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Trinidad

Put the tourists of Trinidad in a room and you’ll have an awkward party: on one side will be wallflower birdwatchers tangled in camera and binocular straps, and on the other – the side with the bar – you’ll have the party-hound Carnival fans turning up the music and trying on their spangly costumes.

But here's the secret: there’s much more to Trinidad than is seen through binoculars or beer goggles. The swamps and forests are a birdwatcher’s dream, and Port of Spain’s Carnival will blow your mind, but there are also verdant hiking and cycling trails, spectacular waterfalls and deserted bays of shocking beauty, alongside flamboyant Hindu temples and the decidedly oddball Pitch Lake.

As oil, gas and manufacturing have long been the country's bread and butter, Trinidad tends to treat tourists in a blasé manner. And to some visitors that’s a boon. Genuine adventure awaits here if you choose to accept.

Top attractions

These are our favorite local haunts, touristy spots, and hidden gems throughout Trinidad.

  • Wildlife Reserve

    Asa Wright Nature Centre

    A former cocoa and coffee plantation transformed into an 600-hectare nature reserve, this place blows the minds of birdwatchers. Even if you can’t tell a parrot from a parakeet, it's still worthwhile as you can see a great number of colorful specimens from the veranda viewing gallery, as well as lizards and agouti. Located amid the rainforest of the Northern Range, the center has a lodge catering to birding tour groups and a series of hiking trails, open to day visitors via guided tours.

  • Bird Sanctuary

    Caroni Bird Sanctuary

    This 5611-hectare estuarine swampland of dense mangrove thickets crisscrossed with tea-colored channels is best known for its scarlet ibis, T&T's national bird. Each afternoon, these bright crimson beauties swoop in to roost in their thousands, giving the trees the appearance of being abloom with brilliant scarlet blossoms. Even if you’re not an avid birdwatcher, the sight of the ibis flying over the swamp, glowing almost fluorescent red in the final rays of the evening sun, is not to be missed.

  • Wildlife Reserve

    Pointe-a-Pierre Wildfowl Trust

    A wonderful exercise in contradiction, this picturesque bird sanctuary covers 29 hectares of lake and forest within the incongruous setting of PetroTrin oil refinery (which ceased operations in 2018). It's home to some 109 bird species, including endangered waterfowl, colorful songbirds, herons and other wading birds, as well as a breeding colony of scarlet ibis. Ringed by a wheelchair-friendly boardwalk, the main lake is dappled with lotus plants and overhung by trees; guided tours help identify all the inhabitants.

  • Natural Feature

    Pitch Lake

    About 25km southwest of San Fernando, and just south of the small town of La Brea, this slowly bubbling black 'lake' is perhaps Trinidad’s greatest oddity. Once thought of by the Amerindians as a punishment of the gods, the 40-hectare expanse of asphalt is around 75m deep at its center, where hot bitumen is continuously replenished from a subterranean fault. One of only three asphalt lakes in the world, it has the single-largest supply of natural bitumen.

  • Hindu Temple

    Waterloo Temple

    Beautifully situated at the end of a causeway striking off from the central west coast, Waterloo Temple was constructed almost entirely by indentured laborer Sewdass Sadhu, after his previous structure (built on state land) was demolished. It was a true labor of love, with Sadhu carrying each foundation stone on his bicycle to the water’s edge. It’s a beautiful place, surrounded by the shallow waters of the Paria Gulf at high tide and with prayer flags fluttering in the air.

  • Park

    Woodford Square

    This grassy square with its central Eros and Aphrodite fountain and ornate bandstand is the symbolic center of downtown Port of Spain. Dr Eric Williams, Trinidad and Tobago's first prime minister, gave stirring speeches here, which eventually led to independence from Britain; the 1970s Black Power demonstrations also took place here. Known as the 'University of Woodford Square,' it remains a ‘speakers corner’ where people can express opinions via soapbox discussions; daily topics are posted on a blackboard.

  • Park

    Queen’s Park Savannah

    Once part of a sugar plantation, formerly home to a racecourse and now the epicenter of the annual Carnival, this public park is encircled by a 3.7km perimeter road that locals call the world’s largest roundabout. In the early evening when the scorching heat subsides, the grassy center is taken up with games of cricket or football, while joggers crowd the perimeter path and vendors sell cold coconut water.

  • Museum

    Central Bank Money Museum

    Newly refurbished and with ferocious air-con that provides a welcome break from the downtown heat, the Money Museum is a surprisingly absorbing affair, with a solid history of currency from cowrie shells to hard cash, and all sorts of fascinating ephemera. You can feel the weight of a replica gold bar, check your banknotes are legit in an infrared reader, and hear the calls of the birds that appear on T&T's notes via a cute push-button display.

  • Hindu Temple

    Hanuman Murti and Sri Dattatreya Ashram

    Towering 26m over the Sri Dattatreya Ashram, the brightly painted Hanuman Murti is a potent icon of Trinidad’s Hindu community. Devotees from all over the country come here to pray and walk devotional circles around the statue. Constructed by craftspeople from Tamil Nadu in India, the main temple is equally ornate, its rich exterior covered in statuary – an incredible sight to behold in the middle of a small Trinidadian town. Other smaller statues dot the grounds.

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