Low Impact, High Fun

Blue green: The view of St. John from an eco-tent credit: Courtesy of Maho Bay

It takes some measure of self-restraint not to feel a bit smug about a stay at Estate Concordia on St. John, the least-traveled and least-trammeled of the three U.S. Virgin Islands. It’s not just the heady panorama from a private sun deck, with its frigate-bird’s-eye view of remote Salt Pond Bay and soaring Ram Head, where the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean trade punches with a two-hundred-foot-tall cliff. Nor can you chalk up such contentment solely to the fact that out here you feel as if you’ve left all the overscheduled, plugged-in stresses of modern life to the pitiful hoi polloi clogging the cruise ship docks on oh-so-distant St. Thomas.

Instead, that sense of righteousness comes from the fact that your impact on the fragile Caribbean environment you currently inhabit is something on the order of a couple of lightbulbs. Your Concordia eco-tent is perched on stilts, stemming erosion and runoff that might otherwise choke the fragile coral reefs of the adjacent Virgin Islands National Park. The shelter itself produces its own energy, thanks to solar panels and wind turbines turned by sea breezes. The roof over your head collects rainwater. Showers are heated by the sun.

Concordia is the newest of eco-travel guru Stanley Selengut’s St. John hostelries, precisely none of which fit the mold of a conventional Caribbean resort. In the late 1970s, Selengut practically invented green travel with his Maho Bay Camps, a funky eco-enclave on St. John’s north shore that has won almost every sustainable travel accolade in the book. The eco-tents at Concordia—they’ve been called canvas condos—are a second-generation design, larger and more user-friendly than the originals. With wooden frames sheathed with translucent synthetic canvas and floor-to-ceiling screen, the eco-tents have a treehouse feel. They come with propane-powered cookstoves and refrigerators, private baths, and fully outfitted kitchens.

Of course, if the notion of giving up a telephone and television pretty much maxes out your sense of carbon footprint philanthropy, the property offers more traditional units at its adjacent Estate Concordia Studios. With vaulted ceilings, large open-air rooms, and tiled baths and showers, the studios are lighter on the crunch and heavier on the convenience.

And with the recent completion of a soaring new dining pavilion and an activities center, the off-the-beaten-path location of Concordia doesn’t feel quite so austere. The new restaurant’s eclectic flair comes from a chef equally enamored of biodynamic gardening and the carnivorous possibilities of a six-foot-long grill. The view from the pavilion encompasses soaring cliffs and crashing surf. It’s a perfect inspiration while you ponder how to spend your days. Scarf down rum-infused fresh seafood, then sign up for jaunts as kicked back as guided stargazing and fishing or as energetic as mountain biking, windsurfing, and kayaking.

You never have to leave the place. You’ll never want to.

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