Freeze them solid before you wrap them. Having them 'flash frozen' at the meat market freezes them more solidly than your home freezer can. (I think they call it cryogenic freezing.) I took some filets and a pork tenderloin last time I went too and this worked great. After freezing, I wrapped them in bubble wrap and put them in a zip lock bag and packed them in a small collapsable cooler in my luggage. We travel from Michigan so it's at least a 12 your day for us too.

Thanks for the great info. I have never wanted to try taking frozen food, but next time I think I might try it.

And BTW, we ended up reserving Argonauta, thru Vacation Vistas, for our next trip. It seems to have everything we want, including full ac, pool, spa, plenty of room, and fabulous views.

Dont' forget to do a review when you get back.

Has anyone ever packed frozen food in a suit case with Dry Ice? Dry ice is very inexpensive and will last a long time, keeping the food solidly frozen. I do not know what effects the dry ice will have in a suitcase at 35,000 feet in the baggage compartment of an airplane. I worry that it would evaporate faster. I have ordered steaks packaged in dry ice before and they arrived to my house just fine, but I don't know if they were shipped by air or ground.

REI.com sells a soft-side cooler about the size of a medium carry-on. With wheels, no less. Weighs only a couple of pounds and collapses nearly flat when empty. Has some zippered pockets on the outside, so it could literally be a carry-on. For our 2-week trip next spring, we plan to load that baby down with vacuum-packed flash-frozen steaks, chops, chicken breasts, etc. If you put enough frozen items in it, you don’t need ice, but we’ll probably freeze 3-4 bottles of water to put in anyway. I’ve read reports of people doing this and the meats staying frozen for a full day or more. Once we’re on island, we’re all set for our beach cooler. Best of all, I think it was about $40 including shipping.

Island Timer,

The only wheeled cooler I found on the REI web site is called Arctic Zone. It is 14x13x12 inches and a little over 4 lbs. Is that the one you are talking about? I love the idea of using it later on for beach supplies after the frozen food is removed.

You know, we do have beef tenderloin available here... Marina Market is a good source. You won't have as many bags to drag around and you'll help the local economy.;)

FYI Don't even think about dry ice. It's considered hazardous material by the airlines and they will not allow it on the plane.

I'm with EE on this one. Sounds like a much larger hassle than it's worth. I just bought a huge tenderloin from Quality Foods, sliced it up into 18 filet mignons, and I'll bet it's the same stuff you folks in the States get. Why bother bringing what we already have here?

I've never been able to get as good a quality of beef on STJ. Plus, a good filet must be about 20something bucks a pound. I can get it for way less than half that, and have meat I'm sure is the best. I've learned how to pack extremely light, so a small wheeled carry-on of meat does not sound like a big deal to me. FYI, have have contributed thousands and thousands of $$$$$ to the STJ economy in the last 20 years. I'm not going to feel to badly about taking a few steak dinners. (Last summer I almost bought a grapefruit at Marina Market until I noticed it was about 4.00. A filet must be about 40.00)

My tenderloin was only $50 and I got 18 filets out of it. That only comes out to $2.77 per filet! Granted, I got a special deal and most things ARE more expensive here, but I just can't see going thru the hassle of having that extra bag when I travel. To each their own, right?

I have had wonderful filets from Simple Feast and also if you ask for them to cut them specially for you from Starfish. At home I pay almost 19 dollars a pound for filets. The price in STJ was not much more if not the same. I used to go the frozen meat route when I went to STJ but decided for just a little more I could eliminate the hassle. I would rather eat in than at a restaurant so I figure I'm saving money anyway. Just my humble opinion.

Whatever you decide about taking meat, dry ice is a no-no. It's considered a hazardous material and will be confiscated at the airport.

Deb, that’s the one. I must have looked at 20 different soft coolers of all sizes. This had the best combination of size, weight, and value I could find. It was the only one with wheels. There are two good-sized zippered pockets on the outside, so this can be one of our two carry-ons. What we don’t use for food can hold t-shirts or whatever. And it will be great for lugging sandwiches and drinks to the beach.

As for the pros and cons of bringing food with you, the TripAdvisor forum had a long thread on this topic a couple of months back. Evidently a lot of people do this and there were some great ideas. Nobody had any problems at all, except some quizzical looks going through security. For us, it’s really not about saving money over what Starfish charges. It’s about having exactly what we want and the convenience of having it right there when we arrive. I have often found the quality of such things in the islands to be very good, but you can’t always count on it. I don’t want to buy an entire beef tenderloin – I want four filets (and some chops and strips and burgers and marinated chicken breasts), vacuum-sealed, professionally frozen. We’ll still get most of our provisions on island – we have never failed to pump much more into the local economy than we had planned.

Four of just returned from St. Thomas 2 weeks ago. We spent 8 nights there. We brought frozen food from St. Louis for 4 of those nights. We ate out the other 4 and supported the local economy. We also bought veggies and salad to supplement our meat from Marina Market. The produce was great!! I just had to check out the price of filets since we had brought some. $22 lb!!!!!!! I spent 10 something per lb at Costco. Being from St. Louis, we also had to have our pork steaks one night! I find that when I eat in, I eat healthier, and being as we were staying at a villa in Peterborg East, just around the bend from Udder Delite, I had to make a healthy decision sometime! We had a great time, had good eats in and out and will return.

Okay, I stand down on this one. But I have to say, I do not understand this kind of travel. To me, going somewhere and experiencing what is available there is half the fun. I apologize for my previous post! 🙂

Island Timer,

I think that cooler is a great idea even if you don't take food from home. I don't like the idea of stopping off in STT to shop for food. We are so anxious to catch the next ferry, we don't want to take the chance of missing it. I guess we are still not on island time at that point in our long day of travel.

Like I said earlier, I can pack light. I put a 12 day vacation in a carry-on last summer and still did not where everything. I'll have to think about this idea of taking food. I can see pros and cons. I'll backtrack on this board and get more opinions. Thanks for all of yours!!!

Been taking frozen meats down for many years. Have done the carry-on cooler but much prefer to pack a soft-sided cooler tightly with frozen meats and "blue" ice packs then pack that into a large rolling duffel in which we pack our snorkel stuff. We like having the blue ice for taking stuff to the beach in the cooler - less messy than using regular ice. Checking the cooler through puts it in the hold which is pretty cold when you are airborne. There are pros and cons to taking food. Pro would be being able to pick and choose the cuts and quality of meats you want from a larger selection at home and already having them frozen. We really only want to make one big shopping trip on-island - just like at home, I hate marketing. There are a million things I would rather be doing or, if I want to shop I would rather be looking at jewelry than meats - lol. Con: Although it has never happened to us (knock on wood) there is always the chance of an extreme flight delay messing up all of your plans. We pack our meat at about 3 AM though and don't get into the villa until after 4 pm and things are still frozen solid. As far as the economy in the USVI, the fresh fish is wonderful and I do like to be able to rationalize that since I have saved at the butcher shop why not get the jewelry?? (lol)

Hey, East Ender, no need to stand down or apologize. You have an absolutely valid point of view, and I completely agree that sampling the local goods and culture is a big part of what makes travel worthwhile. But when we rent one of those villas with fabulous views, many nights we just want to stay put, play some tunes, open a bottle of wine, throw something on the grill and soak in that view which few restaurants can match. Rest assured we will pay our due respects to Miss Lucy, Mr. Skinny Legs, etc.