I think they're pretty standard.

Most of the villas where we've stayed had a safe.

One time, a safe at one villa locked up on us with our stuff in it. The battery was fine, but no matter what numbers we punched in, it read only as "0" and didn't open. We had to wait 3 hours for someone to come and fix it. They told us it doesn't happen "often", and their words were so reassuring that we didn't use the safe after it was fixed. I'm sure it was a freak incident, but the experience gives us a little funny feeling every time we use the same kind of safe at any villa. It hasn't happened again, though.

Like many here, we don't take anything we don't want to lose. We would like to be as stress-free as possible on the island.

We stayed at Ristaba last year. It has two safes, a house and a perimeter alarm. Beautiful house too!

We have always used the safe in our villa with no problems, but we don't put all our extra cash in it...just in case. I've never read about anyone getting stuff taken out of their safe in a villa. I have read about people getting cash taken when they left it out on a table.

We bring a perimeter alarm set-up with us. Its a couple of small sensors and a main control box, so it doesn't take up much room in luggage. We only set it up at night. We put the sensors on low end tables, so its not tripped by animals. However, it can be a pain when you have cats visit at night who are curious and set it off.