USVI-On-Line

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I personally wouldn't trust it...I prefer to leave valuables some place less obvious...like, say, under a sponge in the kitchen...just someplace you don't think anyone would look.

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Gosh WWWT, I never give it a second thought.

We use safes while in hotels, on cruises, in a villa, etc. They are usually the kind where you set-up your own code. When I feel most uncomfortable is when there is no safe and the management company's agent says, "oh there's lots of hiding places"

And it not so much that I'm worried about someone stealing, but whether or not we can remember what we've hidden and where.

we used the safe and felt fine about it.

We knew someone who got $2000 stolen from a villa that they hid in a coffee cup in the cupboard. (There were some workmen in and out fixing something - the a/c I think) then they demanded that the villa rental company repay them the money! This was a villa that had safes. I think anyone who leaves $2000 lying around like that is an idiot. Use the safes!

The only thing I ever hide is my passport...we don't travel with wads of cash, and I leave anything else of any value at home or keep it on me.

We have always used the villa safes. We dump our passports, airline ticket etc. in the safe the day we arrive, and take them out the day we leave.

In response to your earlier jewelry question, I will probably wear a CZ wedding ring and leave the real one at home. This way I don't have to worry as you said at the beach snorkeling, just take it off and throw in with the towels and junk. If I loose it, no big deal. Will take earrings thought, just for "dress up", with flip flops.

19 days and counting!!!!

We also throw the passports and airline tickets and extra money in the safe. Have always felt comfortable using it. Knowing me, if I hid the stuff somewhere, I would forget where I out it!!!
Also recommend buying a $10 special of a beautiful fake wedding ring. I got more compliments on my latest!!! Peace of mind knowing I wouldn't care if I lost it.

We had a rather unusual (not sure if it was or not) experience with a villa safe. As you all know, the mechanism is battery operated and the select-your-own-code kind. One morning I tried to punch in the code but no matter what numbers I punched, the only numbers showing up in the panel were 0’s. We called the villa agency and they told us the person with the spare key to the safe was on St. Thomas at the time and they were going to contact him (we were a little surprised that the key was not in their office). Though we wanted to go out to the beach, we waited at the villa until he showed up. Not that we didn’t trust that person but we didn’t feel comfortable with the idea of him/whoever opening the safe without us - plus our money and driver’s license were in the safe. Fortunately he came by about 3 hours later and fixed the safe. It wasn’t the case of the batteries wearing down. It was just messed up for some reason. He said, “That happens sometimes… not often but occasionally”. We did use the safe for the rest of our trip but we always left a little cash and driver’s license out somewhere just in case.
When we stayed at the same villa a year later, the safe was gone. We asked the villa agency about it (since they encourage their customers to use the safe) and they said it was being fixed. They told us that they were going to get a temporary safe the next day for us to use but that never happened. Since we weren’t sure how safe a “temporary safe” was, we didn’t follow up on that either. We tried to hide our valuables every time we were out, but personally, I think it would be kind of hard to outsmart thieves.
I used to take some of my nicer jewelry to St. John but now I only take the ones I wouldn’t mind loosing.