Hurricane Season in Grenada

How Much Does it Cost?!$$

Anchored off Calivigny Island

Hurricanes are not something to mess with. This is why many insurance companies require you to be north of Florida or in the southernmost part of the Caribbean. We opted for warm blue water and spent this hurricane season on the beautiful island of Grenada. So how much did it cost to spend over three months in this tropical paradise? Keep reading to find out. 

When reading keep in mind that Grenada uses EC’s which is between 2.6 and 2.7 x more than USD. All prices below have been converted to USD unless otherwise noted to help you get a better understanding 🙂

Customs

When clearing customs you will pay $50 EC’s per month. We renewed for a total of four months.

Customs total: $74 USD

Groceries

Our favorite kind of shopping!

Grenada has multiple different grocery stores. We typically shopped at either IGA or Foodland. 

Foodland has a dinghy dock and is only a short dinghy ride from the St. George’s Anchorage making it extremely easy to shop at. 

IGA is a bigger store and has a wider variety of goods but requires a bus ride to get to. Multiple times a week a shopping bus picks up from many of the marinas and transports cruisers to multiple shopping locations for a small fee of $15 EC (about $5.50US) 

This bus is a great option if you do large grocery shops. It will also take you to a hardware store, vegetable market, and a bulk shopping center. 

There are also many farmers’ markets located around the island where you can find locally grown fruits, veggies, and spices. 

Groceries Total: $3,000 USD

Around $190/week 

Restaurants

Our friend Beau enjoying the local fresh catch!

Grenada is known as the Spice Island of the Caribbean so you can only image how flavorful all the food is. We try to limit going out to once a week but every so often we had company in town and wanted them to experience as many flavors as possible 😉 

A few of our favorite restaurants included the Belmont Estate, Sails Restaurant & Bar, Whisper Cove’s Sunday brunch, and Victory Bar and Grill’s Friday night BBQ. 

Restaurants Total: $2,000 USD

Around $125/week 

Dockage

Port Louis Marina

We spent 46 total days at a marina this hurricane season. This is way more than we normally would but Billy flew up to New York for a few weeks and I was more comfortable staying in a marina while alone on the boat (especially because it was hurricane season). Billy and I also flew to Annapolis and left the boat in a marina while Billy’s sister watched Jetty. The majority of those 46 days were spent in Port Louis Marina in St. Georges. It was in a great location, safe, had multiple restaurants, beautiful bathrooms and showers, and a huge field and beach that was great for exercising and walking Jetty. We felt Port Louis was very reasonably priced for how nice it was. They also offered discounts for monthly rates which we took advantage of. 

Dockage Total: $1798 USD

Around $40 /night 

Fuel

We refilled our diesel tanks after our sail from St. Croix and filled up gasoline jerry cans for the dinghy and generator 😉 about twice a month.

Diesel was $14.66 EC/ Gallon ($5.40 US)

Gasoline was $15.15 EC/Gallon ($5.60 US)

Fuel Total: $340 USD

Trash 

Something many people probably don’t think about is the price to get rid of garbage. While staying in a marina trash service is included but while on anchor you must pay a trash fee. Grenada Yacht Club charges $3EC/ bag and Nimrods dock in Clarks Court has free trash pick up on Tuesdays and Friday morning. Port Louis charges $5-10 US per bag if not staying there so I would suggest avoiding them for your trash disposal. 

Trash Total $20 USD

Laundry 

I would say most cruisers do not have a washing machine and dryer onboard so laundry service is an important necessity to consider. 

Many marinas have a machine or two but we found these machines did not clean or dry well at all. Port Loius Marina and Prickly Bay Marina offer a drop off service which includes wash, dry, and fold. You are charged by the pound and can be quite expensive. However, we found having clean laundry and not having to worry about it coming out of a machine still dirty worth it. With the addition of a water maker we will be doing bucket laundry from now on 🤗

Laundry Total $190 USD

Boat Parts

Spending over three months here meant that there was plenty of time for boat projects. A few of these projects included replacing and installing a windlass, buying and installing a water maker, replacing plumbing pipes, and replacing our main sheet block and tackle. These projects were expensive but are going to make our lives so much easier! 

Boat Parts and Accessories Total: $7,354

Other

Seven Sisters Falls was one of our favorite adventures.

There are always “other” expenses that you rack up while visiting a new place. For us these included entrance fees, tour guides, and car rentals just to name a few. 

Car Rental $250

National Park $15

Tour Guides: $30

Mt Carmel entrance fee $10

Gym $75

Dermatologist $96

Buses $50

Flag $20

Souvenirs for family (Chocolate, spices, rum)  $200

For a list of our very favorite things to do in Grenada click here! 

Other Total: $746

Total Cost of Spending Hurricane Season in Grenada: $15,522

The numbers listed above are OUR costs of spending hurricane season in Grenada. Your numbers can range drastically depending on your priorities and the needs of your crew and boat.

If I divide our total costs by our 112 days in Grenada we average about $140 a day for  2-3 people and a dog (Billy’s sister was with us for two of the months).

When we were planning our trip I had no idea how much food, marinas, ect. were going to cost in Grenada. I hope this helps with your planning:)

If you are interested in the financial breakdown of our time in the Bahamas, Dominican Republic, or Puerto Rico click here.

Thanks for reading:)

Sierra