We describe a variational path integral simulation algorithm for quantum Monte Carlo studies of many-body systems in which particles are restricted to occupy sites on a regular simple cubic lattice with lattice constant s, and discuss the algorithm's potential computational benefits. Application of the algorithm to the weakly bound cluster Ne-3 shows that accurate coordinate-space observables for this system can be computed using lattice constants as large as s = 0.2a(0). (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.