My husband and I will be traveling to the USVI for the first time in April. Most of our time will be spent on St. John with a few days checking out St. Thomas. My question is whether anyone has good ideas / experience on how to safeguard your personal items while at the beach. What does a couple do when they want to snorkel or swim together?

The easiest thing is to not have anything valuable with you at the beach. I'm always walking distance, so don't need car keys or charge cards on me. My beach basket has only: a bottle of water, disposable camera, paperback novel, suntan lotion, straw hat, beach towel, a coin purse with no more than $20 in it. Nothing anyone would probably feel is worth stealing.

Another approach is to buy something meant for the purpose: a waterproof pouch or a cylinder that goes around your neck, or shorts with zippered pocket and put stuff in a ziplock, if you want to keep keys or money on your person in the water.

Leave valuables in hotel/condo safe or waterproof moneybelt

works best for me www.travel.state.gov for your crime info.

Bad on St Thomas beaches 1 cruise tourist death recently.

St. John lots better still www.insuremytrip.com wise.

Have fun,

Thanks for the feedback. We are renting a villa in Devers bay where we can enjoy the beach there but we would want to see all the beautiful beaches on St. John that I have been reading about. We will minimize what we carry to the beaches but we certainly will have to carry things like car keys, cell phone (in case of emergencies), drivers license, etc. Has anyone used / bought a waterproof belt / pouch? How well did they work? Any insight would be appreciated.

They come in all different sizes from small pouches (perfect for car keys, a bit of cash or credit card, your D/L and cell phone) that you hang around your neck to larger "belt type" ones. They are available at most dive shops, large chain sporting goods stores and over the internet. They work well, I use one all the time when I'm at the beach swimming & snorkeling or going sailing. They are very reasonably priced.

You might want to try making a new posting? The question about using a waterproof belt for holding belongs while snorkeling is a bit of a different topic from "beach safety".