Trinidad and Tobago

The Savannah is the green heart of Port of Spain: a huge open park, about 3.7 kilometres around, ringed by a one-way road that locals jog and drive in the evening. Food vans line the southern edge selling coconut water cut fresh with a cutlass, corn soup and doubles. During Carnival the grandstand here hosts the Panorama steelband finals and the King and Queen of the bands competitions. The rest of central Port of Spain is a mix of gingerbread houses, the twin-towered waterfront and Woodford Square, but the Savannah is the easiest and pleasantest place to start.

TipWalk the outer edge in daylight; the FCDO advises caution in the park's interior and after dark.

On the west side of the Savannah stands a row of seven grand early-20th-century mansions, a showcase of colonial-era wealth in wildly different styles: a Scottish baronial castle (Stollmeyer's Castle), a French Second Empire house, a Moorish-style residence, a Catholic college and the Archbishop's House among them. Most are not regularly open inside, and some have been restored after long neglect, but the facades from the pavement are reason enough to walk this side of the park.

Laid out in 1818, just north of the Savannah, the Botanic Gardens are among the oldest in the Americas. Shady lawns, huge tropical trees and flowering shrubs surround the official residences of the President and Prime Minister, and the small Emperor Valley Zoo sits next door. It is a quiet place for a morning stroll before the heat builds.

A winding road over the Northern Range, with lookouts over a forested coastline, brings you to Trinidad's most popular beach: a wide curve of golden sand backed by palms and steep green hills. It is busy at weekends, calm on weekdays, and its huts serve the national beach snack, bake and shark: fried shark in a puffy fried bread, piled with sauces from tamarind and garlic to shado beni (culantro) and pepper sauce.

TipSwim near the lifeguards; currents can be strong. Nearby Las Cuevas Bay is quieter.

High in the Arima Valley, a former cocoa and coffee estate house has become one of the Caribbean's best-known places for birdwatching. From the veranda you can watch hummingbirds, honeycreepers, toucans and motmots at close range, and guided trails lead into the forest; the centre also protects a colony of nocturnal oilbirds. A fire damaged the main house in 2023, and visitor facilities have been rebuilt and reorganised since, so check the centre's site for current opening and tour arrangements.

At the end of a long road on the north-east coast, the village of Grande Riviere has one of the world's densest nesting beaches for leatherback turtles, the largest living turtles. Between roughly March and August, hundreds can come ashore on a single night to dig nests in the sand, and hatchlings emerge later in the season. Beach access at night during nesting season is controlled, and visitors need a permit and an accredited local guide, arranged through guesthouses or village guide groups.

TipStay overnight in the village; the drive back to Port of Spain in the dark is long.

Trinidad's national bird, the scarlet ibis, roosts in the mangroves of the Caroni Swamp, just south of Port of Spain. Late-afternoon boat tours glide through the channels, past tree boas, herons and mangrove crabs, to a lagoon where flocks of ibis fly in at dusk and settle on islands of trees until they look covered in red blossoms. It is one of the island's most memorable sights and an easy half-day from the capital.

At Waterloo on the Gulf of Paria coast stands a small white Hindu temple on a causeway in the sea. It honours Sewdass Sadhu, an indentured labourer's descendant who spent years carrying stones into the water to build a temple after being prevented from building on land; the present building dates from the 1990s. It is a peaceful place and a reminder that Hindus make up a large part of Trinidad's population. Remove your shoes and dress modestly.

Near La Brea in the south-west lies the world's largest natural deposit of asphalt, a grey, wrinkled expanse of about 40 hectares that slowly churns and refills as it is mined. Local guides at the visitor centre lead walks across the firm parts of the surface, pointing out sulphur-smelling pools that locals believe are good for the skin. It is strange rather than beautiful, but unlike anywhere else.

Tobago's postcard view: a thatched-roof jetty, palms and powdery white sand at the island's south-west tip, close to the airport. Pigeon Point Heritage Park charges a small entrance fee and has changing rooms, bars and watersports, and the water is calm and shallow, with kitesurfers further out where the wind picks up.

Glass-bottom boats leave from Pigeon Point and Buccoo for the protected Buccoo Reef, a fringing reef where you can snorkel among parrotfish and brain coral, and then stop at the Nylon Pool, a waist-deep sandbar of clear, pale water in the middle of the lagoon. Do not stand on coral or take anything from the reef.

Tobago's small capital climbs a hill above its harbour. At the top, Fort King George, built by the British in the late 18th century, has cannons, old officers' quarters, a lighthouse and the Tobago Museum, with fine views down the Atlantic coast. The island changed hands between European powers more often than almost anywhere in the Caribbean, and the fort tells that story well.

On the leeward coast road north-east of Plymouth, a gap in the forest opens on to a perfect crescent of sand with rainforest reaching almost to the water and usually only a handful of people. There are few facilities beyond a small café, which is precisely the point.

Protected since 1776, the Main Ridge is often called the oldest legally protected forest reserve in the Western Hemisphere and is a UNESCO biosphere reserve. The Roxborough to Parlatuvier road crosses it, and the Gilpin Trace trail leads through dripping rainforest with waterfalls and birds such as the blue-backed manakin and the white-tailed sabrewing hummingbird. Hire a licensed guide at the trailhead to spot more wildlife.

At the island's north-eastern tip, the fishing village of Speyside is Tobago's diving centre. Strong currents bring nutrients from the Orinoco, feeding some of the largest brain corals in the region and manta rays at times. Glass-bottom boats cross to Little Tobago, an uninhabited island and seabird sanctuary with red-billed tropicbirds and frigatebirds.

TipDrift dives here are for experienced divers; book with a local dive shop that knows the currents.