The only lodging inside Virgin Islands National Park, on the island's longest beach. The wood cottages and eco-tents are the version of St John no resort can stage, sea-grape canopy, untouched shoreline, and an oar-stroke from Trunk Bay.
The only lodging inside Virgin Islands National Park, on the island's longest beach. The wood cottages and eco-tents are the version of St John no resort can stage, sea-grape canopy, untouched shoreline, and an oar-stroke from Trunk Bay.
Cinnamon Bay Beach & Campground is the only commercial lodging permitted inside the boundaries of Virgin Islands National Park, a status that traces back to the campground's establishment in 1964, two years after Laurance Rockefeller donated the land that created the park. The property sits four miles east of Cruz Bay on the North Shore Road, on a sweep of beach that, at roughly half a mile, is the longest single stretch of sand on St John. The campground was destroyed by Hurricanes Irma and Maria in September 2017 and was closed for nearly four years; it reopened in stages from 2021 under a new concessionaire and continues to rebuild inventory through 2026.
The accommodation mix is intentionally varied and rests on park-service-approved categories. Wood cottages, small, two-walled concrete-screen units with two screen walls open to the sea-grape canopy, are the most enclosed option and the easiest sell to first-time campers. Eco-tents on permanent platforms include a floor, full bedding, and the cooking equipment for in-tent meals. Canvas platform tents offer a step down from eco-tents in price and amenity. Bare tent sites at the lower end of the price ladder permit guests to bring their own equipment. None of the categories include air conditioning; trade-wind ventilation runs through every unit, and the sea-grape canopy moderates daytime temperatures.
On-site amenities are deliberately spare, this is a National Park property, not a resort. The Rain Tree Café is the single dining outlet, serving breakfast and dinner daily; a small grocery store handles incidentals; a watersports concession runs kayak, paddleboard, and snorkel rentals directly from the beach. The reef snorkel from the Cinnamon Bay shore is the most underrated on the island. The location places guests inside the National Park's hiking network, the Cinnamon Bay Trail begins behind the campground and climbs to the ruins of the Danish sugar mill; Trunk Bay (consistently ranked among the world's best beaches) is fifteen minutes by car east; Maho Bay and Annaberg Plantation are similar distances west.
Cinnamon Bay is the lowest-cost, highest-impact lodging on St John and one of the most distinctive in the Caribbean. The trade-off is real: no air conditioning, shared bathroom facilities for some categories, and an explicit camping aesthetic. The payoff is access, the only legal place to wake up inside Virgin Islands National Park, on a beach that no resort can match, with the island's most consequential snorkel and hike networks beginning within walking distance. For families with older children, for solo travellers who want a wellness retreat that means it, and for any guest who has stayed at a conventional St John resort and now wants the version the park was actually designed to enable, Cinnamon Bay is the answer.
For families with older children who want a National Park camping experience inside the budget that a Westin villa cannot accommodate, Cinnamon Bay is the obvious answer. Wood cottages handle the lighter-touch families; eco-tents work for older children who want the canopy version; the longest beach on St John is the safest swim and snorkel programme for varied skill levels. The hike to the Danish sugar mill ruins behind the property is the trip's strongest single afternoon.
Cinnamon Bay is the strongest solo-retreat lodging in the USVI. The eco-tent format is calibrated for one guest; the absence of resort programming forces an intentional pace; the National Park's trail network and the half-mile beach mean no two days repeat. The Rain Tree Café runs communal dinner service that is conversational without being pressured.
The combination, sleeping under sea-grape canopy, swimming the half-mile beach at sunrise, hiking the Cinnamon Bay Trail at dawn, eating simply at the Rain Tree Café, is the version of a wellness retreat that no spa programme can stage. Cinnamon Bay is for travellers who want the wellness brief to mean access rather than amenity.
5 Cinnamon Bay
North Shore Road (Route 20)
Virgin Islands National Park, St John 00830
Four miles east of Cruz Bay on the North Shore Road; inside Virgin Islands National Park boundaries
~40 keys (eco-tents, cottages, platform tents, bare sites)
Bare Tent Sites from $95/night
Canvas Platform Tents from $180/night
Eco-Tents from $245/night
Wood Cottages from $295/night
Check-in: 3:00 PM
Check-out: 11:00 AM
Established 1964 (National Park concession); rebuilt and reopened 2021 after 2017 hurricane damage; continuous renovation through 2026
Rain Tree Café (breakfast and dinner daily)
Small grocery store for incidentals
Watersports concession (kayak, paddleboard, snorkel)
Direct access to Cinnamon Bay Trail and Danish sugar mill ruins
Half-mile beach with shore-snorkel reef
Within Virgin Islands National Park boundaries
No air conditioning (trade-wind ventilation)
From $95/night. St John's December, April high-season weeks book six to nine months ahead; the hurricane-window shoulder (mid-November and late-April) is the value window for the same inventory.
Book This Hotel →The private-island resort on Lovango Cay, ten minutes by boat from Cruz Bay. Treehouses, glamping tents, and the only off-shore beach club in the territory.
Forty-seven acres on Great Cruz Bay, 252 villas with full kitchens, two pools, four tennis courts and a private 400-yard beach. The territory's default family-holiday resort.
Fourteen rooms above Cruz Bay harbour, built into the ruined walls of an 18th-century Danish sugar plantation. Personal welcome, terrace breakfast, harbour view from every room.