TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums British Virgin Islands how much cash is needed?

I'm trying to figure out how much cash to take with us on our trip. If it matters it's 8 people for 14 nights.

Cash for ferries, if I read correctly there is a $3 per bag fee and a $10 departure tax from St. Thomas, on top of ferry ticket price.

Cash for taxi to/from airport

Cash for taxi to boat

Cash for some moorings. I figure we will anchor some nights and can use a card to pay for some nights.

My biggest question is for those of you who have some sort of a kitty you put money in to draw out for misc items. How much do you start with? I realize every person / trip is different, I'm just trying to get a gauge.

Thanks!
Suzanne

People collecting mooring fees want cash.

I don't do the kitty thing. We just log all expenses and who pays for them.

We use the ATM's on Tortola..Road Town..Nanny Cay..CGB..

If we travel with more than just us we have a purser who takes care of the money. The initial provisioning is split at the beginning then with 4 of us (2 couples) each couple puts $400 into the kitty. This is for mooring, ice, reprovisioning along the way. Sometimes we need to kick in another $100 per couple, sometimes we just use the excess for the last dinner out or taxi fare to the airport or ferry. Dinners out can be tricky with that many people. Decide in advance if you want separate tabs and make sure at the beginning of the meal that your server can do that.

We recently traveled with 4 couples. 3 couples were pretty good drinkers, I do not drink and my hubby has an occasional beer. Realizing this they were all gracious enough to adjust the tab when it was on one check. Be up front about expectations and be prepared to implement plan B

Want a hard number ? For 2 people for 2 weeks, I brought $600. Extrapolate as you see fit. The tradeoff is between how much cash can you carry (or leave on the boat) without worrying, vs. how much bother to chase down an ATM while on vacation. Of course, use credit cards at every opportunity to save cash.

At the other end of the spectrum:
comfort - so as not to worry - $1000pp-per wk
if you are comfortable using plastic - then maybe $500pp/wk
Less - raises fretting about running short
ATM's aren't always working.. although, that's rare now

Travelers Checks? For a 14 day charter, the two of us took a thousand in cash for each and a thousand in low denomination Travelers Checks for both of us, all totaled it was $3000. We didn't use any of our TC's the past two times we have gone. In the past TC's were OK, I'm not sure if that is still the case. We bring a credit card too.

Not sure anyone knows how to deal with those these days....
You might be faced with "stunned silence" on pulling those out

We usually put in $200 per person into the kitty. This covers all groceries, mooring balls, alcohol, diesel at the end the trip, and sometimes it pays for the rental cars.

We are usually a group of 8-10 people and the kitty works great for us.

Drinks and meals on shore are up to the individual and don't come out of the kitty.

T.C's are antiquated. Last time we brought T.A's several years ago. We went to K Mart in STT and they had no idea what they were.

Doing some research, I find that TC's can only be considered dependable if they are being exchanged at a bank or similar. They might be OK at a merchant if the merchant knows what they are. Their safety can't be denied, however they could become hard to use without access to a bank or outside of business hours. With a change of mind, we are going to bring an extra credit card instead.

After checking further, I find that I should rethink this. We will bring cash, a primary credit card, a secondary credit card and a debit card for an ATM. It was also recommended that we notify all 3 financial companies that we will be in the BVI. I'm glad this thread popped up and gave me cause to look it over more closely.

You can enter travel dates on line with your credit cards - very easy. There's an option for "travel notification".

Cash for mooring balls and ice, trash payments, etc -- we use CCs for everything else - they are welcome pretty much everywhere....used them at all markets/stores/restaurants.

Purser works for us too. 500 per couple covers it for us. Cash is good with the mooring balls etc.

Food for thought - jus' sayin'

a) a buddy, and senior (retired) "large Bank" fella - once said to me - I've never in my life used a debit card for purchasing anything - nor will I ever.
so....I add no further comment to that

b) C/C co's - at least here - no longer care to hear where you are traveling - seems that has become passé - these days. Computers will pickup trends... and it will be what it is - with the odd ..arrgghhh... rejection

Thank you everyone for your input. There will be 8 of us, all family with one family friend thrown into the mix. This same group went 3 years ago, but my husband and I had to leave on day 2 due to a medical emergency. On that trip my brother in law paid for most things since my husband and I were gone. They kept track of who paid for what and who it benefited, that way the kids didn't have to pay for the bar bills for example. He put together a spreadsheet after the trip to figure out everyone's costs. It worked well, and I am sure we will do a similar reconciliation system this time around. However, I didn't remember how much cash we took. I know I left some with my daughter for expenses, but that wasn't high on my list of priorities at the time so I don't remember amounts.

Trying to make things go smoothly and plan accordingly.

Suzanne

Agree with (a)

For (b) in the past I had been letting Chase know where I was traveling and the last few times the response email said (paraphrasing) "ok, we don't care, thanks for banking with us."

I should add we will have 2 credit cards and 1 ATM card and others in the group will have similar.

Suzanne

Not my experience....I have had my credit cards frozen (recently) if I do not alert them of travel plans and they see "unusual activity" -- always best to play it safe rather than having to call companies from your cell - that may or may not be picking up a signal at the time you want to use your card. I travel a bunch for a living - always better to be safe...than frustrated IMHO. Takes two seconds. Why not?

We call it the blender fund, andi am a huge fan....it's too confusing for me - though not to all - to keep track of every five dollar bag of ice someone picks up....especially when group is split up....abd the mooring ball is just as bad...'we got the one 2 nights ago, they got last night, so....but we paid for cab last night'

add in a few singles on a trip and then the couple math gets worse. I recommend throwing in 400 a cpl at beginning of trip and add more along the way if you think you may need it....we pay for fuel (if needed) water taxis ice mooring trash and even a few appetizers if we're between meals and need to all eat a little something.

it's much easier to divide whatever's leftover in the cab or at airport and for me way less bothersome- i think it really works out to be more fair/equal.

keep bar and dinner tabs seperate, unless of course the folks that didn't bring enough cash need yours....they use their cc and u pay them cash - seen this a few times and it works out just fine, with no extra atm stop.

cash is king!

ps sorry for spelling, grammer and abbreviations above. I'd rewritten the bit twice after ttol crashed on phone...gave up
on cleaning it up and just posted

Never owned an ATM/Debit card, never will. Cash or credit card.

From my experience JlarsBVI is pretty close.

Yes. This.

Also endorse Capital One with no transaction fees.
We also have a Big Bank company card with a couple of dozen employees with heavy Intl travel. I hate approving final payment with those unnecessary intl trax fees.

Bring at least $ 500 cash per adult, and two major credit cards, making sure to notify in advance

Five continents, 100s of cruises later...bring twice the money, half the clothes and shoes!

I would not depend on ATMs.
Cash YES
Kitty yes (Boat expenses including beer/rum/etc... Adjust if non drinkers. My experience is some people will be cognizant of their "fine wine" habits and will purchase it with own money, not Kitty$$$). I agree for 1 week, including initial groceries, $400-500 per couple. I too would rather split the remainder than re-contribute. Also on last night, if dining out, can help pay tab, assuming all have similar habits. Some adjustment for non-drinkers and kids, but simpler to pretty much keep all boat expenses coming out of the kitty.
The initial grocery/ supplies generally are about $600 at Riteway for us and we use credit card online. Not worried about using CC at resorts(Leverick Bay, Foxxy's, Sydney's etc) However, have been there when no electricity on the island and without cash you may be thirsty.
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Regarding notifying Credit Card Company, (per Capitol One)with the new chip cards, no need to notify.

Always good to have a spare as even in USA, CC can be compromised... Having to have one Fed-Ex'd to you in BVI not convenient

So at $200 PP for a charter with 8...$1600 to start out with. Where/how is this kitty kept/stowed safely?

1st off, $800 or so gone on day 1. (Provisions beer/ rum).

The purser can divide and leave some in a container(small bag, coffee can) in salon which is accessible by all. There will be lots of things in salon.... or down below somewhere. Often times when all going ashore, purser takes kitty.

If someone buys supplies, when back at boat, can reimburse self... Honor system... If can't trust them, should not have invited them.

Didn't mean trust re crew, meant handling/stowing large amount of cash when ashore, etc. Figured something along lines of that. Thanks.

As far as general recociliation goes there is an app called "Tripsplitter" that is very handy. I've used it for a couple of group trips and it really simplified the process.

For daily small expenses (moorings, ice etc.) having a kitty works great.

If you have CC's $500 cash per person is probably adequate. Last trip I took $2000 for my family of three and brought a fair bit home.