TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums British Virgin Islands Safe money

I have read several times; bring twice the money as clothes. How do you keep the cash safe? Or is that not a problem to be worried about?

We have ATM's throughout the BVI's..

My take on that thought isn’t worrying about money. Most lodgings gave an in room safe. The idea is that you are more likely to over pack. We come for two weeks with just one carry on each and still may have more clt than we need.

Are you on a boat or land? We have only stayed on a boat, and while we hide most of our cash, we have not felt like we are at risk in the BVI. With this said, we are thoughtful about where we stay, raising our dinghy at night, keeping some lights on at night, etc.

The old adage, "take less clothes, bring more money" doesn't necessarily mean you have to bring more cash but rather most Caribbean travelers end up spend more money than they originally budgeted and they end up not wearing all of the clothes they packed. For the average 7 to 1o day visit you should be able to pack everything you need in one standard size 21" roll-aboard and one personal size carryon per person. You actually don't need a lot of cash, as credit cards are widely accepted and you can use ATM's to get more cash during your trip, if needed. In over 40 years I've traveled all over the Caribbean and much of the world and rarely carried more than the equivalent of $150US in cash at any one time. On most days I've left the bulk of it in the room safe and carried only a small amount for gratuities, taxi fares and sundries. I relied on credit cards and used ATM's for cash when needed. As for packing light, here's a tip; A few days before your departure lay out all the clothes you think you'll need in a spare room. Admire them and congratulate yourself on your fine sense of fashion then put half of them back in the closet and pack the rest. Don't worry, no one will notice what you are wearing or if you've worn the same outfit a few times.

A couple of other things....figure you will buy a T shirt, or two or three for yourself on your travels..so wear them and save packing a couple of T's. As said most places take credit cards but most dont take AmEX.The places you'll need cash are local beach bars and taxis.I'm down for more than two months at a time.When I use the ATM I pull out the max for me $500 as the bank charges $5 whether you take out 20 or 500.I keep a hundred in my wallet and hide the rest in the back of my closet and use it slowly..I like to tip in cash to know where the tip $ is going..but beware of hidden "service charges and taxes".

We are chartering a catamaran. We hired a skipper and the charter company requests cash on arrival for the skipper. At the end of the trip a tip is proper for the skipper. Arrival takes most of the cash out of the equation. Thanks for the input. Can’t wait till March…

Since you are chartering a catamaran you’ll need even less clothes. During the day you’ll usually be wearing swimsuits and t-shirts. You’ll need no more than 2 bathing suits per person. Same if you stay onboard in the evening. If you go ashore for dinner you’ll most likely be in very casual beach bar attire unless you are dining at a very high end resort in which case you switch the bathing suits for a golf shirt and a nice pair of shorts or khakis for the guys and a simple sundress for the ladies. Don’t over pack.

We budget $100 per person per day and plan on half being cash. This works fine in the BVI, USVI, and PR. French islands seem to be more accepting of credit cards. On every island, we run into vendors that only take cash. I use Schwab for international ATM with 100% of ATM fees reimbursed.

Cheers, RickG

Will you be on a boat? Safety options... lock the boat when crew's away, keep valuables on your person and/or hide on the boat.

We just returned from a fantastic 10 day charter last night! I'll be starting some trip reports today, but how much cash?...to each their own but my wife and I took around 1k each, came home with about half. Not sure what cash our daughter and her fiancé went through.

- Boaty Ball (reserved and FCFS) helped conserve cash. We did pay cash a few times on non BB moorings.
- Our mornings always started with spending $25 cash, 2 bags ice, 1 bag trash!

btw, I am enjoying my boat rock looking at this monitor!

The boat we chartered earlier this year (Moorings 4500) had a safe built in. We used it for travel documents and some extra cash.

Many of the Mooring cats have safes, but I question how secure Moorings keeps the master code... if that code gets out the safes could end up as simply a convenient collection point for valuables.