Tobago - Jewel in the Caribbean Crown

by Stuart
May 2009

The island of Tobago lies quietly towards the foot of the Windward Isles, in the Caribbean Sea, between Trinidad and Grenada. This tiny paradise island is like a beautiful diamond, set in the glorious sunshine of the Caribbean. Although Tobago is relatively unspoilt, tourism plays a vital part in the economy, with increasing visitor numbers each year helping to maintain a consistent lifestyle for all those islanders involved.

Tobago is totally English speaking and with all the towns and villages having recognisable names, you’ll soon feel very much at home. The weather is usually sunny and hot, with rain in short bursts that soon clear up. Temperatures rarely go above 86f during the day or fall below 68f at night.

Driving in the Caribbean, especially Tobago, you’ll easily find your way around. The roads are generally very quiet, apart from the Scarborough on market day, and local maps are simple to follow. As for most islands, road signs do seem scarce in more remote areas, but you’ll never be far from someone to ask for directions. The centre of the island is made up of one of the oldest protected rainforests in the western hemisphere, where there is an abundance of both wild-life and birds, yet there are no poisonous snakes or other deadly creatures to surprise you.

Tobago is fairly built-up around the South, where most hotels and holiday accommodation can be found, along with Crown Point International Airport. Scattered around the island, you’ll find beautiful white sandy beaches, along with numerous sheltered bays and coves.

The seaside resorts of Grafton beach, Stonehaven and Store Bay are ideal and safe for sunbathing and swimming with near perfect conditions for snorkelling. Together with well known Mt Irvine Bay, close to the famous Golf course, they all have varying levels and grades of holiday rental accommodation and some luxury hotels too for visitors. Great Courland Bay has a wonderful one-mile stretch of white sandy beach, and with calm tides, this makes it a regular nesting site for Giant Leatherback Turtles. Turtle watching can be arranged during your vacation.
 
Tobago is a great chill-out place to choose for tourists looking to relax and unwind for a week or two in the sun. There’s no finer, calmer place in the Caribbean than Tobago, to experience the laid back way of life that exists for most of its residents.

To escape and explore more of the island from your holiday base, travel along the northern coast to Plymouth, then take the route through the rain-forest to Englishman’s Bay for a dip, before heading inland and southwards across the twisty mountain roads stopping at Argyle Waterfall before arriving in Roxborough. Travelling north again along the south coast road past Kings Bay, head on up to Speyside before reaching pretty little Charlotteville, the northernmost town of Tobago. The waters all around Tobago are generally teeming with fish, so you will always find tasty seafood and shellfish on the daily menus in restaurants and hotels.

Some of the most beautiful Scuba dive-sites in Tobago and even the world are located at Speyside and around Goat Island. World renowned for at least 5 huge pristine coral reefs, the area is excellent for drift-diving and boasts many spectacularly named sights like Bateaux Bay, Black Rock, Goat Island and London Bridge, with reef depths up to 35metres. A little further off-shore you can visit a famous bird sanctuary on ‘Bird of Paradise Island’.

Returning along the south coast, the route will take you past Prince’s Bay and the turning for Glamorgan Hill Waterfall near Goldsborough. The spectacular Hillsborough Dam and the Greenhill Waterfall can also be visited en-route before Mount St George and the French Fort at Belmont, before arriving in the busy capital, Scarborough.

No visit to Tobago would be complete without seeing one of the most ‘photographed’ and beautiful beaches in the world, Pigeon Point.

Pigeon Point is located at the far end of Store Bay, the pristine white sandy beach and crystal clear water provide a fabulous opportunity, not only to just swim or take a boat ride, but to snorkel over the shallow corals of Bucco Reef, it’s alive with beautiful coloured fishes, corals and plants.