Maho Bay Camps Resort
At Maho Bay Camps, you can have your vacation and be light on the land too.
By Robyn Griggs Lawrence
January/February 2006
 |
From snorkeling to windsurfing, the whole family will find something to do.
|
Pure paradise
RELATED CONTENT
A Virgin Islands home proves the advantages of proper siting and water conservation—and it was a lo...
Listen to Robyn Griggs Lawrence, editor-in-chief of Natural Home magazine, on the Heart and Home Ra...
Robyn Griggs Lawrence shells out green cleaning and money-saving advice to Sierra Club Radio....
Of the 40 million tons of glass thrown away each year, only 40 percent is recycled. Twenty-four mil...
Maho Bay Camps and sister resort Harmony Studios are located on a secluded white-sand beach in U.S. Virgin Islands National Park on the island of St. John. “We’ve always been fully committed to ecotourism and the belief that environmental sensitivity and human comfort are compatible,” says Stanley Selengut, who founded Maho Bay in 1976.
Sustainable sleeping
Guests bed down in 114 tent-cottages that shelter them from weather but let them feel the ocean breezes and listen to tree frog lullabies. Not interested in roughing it? Twelve solar-powered Harmony Studios, built from recycled materials, have private bathrooms and kitchenettes.
Site sensitive
To minimize environmental damage, the resort’s buildings are raised on platforms and connected by tree-shaded wooden walkways that keep people off the vegetation.
Water wise
Rainwater is collected for the organic gardens and is also used in the laundry room and the bathhouses. Spring-action faucets prevent waste, and low-flow toilets and waterless urinals save thousands of gallons a year. Wastewater from the laundry irrigates the organic orchard.
Recycling and reusing
“A lot of these buildings come from trash,” Selengut says. The resort is constructed with building materials made from garbage bags, old automobiles, ketchup bottles, and light bulbs. Learn more about Maho’s sustainable building techniques through its Building Materials Sourcebook. At the on-site Maho Bay Glass Studio, visiting artists turn crushed glass bottles into works of art.
Fine dining
Maho’s restaurant serves organic, vegetarian-friendly cuisine, often grown on the property and cooked in a solar oven.
There's more
Encouraged by Maho’s success, Selengut built eighteen high-tech, solar-powered eco-tent cottages with baths and luxury studios with kitchens at Concordia, on the more secluded southeast corner of St. John.