A places guide · twin islands, one country

Fifteen ways to fall for Trinidad, and five to fall for Tobago.

From our front gate in Belmont, the whole country opens up in three directions. Two rainforests, four coastlines, one Caribbean and one Atlantic, and an island twenty-five minutes by air. Here's what to plan around.

Northern range · Caroni plain · Tobago flight Scroll to see the map
Two islands, seventeen destinations

The country is small. The country is vast.

Trinidad is roughly the size of Delaware, but the north is rainforest and the south is oilfield, the east coast is Atlantic and the west coast is Caribbean, the north-coast beaches take an hour to reach and the Tobago coral reefs take a twenty-five-minute flight. Below are the fifteen places we most often send guests to on Trinidad, followed by a Tobago block for anyone with more than four days.

Land area
5,131 km²
4,748 (T) + 300 (T) + 83 offshore
Coast to coast
80 km
Caribbean west to Atlantic east
Tobago flight
25 min
POS Piarco → ANR Robinson, TT$300 rt
Bird species
470+
Highest density in the Caribbean
Five deep visits · a day each

The places we ask every guest to make time for.

Maracas Bay, Trinidad's north coast
Place 01 · North coast

Maracas Bay, the country's Sunday.

25 min driveSat & Sun crowded, weekdays quietTT$5 parking

A palm-lined crescent reached by the North Coast Road, a winding 40-minute drive through the Northern Range that is itself a reason to come.

Stop halfway at the lookout for the postcard shot. Once you're down at the bay, the only decision is which shark-and-bake vendor: Richard's (the original, blue umbrellas), Natalie's (the challenger), or one of the six in between. Order your bake stuffed with shark, then load it yourself from the ten-condiment counter: tamarind, garlic, coriander, mango kuchela, pepper sauce. Eat it hot on the sand.

The bay is a swimming beach, not a snorkelling beach; the water is Atlantic-fed and can churn. Lifeguards on duty 10am to 6pm. Bring cash, bring a change of clothes, come home by dusk. We'll book a driver both ways.

Best time
10am–5pm
Round-trip
TT$400 driver
Bring
Cash, sunscreen, towel
Skip if
You want reef snorkelling
Scarlet ibis flock, Caroni Bird Sanctuary
Place 02 · Central mangrove

Caroni Bird Sanctuary, ten thousand scarlet ibis.

45 min driveSunset onlyTT$60 pp boat

The national bird, coming home to roost in a mangrove the colour of your grandmother's front room.

A flat-bottomed pirogue takes you into the Caroni mangrove at 4pm. For an hour you drift through channels lined with silver-leafed red mangroves; the guide points out four-eyed fish, boa constrictors sleeping in branches, and pinky crabs the size of a coin.

Then at 5.30 the sky turns and the ibis come in. Ten thousand of them, in waves, red as a wound against the green mangrove. They roost on one small island in the middle of the swamp and by dark it looks like a Christmas tree from a country that only decorates in scarlet. Book Nanan's or Sean Madoo a week ahead; we'll call for you.

Boat leaves
4:00 PM sharp
Duration
2.5 hours
Bring
Binoculars, bug spray, light layer
Skip if
You've seen flamingos, this is better
Tufted coquette hummingbird, Asa Wright Nature Centre
Place 03 · Northern Range

Asa Wright Nature Centre, a rainforest verandah.

90 min driveHalf or full dayUS$25 pp

A working ornithology station in the Arima Valley, at 1,200 feet above sea level. You sit on the verandah with a rum punch and 40 species come to you.

Founded in 1967 on a former cocoa estate, Asa Wright is where the country's serious birders go and where casual visitors are surprised to find themselves serious birders by lunch. From the main house verandah, feeders draw tufted coquettes, purple honeycreepers, bearded bellbirds, and eight species of hummingbird at ranges of five feet.

Do the morning walk with a guide (7:30am to 9am), lunch at the house, then the afternoon nap counts as ornithology. If you have three nights and are birders, stay at the on-site lodge; otherwise a day trip from Belmont is enough.

Open
Daily 8am–5pm
Guided walk
7:30am, 90 min
Bring
Long trousers, quiet shoes
Skip if
You have already seen the tropics
Pitch Lake, La Brea, Trinidad
Place 04 · South coast

Pitch Lake, La Brea, the world's largest natural asphalt.

90 min driveHalf dayTT$40 pp guided

Ninety-nine acres of solid, walkable tar. The only two other asphalt lakes in the world are in California and Venezuela and neither is this dramatic.

A local guide walks you across the surface, which is soft in some places and elastic in others. Bubbles rise from a hundred feet below. Prehistoric animals fell in here and their bones came back up two hundred years later. Sir Walter Raleigh caulked his ships from it in 1595. The asphalt that paved Buckingham Palace's forecourt was mined from this lake.

Small pools of water on the surface are naturally therapeutic; local tradition holds that you can bathe skin conditions away in them. It's worth the drive south; combine with a stop in San Fernando for lunch.

Open
9am–5pm, daily
Tour
45 min guided walk
Bring
Shoes you'll throw out, hat, water
Skip if
You have knee problems
Fort George view over Port of Spain
Place 05 · The city itself

Fort George, the postcard of the capital.

15 min driveSunset bestFree

A 1804 signal station on a hilltop 1,100 feet above Port of Spain, with the best view of the city, the gulf, and Venezuela on a clear day.

The fort itself is a modest museum — old cannons, some plaques, a small gift shop — but the view is the reason. You can see the whole grid of the capital laid out below, the ships in the harbour, the green folds of the Northern Range behind you, and on the clearest days the coast of Venezuela eleven miles across the Gulf of Paria.

Come for sunset, bring a jumper (it gets breezy), and ask your driver to take the scenic route up through St. James. The whole trip is a 90-minute round journey from our gate.

Best
5:30pm to sundown
Cost
Free; taxi TT$200 round
Bring
Light jumper, camera
Skip if
Weather is grey
Ten more · half a day each

Everything else worth planning around.

Grouped roughly north-to-south. Ask us for a printed itinerary; we sketch these on the back of a serviette when you arrive.

Yerette hummingbird sanctuary
06
Maracas Valley · 30 min drive

Yerette, home of the hummingbird

A private garden that has become the country's hummingbird lookout. 14 species on the feeders daily. Bookings required; morning tea included.

Chaguaramas boardwalk peninsula
07
Chaguaramas · 25 min drive

Chaguaramas peninsula & boardwalk

Wooden boardwalk along a calm bay, sailing marinas, a military history museum, and Macqueripe Beach at the far end. Sunday afternoons for the crowd, Wednesdays for quiet.

Temple in the Sea, Waterloo
08
Waterloo · 50 min drive

Temple in the Sea

A Hindu temple standing on a small artificial island in the Gulf of Paria, built stone by stone in the 1940s by an indentured labourer who was denied permission to build on land.

Queen's Park Savannah
09
Port of Spain · 9 min walk

Queen's Park Savannah

The world's largest roundabout. Do the 3.7km loop on foot, past the Magnificent Seven mansions. Coconut men on the west, doubles on the east.

Royal Botanic Gardens
10
Port of Spain · 12 min walk

Royal Botanic Gardens

Sixty-two acres of specimen trees laid out in 1818. The quietest lunch in the city. Adjacent: the President's House and Emperor Valley Zoo.

Blanchisseuse north coast
11
Blanchisseuse · 60 min drive

Blanchisseuse north coast

Twenty minutes further than Maracas along the coast road. Wilder, emptier, no vendors. Good for a picnic with the driver and a swim off the black-sand beach.

Belmont rooftops
12
Belmont · At the gate

Belmont Circular Road walk

A two-mile loop starting from our door. Gingerbread houses, mas camps, corner rum shops, pan yards. Do it slow, say good morning to everybody.

Doubles street food
13
All over · walking distance

The doubles crawl

Start on Belmont Circular Rd (Sauce), swing by Woodford St (Patraj weekends), end at Debe Doubles late night. Pepper counts up cumulatively.

Trinidad Carnival mas performer
14
Feb, Mar · two days

Carnival & Panorama

The two Mondays and Tuesdays before Ash Wednesday. Not a festival — a country. Book rooms 10 months out. Panorama Finals the Saturday before, on the Savannah.

Steel pan yard rehearsal
15
Belmont & Laventille · walking

Pan yards, live rehearsal

Desperadoes, All-Stars, Renegades, Silver Stars. Rehearsals every evening from November. Bring earplugs and a small donation.

Pigeon Point Tobago
Twenty-five minutes by air · a different country

Tobago, Trinidad's quieter twin.

The country's second island is 26 miles north-east, a 25-minute flight, and spiritually about a thousand miles away. Where Trinidad hums, Tobago exhales. Come for reef, beaches, and the oldest legally-protected rainforest in the Western Hemisphere.

A two-night hop is enough. Fly out early morning from Piarco (TT$300 return on Caribbean Airlines), stay at Kariwak or Blue Waters, and be back in Belmont by dinner on the third day. We can book both ends and the flight for you.

Flight time
25 min
4–6 flights daily
Return flight
TT$300
~US$45, book at Piarco
Suggested stay
2–3 nights
Rent a small car once there
Buccoo Reef glass-bottom boat
Tobago 01

Buccoo Reef

The country's largest reef system, off the south-west coast. Glass-bottom boat from Store Bay, two hours, includes a stop at the Nylon Pool. Snorkel gear included.

Store Bay · TT$150 pp
Nylon Pool sandbar
Tobago 02

Nylon Pool

A shallow, chest-deep pool of clear water in the middle of the ocean, over a white sand bar inside the reef. Legend says a dip makes you ten years younger; harmless to try.

Off Pigeon Point · Reached by boat
Pigeon Point beach jetty
Tobago 03

Pigeon Point Beach

The postcard: a thatched jetty, coconut palms, water the colour of a swimming pool. TT$25 entrance. Sun loungers, small vendors, and the calmest swim on the island.

Crown Point · Daily 9am–6pm
Argyle Waterfall
Tobago 04

Argyle Waterfall

Three tiers, 175 feet, with plunge pools you can swim in at the base of each. 20-minute walk from the road. Guides at the entrance; TT$60 pp.

Roxborough · Bring swim gear
Englishman's Bay
Tobago 05

Englishman's Bay

A perfect half-moon on the north (Caribbean) coast, backed by rainforest. Almost always empty. One vendor selling rum punch and grilled fish. Long swims, no crowds.

Castara road · No entrance fee
Fort King George Scarborough
Tobago 06

Fort King George, Scarborough

18th-century British hilltop fort with a small museum, working lighthouse, and the best view of Scarborough harbour. Combine with lunch at the capital's market.

Scarborough · Free entry
Main Ridge Forest Reserve rainforest
Tobago 07

Main Ridge Forest Reserve

Established 1776, the oldest legally-protected rainforest in the Western Hemisphere. Five hiking trails, guided birding walks, and hummingbirds you can hand-feed at Adventure Farm.

Central Tobago · Guide recommended
Store Bay Sunday School street party
Tobago 08

Store Bay + Sunday School (Buccoo)

Every Sunday night in Buccoo Village, a street party with steel pan, soca, and a fete that ends at dawn. Store Bay by day for lunch stalls (Miss Jean's crab and dumplings is famous).

Buccoo · Sun 8pm onward
Little Tobago bird sanctuary
Tobago 09

Little Tobago (bird sanctuary)

Uninhabited islet 90 minutes off Speyside by boat. Frigatebirds, red-billed tropicbirds, and the country's only nesting colony of Audubon's shearwater. Half-day trips.

Speyside · Boat tour required
A note on booking Tobago. Flights fill on Fridays and Sundays; book both legs at least a week ahead in peak season. We can hold a room for you at either Kariwak Village or Blue Waters Inn; both are family-run and we've stayed at both. Ask us at check-in.

Belmont is your base. The country is your itinerary.

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