Tourists'  views on Tobago and where they stayed. 

Jane Camp, Hummingbird Hotel
I went with a friend in February 2006 and was delighted with this hotel and its friendly owners, Paul and Linda Mountjoy. The hotel was great value for money, served wonderful food and the best rum punches on the island! Eight comfy rooms around a very clean swimming pool that was warm 24 hrs a day. Paul and Linda couldn't have been more helpful or welcoming. They had a wealth of information and resources which helped us explore the island and made our visit most memorable.

Nicola Mardall, Hummingbird Hotel
My husband and I stayed at the Hummingbird for over a week. It was fantastic. They met the flight, arranged car hire, provided a lovely room with a comfy bed, and a clean and daily serviced swimming pool.   It is run by a really friendly family who can help with every sort of advice, but only when asked for – we wanted to go to the Carnival and they told us where to park and what time is best to go to see the different stages. It ensured that we saw all the things that were fun and beautiful and also that we went and spent time at places that are just lovely, which without their help, we could easily have missed.
It's close to everywhere.  The hotel layout is clever, as when you want to talk and join in with the family and the other guests, you sit at the bar area where you can join in.  When you want quiet, then you lie or sit by the pool.  When we go on holiday, there are times when we want peace and quiet, and other times when we want to listen to the stories of Tobago and what is going on, and this hotel definitely provided both.  Incredible value for money. We will return and will be recommending it to our friends visiting Tobago .

Andy Holden, Castara Retreats
I had a wonderful time; the lodge was even better than I'd hoped, in a very pleasant location (quiet, but close to the amenities), with great views and a refreshing cooling breeze. I'd certainly recommend Tobago, Castara, and the Rainforest Lodge to friends. Thanks again.

Louise and Seamus, Castara Reatreats
We both really loved Castara and the house which is truly unique. We are absolutely in love with Tobago and still
utterly shocked to be back!  We hope you all have many more lovely times out there - we'll definitely be back.

Don & Kathey, Castara Retreats
....' We saw more birds at your place than anywhere else in Tobago, including Little Tobago and Rain Forest walk. It  was cooler there than anywhere else we stayed, we loved the layout,   Porridge was more than accommodating, visiting each day and helping us out - fresh bread was an unexpected treat. A simply perfect location WOW!!!'

The Smith family , Sherwood Park Apartments
Thank you for your help planning our holiday. We have now been and had a fantastic time in Tobago.
Sherwood Park Apartments were great - quiet and comfortable. We went into the rainforest, up to the museum, had g&t and tuna salad at Mt Irvine beach as you recommended, travelled up to Charlottesville and took a boat round to pirates bay. The people are so friendly and we all loved it so much - can't wait to go back again!
Your advice helped us make the most of our holiday - thank you.

 Jane, Plantation Beach Villas 
I usually go self-catering, and always pack a few essentials that I know will make life easier if I have them to hand – travel iron, mozzie coils, world band radio, my favourite coffee, etc. I've just stayed at Tobago's Plantation Beach Villas, and thanks to new manager, Philip Dawson and his team, - all I needed to bring was my sun lotion and bikini. As soon as I entered my pretty salmon pink villa – 'Poinciana' – I felt more like a resident than a tourist. Absolutely everything was provided. The attention to detail made me feel instantly at home.

Shirley, the villa's dedicated maid, was busy arranging fresh flowers, and welcomed me like a long lost friend. The huge fridge was full of ice cold beers, eggs and bacon, and there was a basket of tropical fresh fruits and fresh bread to get me started. Ground coffee was waiting to go into the coffee machine. The kitchen was brand new and equipped with more mod cons than I have at home.

Mosquito coils and matches were thoughtfully provided, as well as books, board games and the latest local newspaper. I literally wanted for nothing for my first 24 hours in Tobago. No need to check where the nearest supermarket or off license were. I was ready to chill out.

There are six beautiful colonial style villas amongst mature tropical gardens on a little hillside sweeping down to Stonehaven Bay. Sitting on my 40ft open verandah sipping my cold Carib I could see the pool and the sea. Banana and cocoa trees leaned over the white fence, little banaquits balanced on the calabash bird table eating bits of paw paw Shirley had left for them, and within minutes I'd spotted the famous Mot Mot, staring at me from a branch of pink bougainvillea. The birdsong was non stop.

The villa had 3 double bedrooms, all en suite with showers large enough to hold a party in and lots of fluffy towels. When I came back from the beach, my freshly laundered clothes were there laid out on the bed by Shirley. I checked the news on cable TV, then slipped a Norah Jones CD onto the hi-fi provided.

Tobago teems with wildlife. It's incredible. My little daughter became quite blase about the little iguanas and bright blue coloured birds that accompanied her as she ate her breakfast outdoors each morning. I took books to read but they weren't even opened. There's just too much to watch and take in.

The birds were still in full song as I nodded off on the verandah, hoping Christian, the villas' personal night watchman, would remember to wake me at the first sight of turtles coming onto the beach to lay their eggs.

  Patrick Burns
“It’s only 26 miles by 7, and yet the first thing that strikes you about Tobago is the wealth of things to see and do: lovely secluded coves, the rainforest and of course the gentle waters of the Caribbean, where, for the price of a snorkel and face mask, you can marvel at myriad tropical fish around the coral reefs. 

But there’s one thing that remains the same wherever you go, from the south-western tip of Pigeon Point to the northern shores at Charlotteville: the warmth of the welcome you’ll be given by the Tobagonians themselves. 

The second thing is that when it came to road-building, the Romans never came this way. Once you start venturing north beyond the so-called “flats”, the lower-lying areas around Crown Point and the capital Scarborough, you are in for an epic magical mystery tour.

 No map seems quite to do justice to the convolutions and contortions with which the roads criss-cross the island without ever seeming to want to take you anywhere in particular. No wonder the speed limit is a modest 50 km per hour. But who cares? Any faster, and you might miss that wonderful glimpse beyond the rolling hills of the deep blue sea with Trinidad and Venezuela beyond, or maybe risk running over that iguana, crossing just in front of you.

Iguanas aren’t the only thing you have to dodge in Tobago. Another is the showers. We were there during August, the height of the “rainy season”. Now this doesn’t exactly mean it’s “rainy” in the English sense. Most of the time, you’re blessed with warm….though not sweltering… sunshine, blue skies and light “cotton wool” clouds. 

Then, suddenly, a bank of the thicker, greyer, variety rolls in, deposits its contents, and just as quickly rolls away again. Normal beachside life resumes, and you’re left wondering if that torrential downpour really happened at all. Could it have been a figment of your imagination, or perhaps, of that planter’s punch you had mixed for you when you were sheltering in the bar? (The puzzle is how it can be that an island with so much water and lush vegetation has to impose water restrictions which reduced our showers to what could at best be described as a trickle on two evenings of our holiday.)

Something else you have to dodge is pelicans. Yes, I do mean “pelicans”, as in “ it’s bill can hold more than it’s belly can”. Late one afternoon, my children and I were kayaking just offshore. The surface of the water was fizzing with fish, coming up for air. 

This was the cue for three pelicans…. as elegant in the air as they are ungainly on the ground….to appear from nowhere, wheeling around before picking their spot and dive-bombing, at full tilt, plunging into the sea around us like Exocets. A couple of seconds later, and they would emerge…airborne once more, bills bulging, already eyeing-up their next attack. The question is: were they dodging us, or were we dodging them? Perhaps it’s just as well that we’ll never know!

Finally, some DO’s and DON’Ts from Patrick.

DO take a glass-bottomed boat from Store Bay, around Pigeon Point: it’s the best was to admire the ”Coral Gardens”, which for my money are the eighth wonder of the World.

DO take a dip in the “Nylon Pool”, just a little further round the coast. Local mythology hath it that you shed ten years from your age. It’s a surreal experience: the boat drops anchor about half a mile off-shore, and yet the warm water is barely four feet deep! But how did it come by its name? One explanation is that forty years ago, a honeymooning Princess Margaret was inspired by the brilliant clarity of the water to compare it to the fine mesh of her stockings!

DO visit the Argyle Waterfalls near Roxborurgh. Not only are they an impressive sight, especially during the rainy season; they are also a pleasantly cool, peaceful place whenever that sun, sea and splashing gets a bit much.

And travelling back from Roxborough to Scarborough along the Atlantic Coast Road, DO stop at the Historical Café. It may look outwardly rather unprepossessing, but once inside it offers much more than a snack and a drink. Its walls are festooned, from top to bottom, with graphic accounts of the often tragic history of this beautiful island: the anguish of the Slave Trade, the carnage of successive Anglo-French naval battles which gave Tobago’s most idyllic coves their incongruous names such as Bloody Bay and Dead Bay. This café is a labour of love and of homespun scholarship.

But DON’T:
feel under an obligation to buy from the vendors who patrol the beaches, all of which are open to the public. A simple, but courteous “no” will be accepted and understood, whereas “not today thank you”, leads inevitably to resumed negotiations next day. However, we came away with an impressive selection of sarongs, bracelets and wood carvings cheerfully purchased “off the beach”. 
Another DON’T, for women, is not to go topless. A certain degree of modesty is absolutely required in what is generally a very religious island: (how do the forty thousand islanders manage to support so many different denominations?) Although the highlight of the Sabbath Day is something called “Sunday School” at Pigeon Point which apparently has nothing whatsoever do with bible readings or sacred music! One of my “DON’Ts” is not to miss it next time.

But above all, DON’T try doing anything in too much of a hurry. Remember, you’re in a different time-zone here: “Cool Time”.

Been to Tobago? If you’ve been on a holiday to Tobago and want to tell others about it, e-mail us using the contact form.

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