I'm a very fair, 40-ish redhead and have always burned easily so found this a very interesting read. Since I've started travelling south (I'm Canadian), I've tried many different sunscreens/sunblocks. Most are fairly effective as long as I remember to cover all areas and keep reapplying.

My favourite by far however is a product that I can only get in Mexico called "Carrot Essence". I currently have two tubes. The 15 is a sunscreen lotion with carrot oil; the 45 is a sunblock which is water resistant (not waterproof).

And for snorkling or playing in the ocean, I often wear a very light weight cotton shirt over my bathing suit. Beats having to remember to come out to reapply.

As an islander with kids who spent a lot of time outdoors, I have tried pretty much everything, here are my tried and tested solutions :
- Banana Boat sunscreen may be cheap, but it is the best I have found. the sports versions really are pretty waterproof, but go for a high spf( at least 30)
- If not in the sea, where hats all the time.... kids will wear baseball hats, especially if you buy them a new one when you arrive where you are going
- for very fair kids, the surf shirts are good, readily available in beach shops here in Cayman
- stating the obvious here, but don't spend much time in the sun between 11 and 3....most locals either go to teh beach in the morning or for the last couple of hours before sunset.

Oh, and last tip, if you see lots of locals bolting from the beach as soon as the sun hits the water, there is good reason..... every tropical destination suffers from sandflies on the beach for half an hour after sunset, you never notice them at the time (especially after a couple of rum punches!), but their bites itch way worse than mosquitoes afterwards

out of the sun at midday.

We lather up with sunscreen for a morning beach/water session, then before lunch we head out of the sun. Eat a leisurely lunch then nap (if I'm lucky...play cards or hang out in shade or something if not). No more beach until 4PM or so. (then off before the sand fleas come out for sunset).

If there is a pool, sometimes there's a shady area of it at certain times of day that will hold them over.

LO! I didn't read TomCayman's post before I wrote but it's almost the same thing I said!

Sorry

Tom, thanks for the warning about the sunflies.

meta : sunflies would really be a pest, but we have sandflies

liza : you know what they say, great minds think alike (or was that "fools seldom differ" !)

Tom, sunflies, sandflies, what's the difference.LOL Pesty is pesty.

A good article on sun protection from the Abaco Board:

http://coconuttelegraph.net/savedposts/sunburn.htm

I get only the best for my fair husband. It's a product from our dermatologist. Any dermatologist will sell you sunblock that they recommend. It may be pricey, but sometimes you can get trials for travel. It's worth it for good protection!