St. John and the extensive U.S National Park that covers the island is a beautiful place for a vacation. The island of St. John lacks the cheap tourist shops and traffic of St. Thomas. St. John’s beaches, environment and history make for a great vacation….something for everyone.

However the Harmony Studios are not all that this New York City based corporation represents on their web site. This is not an eco resort…unless dirt, mold, cobwebs, periodic sewage smell and dilapidated buildings means eco resort…..it does use recycled water and solar, but that is a function of Maho Bays distance from any facilities…town, restaurants, stores…etc. They do have a captive audience.
Several of the studios have great views; however, the fact that this company presents itself as an "eco destination" is more marketing than reality. It is more like a summer camp without the charm of a summer camp. The cabins and the tents all have mold and cobwebs….and often the smell of sewage from the many exposed pipes that run throughout the Maho Bay campus attack the senses are various times during your stay.
Maho Bay does not have the typical interpretive signage for the flora, fauna and history that one might find at an “Eco Destination” in fact it has only one paper sign... …about bananaquits… a very beautiful bird.…but the place lacks any of the charm of an Eco Resort. …..eco does not have to mean dirty, but it does at Maho Bay. There is not customer service…question about mold, cobwebs and dirty water go unanswered by the general manager.

The hike to the beach can be a long one and they do not explain that well on their website….and hiking for a half an hour in the heat...it is nice to have a hot shower….but those are hard to come by at Maho Bay camps….in fact the roads throughout the Maho Bay camp have gone a long way to destroy the local biodiversity and ecosystem of the surrounding National Park.

After talking to some of the fresh faced kids they hire to take care of operations of the camp, one learns that part of the business model is to get people to pay in advance and then keep their 50% deposit after an unsuspecting vacationer views the room and then seeks other accommodations. This is not an eco resort….but it has a great view. ….but the entire island has great views…

Just got back from a stay at Maho Bay's Harmony Studios and would not recommend unless you are prepared with your own food and drinks and also like cleaning your own room (sweeping, garbage, linen removal etc). We arrived by taxi and was expecting the beach cafe would be open for a burger or whatever but it had been closed since July and I did not see any of this info on their website. The store was pretty much bare of pre-made sandwiches so a little hungry waiting for the dinnerThe dinner's were quite good and staff and everyone was friendly. The beach was nice also. Overall for the money you would be much better off somewhere else if you are looking for your own shower (cold) and toilet.

Although we stayed here over two years ago, we remember the good and not so good times on St. John, and Harmony Studios was definitely the low point of our trip. After 4 beautiful but austere days at the National Park (cabin #8) at Cinnamon Bay, we were ready for a little luxury. Unfortunately we were disappointed from the start. We tried to check in at 1pm but were told by an inexperienced staff that was way too early, even though there were almost no other boarders (off-season). We waited at the beach down the hill where sand flies feasted on one of us. The room was clean and comfortable (except the very noisy tree frogs that chirpped all night). The next morning, the water was turned off in the middle of our shower and did not come on until after we left , with soapy hair. Our next three nights at the Concordia Eco tents was our best experience.

My friend and I absolutely loved Harmony. We had a drop dead view from our studio that felt like we were flying over the Caribbean. The highlight of our trip was hiking in to Waterlemon Cay early Sunday morning to snorkel with the sea turtles. They are beautiful, quiet creatures who put up with visitors. The National Park is not to be missed and Maho Bay is smack in the middle of it.
The accommodations were hardly luxurious but perfectly clean and adequate. It was nice to have a kitchen so that we could cook breakfast and not have to leave the deck. We would be gone for the whole day so we weren't climbing up and down the many many steps so much. But we'd always back in the afternoon for the sunset on our deck.
The staff was lovely- fun, energetic, 20 year olds taking some time off from the real world.
We would both go back in a second.