Trinidad broke off South America. Tobago kept the beaches.
Which reef boat actually stops at the Nylon Pool. What a day out of Port of Spain runs to. Whether the scarlet ibis are worth giving up an afternoon for. Reviews of every tour you can book across both islands.
Four days that carry most first trips to Trinidad and Tobago.
A reef morning off Tobago, an evening on the swamp, the run over the mountain to Maracas, and the food that only happens after dark.
01The reef morningBuccoo Reef and Nylon Pool AdventureGlass bottom over Buccoo Reef, then twenty minutes standing in the sea on the Nylon Pool sandbar.
02The evening flightThe Scarlet Ibis – Caroni Swamp TourFlat boats out into the mangrove at Caroni, engines cut, waiting for the roost to turn the trees red.
03Over the mountainDay Trip to Maracas BeachForty minutes of switchbacks out of Port of Spain and the beach everybody in Trinidad drives to on a Sunday.
04After darkTrinidad Nighttime Food TourDoubles, bake and shark, corn soup off a cart. The eating in Trinidad starts when the offices empty.
In Tobago the good day starts at a jetty in Store Bay.
The boats leave off the same stretch of sand and go to completely different places. Glass bottom over the coral at Buccoo, a stop on the sandbar where the sea drops to chest height a mile from shore, or a full coast run with gear and lunch aboard.
Trinidad keeps its best days behind the Northern Range.
Port of Spain is the base: the savannah, the market, the gingerbread mansions along Maraval Road. Behind it the mountains run green to a north coast of switchback roads and waterfalls, and at the western end a mangrove swamp fills with scarlet birds every evening.
- 1Trinidad Nighttime Food Tourfrom $69
- 2Trinidad Highlights and Scenic Drive Tourfrom $109
- 3Trinidad Highlights Tour from Port of Spainfrom $80
The days out travellers to Trinidad and Tobago take before anything else.
Every tour we have reviewed →One long island circuit carries more travellers than anything else in the country. This is what gets booked around it.
1
The Grand Circle 12-Hour All-Inclusive Island Experience
Explore Tobago’s beaches, waterfalls, forts, forest, and local food on a private 10 to 12-hour island tour with pickup and lunch.
From · $400
Read our review →
2
Buccoo Reef and Nylon Pool Adventure
from $189
3
Trinidad Nighttime Food Tour
from $69
4
Birdwatching, Waterfall, Rainforest and Island Nature Tours
from $90
5
Tobago Buccoo Reef Glass Bottom Boat Tour
from $78
6
Trinidad Highlights and Scenic Drive Tour
from $109
7
Trinidad Highlights Tour from Port of Spain
from $80
8
Mini Island Tour of Trinidad
from $76
Trinidad runs South American wildlife on a Caribbean island.
The island sat against Venezuela until the sea came up, so the bird list runs past four hundred and fifty species and the forest behaves like the continent rather than the Antilles. Waterfalls in three drops, hummingbirds at a feeder in the hills above Maracas, and the ibis coming in over Caroni at dusk.
Tobago is small enough to cross before lunch and slow enough that nobody does.
Crown Point at one end for the reef boats and the flights, Charlotteville at the other for the bays nobody has got round to spoiling. In between: Argyle Waterfall in three tiers, a rainforest reserve protected since 1776, and Sunday night in Buccoo when the whole island turns out.
Every Tobago day out →
What a day out in Trinidad and Tobago actually costs.
Every tour on the site sorted by price. The middle band is where nearly the whole country sits, and the cheap end still buys a real day rather than a look at one.
City runs around Port of Spain, a lesson in the bay, the short hop out to the reef.
Where most of it lives: reef boats, the Caroni sunset run, waterfall days and the food walks.
Full island circuits with lunch, private cars for the day, charters and the fishing.
Three things that happen in Trinidad and Tobago and nowhere else.
Reef and rainforest turn up all over the Caribbean. A sandbar you can stand on a mile out, a mangrove that turns red at six, and shark in a fried bake do not.
The Nylon Pool
A mile off Buccoo the sea floor comes up into a bank of white sand and the water drops to chest height, so boats stop and everybody gets out and stands around in the middle of the ocean. Princess Margaret is credited with the name, after her stockings. The stop runs about twenty minutes on the way back from the reef, and it reads best before the afternoon breeze puts a chop on the surface.
- 1Buccoo Reef and Nylon Pool Adventure★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 158 reviews
- 2Tobago Buccoo Reef Glass Bottom Boat Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.0 · 68 reviews
- 3Tobago Buccoo Reef Glass Bottom Boat Cruise and Island Sightseeing Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 36 reviews
Scarlet ibis over Caroni
The national bird spends its day feeding on the mudflats and comes back to the mangrove islands of the Caroni Swamp to roost, arriving in flocks that leave the trees looking like they have caught fire. Flat-bottomed boats push out mid-afternoon and cut the engine on open water to wait. Repellent matters more than a long lens; the birds land at a distance and the light goes quickly once they start.
- 1Sunset Boat Tour into Caroni Wetlands★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 45 reviews
- 2Caroni Bird Sanctuary Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 24 reviews
- 3The Scarlet Ibis – Caroni Swamp Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 18 reviews
Bake and shark at Maracas
Maracas Bay is forty minutes north of Port of Spain over a road of switchbacks, and half the reason anyone drives it is a fried bake with shark inside, taken to a condiment bar of tamarind, garlic sauce and shadon beni and built there. Richard’s carries the longest queue. The bay behind the huts has a real undertow, which is why the lifeguards shout.
- 1Day Trip to Maracas Beach★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 31 reviews
- 2Port of Spain City Highlights and Maracas Beach★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 14 reviews
- 3Day Trip to Maracas Beach from Port of Spain★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 13 reviews
The wet season in Trinidad is an afternoon problem, not a day problem.
From June the rain arrives hard in the afternoon and then stops. Put the outdoor thing in the morning and the kitchen, the market or the pan yard after it. September usually breaks the season with a dry spell of its own, which is why people here plan around weeks rather than months.
- 1Trinidad Nighttime Food Tourfrom $69
- 2Port of Spain City Highlights and Maracas Beachfrom $98
- 3Port of Spain City Tourfrom $54
By place
Trinidadfrom $51
Tobagofrom $25
Port of Spainfrom $48- Island days in Tobagofrom $110
Waterfalls in Trinidadfrom $103- Everything in the country →
The newest Trinidad and Tobago reviews.
The rest of the new ones →
Authentic Trinidadian Cooking Class in Port of Spain
Read our review →
Yerette Home of the Hummingbird and Caroni Wildlife Tour
Read our review →
Trinidad Nature and Asa Wright Center Full-Day Tour from Port of Spain
Read our review →
Airport Transfer to OR from Accommodation in Trinidad
Read our review →
