Trinidad runs on noise. Tobago runs on tide.
Which Buccoo Reef boat really stops at the Nylon Pool. What a car and a driver across Trinidad costs for the day. Whether the scarlet ibis at Caroni are worth an evening. Reviews of every tour you can book on both islands.
The reef, the mangrove at dusk, a night of doubles, a whole island in a day.
The four bookings a first week across Trinidad and Tobago hangs off. What each costs, and what the people who took it say.
01The reef morningBuccoo Reef and Nylon Pool AdventureOut over the coral by boat, then a stand in the waist-deep Nylon Pool a mile off Tobago. Go on a calm morning, before the afternoon chop.
02The ibis hourSunset Boat Tour into Caroni WetlandsFlat-bottomed boats idle in the Caroni channels until six, when the scarlet ibis come in to roost and the mangrove turns red.
03Doubles after darkTrinidad Nighttime Food TourCurried channa in fried bara, corn soup, oyster carts. Trinidadian street food is an evening thing and it needs somebody who knows which cart.
04The whole islandThe Grand Circle 12-Hour All-Inclusive Island ExperienceTwelve hours right round the island with lunch and the driving done for you. The day the rest of the week gets planned around.
Trinidad for the city and the swamp. Tobago for everything underwater.
A capital that eats late, a bay at the end of an hour of switchbacks, a mangrove full of roosting ibis, and a coral reef with a sandbar in the middle of it. Six places to start, and the best day out in each.
Glass bottom, snorkel stop, or the sandbar itself. Pick your Tobago morning.
Buccoo Reef lies between Pigeon Point and the mangrove, shallow enough to read from a boat and warm enough to stay in all morning. Three ways to get out there, what it costs to board each one, and how much water time you actually get.
Port of Spain: the Savannah early, the food streets long after dark.
Everything in Port of Spain →
A ring road around a park the size of a small town, seven eccentric houses along one side of it, a fort on the hill with the whole Gulf of Paria underneath, and doubles carts working from breakfast until well past midnight.
The Savannah, the market, Fort George
The park circuit first, past the seven colonial houses on its western side, then the covered market while the produce is still coming in, then up the hill to a fort where the guns still point at the Gulf.
Doubles, bake and shark, corn soup
Trinidadian food is Indian, African, Creole and Chinese in the same street, and most of the best of it is sold from a cart. Eat in the order a local puts them in and stop arguing about which doubles man is right.
A car and a driver for the day
Nothing on this island is signposted for a visitor and the maxi taxi system rewards knowing somebody. A driver for the day turns three separate half-day trips into one, and gets you back before the rain.
The most popular days out in Trinidad and Tobago.
Every tour we have reviewed →The days more travellers book than anything else across the two islands, and what earns each one its place.
1
The Grand Circle 12-Hour All-Inclusive Island Experience
David and Anna take you around Tobago in a private, flexible 10 to 12-hour tour. Visit Argyle Waterfall, Main Ridge, historic forts, quiet beaches, lookouts, and local villages, with pickup, lunch, drinks, snorkeling time, and guide-taken photos included.
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
Tobago is small, green and mostly underwater.
A ridge of rainforest runs down the spine of the island, protected since 1776 and still standing. Reef and flat water on the Caribbean side, surf and cliffs on the Atlantic. Nothing is more than an hour from anything else, so the boat you book decides the day, not the distance.
The best hours in Trinidad happen at the edge of the forest.
The Northern Range starts fifteen minutes above Port of Spain and does not really stop. Hummingbirds at a house in the Maracas valley, a waterfall at the end of a river walk, a mangrove where the sky goes red at six. Half of it needs a guide and all of it needs an early start.
- 1Birdwatching, Waterfall, Rainforest and Island Nature Toursfrom $90
- 2Sunset Boat Tour into Caroni Wetlandsfrom $67
- 3Avocat Waterfall Tour & Beach Stop Adventurefrom $130
What a day out in Trinidad and Tobago actually costs.
Every tour on the site, grouped by what it costs. Plenty of the best days here come in under the price of dinner in Port of Spain.
Kayak hours, a glass-bottom run over the reef, city walks and the hop in from the airport.
The full days: island circles, Caroni at dusk, the waterfall runs and the evening food walks.
Private drivers, twelve-hour island days and the boat charters that earn it.
Three things that only happen in Trinidad and Tobago.
Reef and rainforest exist all over the Caribbean. A wading pool a mile out to sea, a mangrove that turns scarlet at dusk, and shark in a fried bake do not.
The scarlet ibis coming in
Flat-bottomed boats leave Caroni in the late afternoon and idle in the mangrove channels while the light goes. Then the scarlet ibis arrive from the feeding grounds, in ones and twos and finally in hundreds, until the green island they roost on has turned red. The birds take the colour from the crabs they eat, which is why the young ones are still brown.
- 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
Standing in the Nylon Pool
Between Buccoo Reef and Pigeon Point the sea shallows onto a bank of white sand where the water comes to your waist and reads turquoise for a hundred metres. Boats cut the engine and everybody climbs out to stand in the middle of the sea. Princess Margaret is credited with the name, after the stockings.
- 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
Bake and shark at Maracas
The road to Maracas takes an hour of switchbacks over the Northern Range and ends at a bay lined with sheds selling shark in a fried bake. You dress it yourself at the counter: garlic, shadon beni, tamarind, pineapple, pepper if you mean it. Richard’s has the queue, and the queue is part of the thing.
- 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
Four bookings on these islands that will not wait.
Most of Trinidad can be arranged the night before over a beer. These four run on tides, roosting times, Carnival dates and a moon that takes no interest in when your flight lands.
- 01Buccoo Reef and Nylon Pool AdventureReef boats run on the tide and a flat sea. A rough morning cancels the sandbar stop, and the good operators are full days ahead through the dry season.
- 02Sunset Boat Tour into Caroni WetlandsThe ibis come in at dusk and not before. One departure each afternoon matters, and it leaves on the light rather than on you.
- 03The ULTIMATE Bioluminescence night time adventure with BrandonThe lagoon only lights up on a dark night, so trips run around the new moon and stop when the moon is full.
- 04The Grand Circle 12-Hour All-Inclusive Island ExperienceTwelve hours with a driver is one vehicle and one whole day. Through Carnival week and over Easter there is nothing left within a fortnight.
When the afternoon rain comes down and the country stops for Carnival.
June to December the mornings are usually clear and the rain arrives after lunch, which makes an early start worth more than a plan. And for the two days before Ash Wednesday Trinidad does nothing else at all: rooms, cars and drivers go months ahead, and half the day tours simply do not run.
- 1Trinidad Nighttime Food Tourfrom $69
- 2Port of Spain City Highlights and Maracas Beachfrom $98
- 3Port of Spain City Tourfrom $54
Doubles from a cart, curry crab in Tobago, roti for the drive.
The cooking is Indian, African, Creole and Chinese at once, and most of the good stuff comes out of a shed or a car boot. Book the evening walk with somebody who knows which cart, then eat crab and dumpling on a Sunday in Tobago and give up on lunch.
By place, across both islands
Port of Spain, the north coast, Caroni, then the plane to Tobago.
The newest tour reviews from both islands.
The rest of the new ones →
Trinidad Nature and Asa Wright Center Full-Day Tour from Port of Spain
Read our review →
Authentic Trinidadian Cooking Class in Port of Spain
Read our review →
Airport Transfer to OR from Accommodation in Trinidad
Read our review →
