TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin Eyeglass protection

Anyone know how you can protect your eyeglasses/sunglasses from damage from the blowing sand while on the beach? My glasses are so scratched from the fine sand constantly blowing across the lenses. Any ideas? <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/duh.gif" alt="" />

Leave them at home or in your pocket! Just kidding, I wear glasses and have the same concern - afraid there's nothing you can do.

I keep an older pair of glasses just for such purpose. Once I get a new pair my old pair is used to take to SXM.

Crizal coating (if your glasses have it) should help but if you have plastic lenses they are going to get scratched.

Another option would possibly be safety glasses over your prescription glasses.

Don't wipe them with a dry towel. Instead use fresh water to rinse either out of a bottle, faucet, spray or a damp cloth. We always take a small spray bottle with fresh water and a damp wash cloth with us to the beach. Never a scratch.

I've found that coating the lenses with a little Pledge and wiping clean works real well.

Doesn't that leave a waxy film?

Would using the spray eyeglass cleaner work as well?

Buy a cheap pair of shop safety glasses at your hardware store that fit over your regular glasses - works like a charm.

clip on sun glasses sounds practical and cheap

Would the thin film that we put on cell phones work on glasses? It would get scratched from the sand, but you could pull it off and put another piece on, like the tearaways that they use on NASCAR race cars...

Be sure and attatch it with a white bandaid. If its that windy its time to leave.

I think the best solution as someone else also stated is to rinse off the sand that has blown on the lenses before using a cloth to clean them.

Been traveling to the island for years and never had this problem. Yes, I do rinse my glasses with water as the salt in the air causes the sand to stick but it's just that easy. Trying to clean glasses with a cloth is pretty much the same as using sand paper on the lenses.

I agree. It's never been a problem for me.

Optometrist chiming in....

I were both plastic and glass sunglasses. While the glass will do much better, it's not scratch proof. That said, wind blown sand will not scratch a lens. Having stood behind the KLM 747 with my plastic lenses on takeoff, not a single scratch was had. Now, some plastic glass lenses are polycarbonate and so while they are impact resistant, they are more likely to pick up fine scratches.

It's more than likely that you may be wiping the glasses when the tiny sand particles are still in them and in essence, grinding the scratches into the lens.

So to minimize that, ALWAYS clean your lenses under running water, mild soap and then dry the lenses. And consider glass lenses