Frommer’s Highlights Cinnamon Bay

Hello friends, we’re back! Well not technically yet, but I’m writing this on a plane en route to St. John after a whirlwind weekend up in Boston! 🙂 I just came across nice article about the new changes happening over at Cinnamon Bay, and I thought many of you’d be interested in it. It was written by Arthur Frommer … a pretty fancy guy in the travel world. Enjoy!

Budget Travel: Cinnamon Bay offers low-cost stay on St. John

-By Arthur Frommer

For many years, a collection of tented bungalows called Maho Bay, on the quiet island of St. John in the U.S. Virgin Islands, was the world’s best-kept budget secret. Sensitive, intelligent Americans flocked to stay in these primitive digs, and thus enjoyed one of the cheapest tropical vacations on Earth. It was a fabulous place.

But Maho Bay was forced to close when its lease ran out, and its owners are still struggling to attract the same crowd of unpretentious tourists to a much smaller number of tents far down the coast of St. John.

However, on a mile-long, white-sand beach elsewhere in St. John, new management has taken over the property called Cinnamon Bay, which is inside the U.S. Virgin Islands National Park. And a near equivalent of the much-lamented Maho Bay is beginning to emerge, with a capacity nearly as great as the former Maho Bay.

To repeat a vital point: Cinnamon Bay is an officially designated campground in a U.S. National Park. It has just acquired a new private management team, and it has announced the construction of no fewer than 55 eco-tents on broad wooden platforms large enough to enclose two twin beds or one large bed, as well as storage facilities, all adjoining a balcony-like appendage holding a table and chairs. Each eco-tent (most being beachfront) will rent for $104 to $149 a night (that’s for two people), depending on the season, and the price includes the full-size or single beds and their bedding. For two people traveling together to enjoy such fine accommodations on a spectacular, mile-long Caribbean beach, this price is remarkable.

And the 55 new eco-tents are in addition to the existing 40 tented cottages, which house as many as four vacationers apiece (each also has a stove for preparing meals), and about 30 other campsites for people bringing their own tents or using tents provided by the campground management. Platform and bare-tent sites cost as little as $39 a night.

The entire area is serviced by a low-cost restaurant preparing three meals a day, and by various grocery outlets for people preparing their own meals. Both the eco-tents and the existing campsites offer easy access to various bathroom facilities.

So, all the former fans of Maho Bay Camps on the exquisite island of St. John can stop their mourning. Maho Bay has been replaced by near-equivalent facilities called the Cinnamon Bay Camps. For further details, go to www.cinnamonbayresort.com. Travel virtue has been rewarded!