For a national park paradise experience, it doesn’t really get better than camping at Cinnamon Bay in Virgin Islands National Park.

If you are visiting the park and plan to stay there too, there are really only two options: Caneel Bay Resort (expensive) and Cinnamon Bay (much more affordable). Cinnamon Bay has options for a variety of visitors: eco tents, wood cottages, canvas platform tents, and bare tent sites.

We chose a canvas platform tent ($68/night in December 2015) because it provided everything we would need for our time here: cots, linens, towels, gas stove, cooking utensils and dishes, a cooler, and a lantern. Plus, they had a bathroom with an outdoor shower, so we could clean up for going in to town for $1 happy hours :)

Our tent was literally steps from a gorgeous Caribbean-perfection white sand beach. It is paradise.

In Virgin Islands, we stayed busy visiting trails, beaches, and historic sites. Our highlights included: hiking to the Reef Bay Sugar Mill ruins, hiking up Ram Head, snorkeling the Trunk Bay underwater trail, snorkeling with giant sea turtles in Maho Bay, and of course, camping at Cinnamon Bay.

You can read much more about our two days in the park on our blog: Switchback Kids (Virgin Islands)