Customs Fees for Caribbean

[Jerry Woodward]

Just got back from the BVI. Cruising permits are $4.00 per person/day. It was an extra $50.00 for a national park permit for 4 people for a week. That allows you to pick up any national park mooring for day use at dive sites like the indians, the dogs, the caves, etc. Every mooring we picked up was $25.00, but I hear there are some more expensive ones associated with certain resorts. There are plenty of places to anchor though, so I don't think that would be a problem. Also, many of the mooring fees include things like free ice, free 100gal of water, or discount on dinner if you eat at their restaurant. FWIW, we were there in the shoulder season (Nov 28 to Dec 3) and never saw a mooring field that was full.

[osirissail]

Fees and costs add up differently for cruising with your own boat versus bare-boat chartering.
- - Personally, I have no problem with the massive amounts of mooring buoys in the BVI's and USVI's. Anchoring there can be a real challenge due to steep underwater drop-off close to shore. This results in packed boats in what suitable areas are left.
- - In the old days when everybody anchored, boat damage from playing "bumper boats" due to less than proper anchoring got to be real expensive for the charter outfits. So the installation of the mooring fields has really cut back on the boat damage and made the chartering experience much more pleasant by not having to worry about scope and dragging anchor.

[donradcliffe]

Barbados was about $60 to check in, but they hit you with unannounced port fees of over $100 when you check out. Honduras was $3 per person total. Providencia was $120 for check-in/out. Belize depends on which official you get, but some people got whacked $120 to check in, plus $10/day for each day in country.

[SunDevil]

You get to spend 3 months in the Bahamas for that fee, correct?

If you go to the country's page on noonsite and click the fees link on the left side, they list a bunch. I will say I was surprised with how much it would cost to island hop from Florida to Brazil.

[Hud3]

Capt_billl,

I just realized that I pointed you to the "Clearance" link in the "Countries" section of Noonsite: The global site for cruising sailors. Sundevil's post made me realize that it's the "Fees" link that has all the info you're looking for.

Some of it may be a bit dated, but it will give you a good enough basis for budgeting.