taking frozen food to St. Martin

Hi,
I'm sure a few of you have taken frozen food with you on the plane to St. Martin before. In fact, I remember a long while ago a post talking about such a thing. Can you advise me (again) how practical an idea that is? We've been to the island before and have a hard time finding good steaks to put on the grill so, we would like to take several good steaks with us on this trip in April. We don't want to eat out very often since we have a nice kitchen in our unit.

Thanks for your help.
TandP

Freeze hard, put in a soft sided cooler in your carry-on and they will still be frozen when you arrive. Don't put them in your checked luggage as they may go on a trip of their own and arrive smelling very bad!

While you certainly can find just about everything you need in the grocery sores on the island we still bring a small cooler with a few frozen items. We pack the cooler in our carry on and everything is still frozen when we arrive. We fly direct from Toronto. Last time we brought a couple of strip loin steaks, 2 racks of lamb and some homemade Italian sausage. We had our butcher vacuum pack the steaks and lamb. In the winter we stay for one month and it is too long to eat out every night. We have had good luck buying fish and chicken at the grocery stores on the French side. Hope this helps.

We bought a very good steak at Simply Market in Hope Estate in April.

I note you are from Washington state. What is your airline routing?? From the East Coast, taking frozen food is extremely practical, with a non-stop, or a one stop situation, that gets you there in 6 hours or less. Coming from the west coast could be another situation. IF you trust the airlines to get your checked bags there in good shape, you could do dry ice, but I don't think you can do that with carry-on bags.

With regard to buying steaks in particular on island, we have had good experiences with beef from Cost U Less and from Super U, a relatively new supermarket on the French side. Also, last Christmas, we got a lovely standing beef roast from Grand Marche, which was very tasty, although pretty darn expensive..

Interesting. . .i wasn't aware you could bring food into SXM--i had always thought it would be confiscated by FAA, similar to a can of tuna i once tried to bring from providence to Martha's Vineyard. Do i just freeze and put in my bag? Thanks for the tips.

I agree, Super U's meat is excellent, I wouldn't bother to bring my own, they even have Angus steaks.

We bring frozen food in a cooler in a checked in bag. Never had a problem.

Same here. I vacuum seal all mine and freeze in the soft sided cooler. Before I leave for airport I put frozen bag in my duffle to be checked. Even with an overnight stay in MIA the have stayed frozen to SXM. I come from WA state too.

Is there a section on the custom entry form to declare that you are bringing food into Sxm? Do people even declare that they have food with them, especially meat?

From Canada we don't fill in any customs forms to enter St maarten. I have always been happy with food purchased on the island. However, on vacation to me means not cooking many meals. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/chef.gif" alt="" />

We bring a few vacuum packed steaks They stay nicely frozen in Polarbear cooler.We do enjoy the food from Super U since they have great quality and different cuts

Hi, we were wondering the same thing. Love the grocery stores on island but if I see a good deal on filet mignon prior to departure would love to get it here and bring down for grilling. We did this earlier this year on a trip to Grand Cayman and there was a problem because, while still obviously in the US grocery store packaging, they did not have a specific USDA stamp. GC customs waved us through, but curious if SXM has similar requirement for USDA stamp on packaging?

What do we fill out when we arrive in Sxm? I remember filling something out when we arrived and had to state where we were staying when we arrived from Toronto, Canada.

No, you don't have to declare that you are bringing meat (or other food) into SXM..

No. There is not a box to declare food brought in. We do it every year. We stay for four weeks and enjoy bringing Alaska wild salmon, steaks and home made specialty wild game sausages to share with our guests and island friends. Some times quality steaks are a crap shoot to find in SXM. Found some good ones and a few not so good. If you want to make sure you have it covered bring some.

Canadian cutie, there are no more custom declaration forms to fill in for St maarten traveling from Canada. St. Maarten stopped those at least a year ago. You just show passport to the people at the customs booth inside the airport. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Thumbsup.gif" alt="" />

And all this time my husband though I was smuggling in meat! Bahaha!

That is funny.

We have done this many times! Yes we are from the East coast. I freeze everything solid, then wrap in foil and sometimes in an insulated cooler bag. I put it in my checked luggage. (Seems like it is colder in the cargo area of the plane than as a carryon and going through connections.) Stuff arrives fine. If it happens to be slightly thawed then plan on cooking it first. Food usually lasts in a fridge for at least a couple days. There is no form going into SXM BUT the US does restrict items coming back in. Doesn't matter if it was purchased in the US and now coming back. You should have no worries!

Is the customs area staffed when a Canadian flight comes in? As I don't think I have ever seen anyone from customs in arrivals in SXM, coming in on flights from the US.

Used to bring some frozen food (especially steaks) but with the selection and prices now available at Cost U less and Grande Marche we stopped the inconvenience a number of years ago. I would think that the potential delay at Security and Customs would also support our decision.

Customs? As I said, I have never seen the customs area staffed in SXM on a US flight. And regarding security, never had a problem with meat. A time or two, they have wanted to open it, but the delay was maybe a minute. The only time we ever had a real problem with security was when we screwed up and left a knife in our carry on cooler bag! <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/duh.gif" alt="" />

I will chime and agree with most of the above posts. We used to bring in a few frozen meat items but have recently decided to either eat out or buy stuff on Island.

We always packed in a soft side cooler inside of checked baggage and it is always still frozen on arrival.

I remember one time we had an unplanned ugly trip (6am to 11pm from BOS with two cancellations and diversions) and the meat was reasonably frozen the next day. We just used it as our 1st few meals...

If you want your special steaks go for it....

Have always taken frozen food to SXM, both in checked baggage and carry-on, without a problem. However, on my return trip to NY two years ago, security confiscated my blue freezer packs (defrosted) from my carry-on, insisting that they were not permitted. I now bring them home in my checked baggage.

TandP,

Over the years, when the family was younger and bringing friends along on the trip, we used to ship full coolers of frozen food, everything from turkey breasts and hams, steaks, frozen meatballs and sauce, homemade chicken cordon blue.....you name it, we brought it. But that was back in the day and the groceries were verrrry limited and items available weren't always that great. And some days, after a busy day in the sun doing whatever, it was nice to come home and just toss an already prepared meal into the oven or on the stove without having to find it first! I do truly hate shopping......

Today we don't bother, but the groceries are excellent and there are only two of us. There isn't much if anything I can think of that can't be gotten on the island, but that said, sometimes you might have to really look around for exactly what you want.

As already stated, there is no restriction regarding bringing food to St. Maarten, and I agree with the idea of freezing it solid first but I would personally hesitate before putting frozen meat inside your regular luggage regardless of how well packaged it was.

We once met a woman there who had done just that but unfortunately, while her flight went straight to SXM, her luggage took a more circuitous route and four days after she got there, the suitcase with the food arrived. We met her while shopping - she had to replace a lot of her clothes because everything had defrosted and leaked out of the cooler bag. The likelihood of this happening is not great and I would still bring my frozen steaks if so inclined, but I would definitely freeze and put them in a cooler bag that I was carrying with me as opposed to putting them in my shipped luggage. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/handshake.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/handshake.gif" alt="" />

I'm for sure with you on the 'taking it with you in carry-on'. Probably 15 years ago, and for about two years, there actually was a non-stop flight on US Air from Baltimore to SXM. Don't you know that is the ONE time that we put frozen meat in our checked luggage, and the ONE time that our luggage has gone walkabout on us and didn't show up for a couple of days! <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/duh.gif" alt="" /> We didn't have to replace any clothes---EXCEPT for the fact that, stupid us, we had thought "oh, we have a nonstop flight. We don't need to bring a change of clothes in carry-on". So we had to go buy some warm weather clothes on the island. These days it wouldn't be such a big deal, since we live in Florida now, versus coming from snow and ice, but we now always bring a change of clothes in carry-on.

We go so far as to split our cloths between our checked bags. Some coordinated outfits and undergarments of my wife's goes in mine and visa versa.

'visa' versa??? So you don't bring another change of clothes in carry-on at all? And you always put meat in a checked bag? Especially coming from the west coast, there is such an increased chance for a screw-up, I'm surprised you haven't had any issues so far. Of course, it only took ONE time for it to happen to me, and now I do things differently.

Never said we don't bring cloths in our carry on. We always pack what we need for two days along with foot wear, swim suit and changes of cloths. At least one of everything that is legal to put in carry on along with all valuables. Plus we keep items on island that is delivered to our unit at check in.
Not sure why your questioning that.

I just got the impression from what you said, that you didn't bring any clothes in carry-on, is all.

Never said or indicated that. We each bring a well stocked carry on. We don't travel light as we are there for four weeks.

I'll chime in to say that I just got my marching orders from mom with a list of frozen items she wants me to bring. I freeze, wrap in foil, put in ziplock, plastic bag and then an insulated bag in my checked luggage. I usually have one stop, and things tend to be completely frozen when I pull up to my parent's house.

Just 20 more sleeps!!!!!!!!!!