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Do any of you bring food down with you? I am really trying to economize on this trip and we're staying two weeks. We're staying in a home 11 nights and on Maho for 3. Thus, there's lots of opportunity to cook our own. I've heard of others who brought a cooler on wheels, full of frozen items.....and, when returning home, they then used it as a suitcase to bring back things they brough while on the trip. Seems easy enough, but is it worth it? I've shopped on STT and on STJ and honestly don't pay too much attention to the prices because it's not something I can control when I'm there. But, now I'm evaluating the idea of bringing chicken, steaks, hamburger, etc.
I paid $.99 lb for chicken legs and thighs yesterday. What can I expect to pay at the food center?
Who else does this and how do you do it?
This is just my opinion, but I honestly can't see why you would want to go thru the hassle of shopping at home, packing it all on ice, then lugging it down here, when you can just go to the store here. The prices are close to what you might pay in the States, depending on your location. I always buy my chickens whole, and they are usually about $5.
Hi – We usually stay in villas and like to bbq when we are not dining out. We shop for everything on STT/STJ except for meat. We are pretty picky about that, have great selection and prices in our area at home, so we bring it with us. We really don’t do anything special except freeze everything first. We use one of those large soft-side super-insulated cooler totes (Sam’s Club has one that they sell during the summer to help you bring home their frozen goods – it’s from California Innovations, a good brand) and if you don’t mind having Sam’s name on it, you can get it for about $7. We line it with newspaper and then use some blue ice stuff. We have never used dry ice. A bit more newspaper on top and then squeeze out any air and zip it closed. We pack the cooler inside a large rolling duffle that we use for our snorkel and beach stuff, etc. With the early flight schedule from Chicago, we have to leave the house at about 3:30 AM. We usually don’t get into our villa until after 4-5 in the afternoon and everything is still frozen. When we get there the cooler is great for the beach and to bring cold stuff back from the local stores and then it folds up flat for packing to go home. It’s not a big deal for us to pack food – we’ve been doing this for years and it’s nice to have something for your first night when you are beat from travel and may just want something quick rather than cleaning up and going back out to a restaurant. We have one of those vacuum sealers so we freeze some dish that we can just nuke when we get there – like some home-made meat pasta sauce – just boil up some past a and there’s a quick dinner on the deck – lol. We were just down at the beginning of the month – we stopped at the Cost U Less in STT for our liquor and they did have a nice selection of meats, tho, if you don’t want to bother. Everything else you will find on-island – between the Pueblos, Star and Marina Markets, K-Marts and the Cost U Less you will find almost all of the brands you are used to at home. If you are staying at a villa you may want to wait to shop until you see what’s already there in the way of staples – lots of stuff is left by previous guests and/or your villa owner / rental agent may prepare a welcome basket for you.
After our first visit to the USVI we learned what was worth bringing and what wasn't. We have two teenagers and we always designate one suitcase for food - although we have never gone to the trouble of bring frozen meats, etc.... we do however bring the things that are cheap here ,but extremely pricey on the islands such as peanut butter, coffee, crackers, pop tarts (remembering that we have TWO teenagers!), etc. We are actually going to be on STJ for ten days in June and I will bring the above plus some canned meats, pasta, granola bars, cereal, lots of protein items. Basically anything that is canned and boxed - not too heavy and travels well. Dairy items are very expensive on the islands - but other than spray cheese we just buy it there, along with bread. Hope this helps and hope you have a GREAT time... we are going to drive over to Maho one day - I have heard wonderful things about it!
And remember the heat! We brought some non-perishables to Maho Bay once when we had our kids with us, things like marshmellow fluff and it was a mistake- the tents get hot during the day and some items don't like the heat and melt. So be prepared to have that cooler filled with ice and you may want to leave just about everything on it. I have to agree with folks above that the prices weren't nearly as bad as I thought they would be (I live in New England so maybe I'm used to high prices) but I wouldn't bother to bring anything again unless I had dietary restrictions. We're coming back in Nov to stay at Concordia and have already discussed this and said to heck with it (except maybe ground coffee and sugar so I don't have to buy alot of it for just one cup per AM)
Thank you all for your advice. We do own a softsided cooler that we can use to transport a few frozen items. I'm bringing 2 18 yr old athletic boys, so an abundance of food is essential. It's a cooler than I would bring anyway.
We brought a soft sided cooler full of non-perishables like cereals, pastas, pbj, snacks, etc. Didn't try the frozen food because our trip was too long. But I'm glad we brought the stuff we did. It really wasn't any hassle. We just checked it at the airport. All we bought at the store there were things like meats, vegetables, fruits and milk. I really didn't want to use up my vacation time shopping.
