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Tobago

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Sandy beach, colorful scarves, sarongs, Pigeon Point, Tobago, West Indies, Caribbean

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Overview

While Trinidad booms with industry and parties all night, tiny Tobago (just 42km across at its widest point) kicks back in a hammock with a beer in hand watching its crystalline waters shimmer in the sun. Though Tobago is proud of its rainforests, fantastic dive sites, stunning aquamarine bays and nature reserves, it’s OK with not being mentioned in a Beach Boys' song. It accepts its tourists without vigor, but rather with languor, and allows them to choose between plush oceanside hotels or tiny guesthouses in villages where you walk straight to the open-air bar with sandy bare feet, and laugh with the locals drinking rum.

Attractions

Must-see attractions

  • Pirates Bay, Small Antilles, Tobago, Caribbean

    Pirate’s Bay

    Tobago

    Past Charlotteville's pier, a dirt track winds up and around the cliff to concrete steps that descend to Pirate’s Bay, which offers excellent snorkeling…

  • Corbin Local Wildlife Park

    Corbin Local Wildlife Park

    Tobago

    Established by hunter turned conservationist Roy Corbin in Tobago's forest-covered interior, just inland of the windward coast's Hope Bay, this nonprofit…

  • Fort King George

    Fort King George

    Tobago

    Atop a hill at the end of Fort St, this sizable fort was built by the British between 1777 and 1779, and is worth a visit to see its restored colonial-era…

  • Mt Irvine Hotel Beach

    Mt Irvine Hotel Beach

    Tobago

    Just south of the main Mt Irvine Beach, a turnoff from the main road leads to an adjoining swath of sand, where the swimming in calm emerald waters is…

  • Stonehaven Bay

    Stonehaven Bay

    Tobago

    Northeast of Mt Irvine, this fabulous sweep of coarse yellow sand, also known as Grafton Bay, offers some fabulous swimming and bodyboarding in clear…

  • Tobago Forest Reserve

    Tobago Forest Reserve

    Tobago

    A 20-minute drive east of Castara, at Bloody Bay, the Roxborough–Parlatuvier Rd strikes inland, meeting the Windward coast at Roxborough. This smooth,…

  • Little Tobago

    Little Tobago

    Tobago

    Also known as Bird of Paradise Island (though it isn't home to any of the eponymous birds), Little Tobago was a cotton plantation during the late 1800s,…

  • Big Bay

    Big Bay

    Tobago

    The wide sweep of Castara's main bay, overlooked at its centre by a large fishers' facility, mixes commerce with tourism. Fisherfolk tend boats and pull…

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