Two islands, one flight, nothing alike.
Trinidad works: doubles stands, panyards, a swamp that turns red at six. Tobago swims: one road, one reef, a sandbar you can stand up on. Here is what to book on each.
The days people fly into Piarco for.
A bay with a shark-and-bake stand at the end of it. A reef you can stand up in. A swamp that fills with scarlet ibis at dusk. The handful of days a Trinidad and Tobago trip gets planned around, and the best way to book each.
Trinidad is a working island that happens to be beautiful.
The capital runs on doubles stands and pan yards. An hour north, the road climbs the Northern Range and drops onto Maracas Bay, then keeps going to Las Cuevas and Blanchisseuse. Give Trinidad its days before you cross to Tobago.
- 1Trinidad Nighttime Food Tourfrom $69
- 2Trinidad Highlights and Scenic Drive Tourfrom $109
- 3Trinidad Highlights Tour from Port of Spainfrom $80
Tobago is twenty-six miles of reef and one road.
Store Bay to Speyside in a morning, if you never stop. Everybody stops. The glass-bottom boats run out to the sandbar at Nylon Pool, Argyle Falls sits an hour up the windward road, and the whole island fits inside a long week.
What travellers book between Port of Spain and Store Bay.
Every review →The tours that carry more travellers than anything else on the two islands, and what makes each one worth a whole day.
1
The Grand Circle 12-Hour All-Inclusive Island Experience
Review of Tobago’s private Grand Circle tour, with waterfalls, beaches, forts, lunch, drinks, photos, and practical value advice.
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
Three things these two islands have and nowhere else does.
Reef water and rum run the length of the Caribbean. The steelpan, the ibis roost and a lake of asphalt belong to Trinidad and Tobago alone.
The Steelpan
The steelpan is the one instrument the twentieth century added to the orchestra, and it was beaten out of oil drums in the yards of east Port of Spain. Panyards rehearse in the open from January and get loudest in the weeks before Carnival. A cultural crawl of the capital gets you inside one, by way of the cocoa estates, the temples and the Fort George lookout.
- 1Trinidad Northern Eco-Cultural Full-Day Highlights Tour from Port of Spain★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 34 reviews
- 2Live Steel Drums & Street Food Experience!★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 9 reviews
- 3Personalized Cultural Crawl in Port of Spain★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 8 reviews
The Scarlet Ibis
The national bird comes home to Caroni Swamp at dusk in flocks that turn whole mangrove islands red. The flat-bottomed boats leave in the late afternoon to be sitting there when it happens, and the run back is dark and cold enough for a jacket. Inland, one garden at Yerette holds more hummingbird species than most countries do.
- 1Birdwatching, Waterfall, Rainforest and Island Nature Tours★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 70 reviews
- 2Sunset Boat Tour into Caroni Wetlands★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 45 reviews
- 3Bird Watching Tours★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 35 reviews
The Pitch Lake
La Brea holds the largest natural asphalt lake on earth: forty hectares of grey pitch firm enough to walk on, still refilling itself from below, still being mined and shipped. It surfaced Westminster Bridge. Guides walk you out to the warm sulphur pools, then carry on south to the mud volcanoes.
- 1Trinidad Island Sightseeing Tour: Pitch Lake and Chaguanas★★★★★★★★★★ 4.0 · 23 reviews
- 2Trinidad Mud Volcano Hike and Food Experience★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 13 reviews
- 3Mud Volcano Adventure★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 11 reviews
What a day out costs in Trinidad and Tobago.
What your money buys on these two islands, from the cheapest bookable morning to the whole day with a driver. A beach run and a city walk come in under dinner; a private island circuit costs more than the hop across from Trinidad.
Beach transport, city walks, the Caroni boat at dusk and a snorkel off Store Bay.
- 1Trinidad Nighttime Food Tourfrom $69
- 2Sunset Boat Tour into Caroni Wetlandsfrom $67
- 3Stand Up Paddle Lessonsfrom $61
The full days: island circuits, waterfall-and-beach combinations, food crawls with every stop included.
Private drivers, all-inclusive island circuits and charters with lunch, drinks and the snorkel gear aboard.
At Nylon Pool you can stand up a mile offshore.
The glass-bottom boats leave Store Bay and Pigeon Point, cross the Buccoo Reef with the floor of the sea running underneath, then anchor on a waist-deep sandbar in open water. Reef shoes matter. So does picking a boat that keeps its hull off the coral.
All reef and sandbar trips →
Behind the beaches, Trinidad goes vertical and green.
The Northern Range runs the whole top of the island. Avocat and Paria at the end of a walk, Aripo up a riverbed, rainforest where the birdsong starts before six in the morning. It is the half of Trinidad nobody plans for and everybody talks about afterwards.
Trinidad does not go quiet after six.
All evening tours →
The ULTIMATE Bioluminescence night time adventure with Brandon
Read our review →
Three days here run on somebody else’s calendar.
Almost everything on these islands can be arranged from the hotel the night before. These three cannot. They run on the moon, on the tide, and on one departure a day.
- 01The ULTIMATE Bioluminescence night time adventure with BrandonThe water only lights up on dark nights, so the trips run either side of the new moon and nothing shifts them.
- 02Sunset Boat Tour into Caroni WetlandsOne departure, late afternoon. The ibis come in at dusk and there is no second boat.
- 03Buccoo Reef and Nylon Pool AdventureThe sandbar is only standing depth at the right state of the tide, so the boats leave when the tide says.
By island and area
Trinidad74 tours
Tobago51 tours
Port of Spain10 tours
Trinidad beaches14 tours- Around Tobago12 tours
- Northern Range falls11 tours
Buccoo & Store Bay8 tours- Every tour on both islands →
One week, both islands, in the order that works.
Caroni SwampThe newest reviews from Trinidad and Tobago.
All recent →
Yerette Home of the Hummingbird and Caroni Wildlife Tour
Read our review →
South Tour (Package) to Trinidad Pitch Lake & Datatria Temple
Read our review →
Port of Spain Airport (POS) to Port of Spain -Round-Trip Transfer
Read our review →
Trinidad Nature and Asa Wright Center Full-Day Tour from Port of Spain
Read our review →