TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums Southern Caribbean Traveling with cooler of meats

We are heading to St. Vincent via Barbados January 2017. This is our second Grenadines charter. Would like to take our own Polar Bear cooler this trip. Has anyone had the experience of checking in with frozen meats/prepared foods from the US? Any issues?

No real issues on checking a cooler filled with frozen meats. We do it once or twice a year. Only concern is if you decide to pack dry ice in the cooler - if so you can only pack 5 pounds of dry ice.

FYI - If the cooler is full you can expect your meats to stay frozen for up to 24 hours - so no real need for dry ice unless your trip will be longer.

Good to know, thanks!

Same question for carrying meat into St Lucia. Thanks

You can bring meat to St. Lucia, but you will have to have it checked by the meat inspector. He is usually at UVF on weekdays.
I've never had a problem bringing any in, but I always tell him I'm joining one of the ARC yachts to sail to SVG (which is true) and that seems to help get it cleared.

We have travelled with frozen meats. Someone years back told us to use boxes of frozen spinach as ice packs. We also vacuum pack the meat. It has always stayed frozen.

We always plan our on-board meals and prepare several apps and entrees ahead, and freeze or refrigerate everything in zip-locs (or the original containers). The day before flying out, we pack everything into 3 or 4 heavy-duty styrofoam coolers (to be left behind) similar to those thick Omaha Meat coolers. 24 hours later, many items (especially steaks) are still frozen, and everything is crisp and very cold. No need for dry ice or cold packs, as the frozen items perform very well.