Tobago

Tobago is the smaller of the two main islands that make up the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. It is located in the southern Caribbean Sea, northeast of the island of Trinidad and southeast of Grenada.

Tobago has a land area of 300 km² (116 mi²), and is approximately 42 kilometres long and 10 kilometres wide. It is located at latitude 11° 9' N, longitude 60° 40' W, slightly north of Trinidad. The population is 54,084 (2000). The capital is Scarborough, with a population of about 17,000. While Trinidad is multiethnic, the population of Tobago is overwhelmingly Afro-Tobagonian, although with a growing proportion of Indo-Trinidadians and Europeans (predominantly Germans and Scandinavians). Between 1990 and 2000, the population of Tobago grew by 11.28 percent, making it one of the fastest growing areas of the country.

Tobago is primarily hilly and of volcanic origin. The southwest of the island is flat and consists largely of coralline limestone. The hilly spine of the island, the Main Ridge. The highest point in Tobago is the 550 metre (1804 ft) Pigeon Peak near Speyside.

Tobago is divided into seven parishes - Saint Andrew, Saint David, Saint George, Saint John, Saint Mary, Saint Patrick and Saint Paul. The climate is tropical, and the island lies just south of the Atlantic hurricane belt. Average rainfall varies between 3800 mm on the Main Ridge to less than 1250 mm in the south-west of the island. There are two seasons: a wet season between June and December, and a dry season between January and May.

The principal economic forces in Tobago are tourism and government spending. Conventional beach and water-sports tourism is largely focussed in the south-east around the airport and the coastal strip; however, ecotourism is growing in significance, and much of it is focussed on the large area of protected forest in the centre and north of the main island and on Little Tobago, a small island off the north east tip of the main island.

Tourism is concentrated in the southwest of the island, around Crown Point, Store Bay, Pigeon Point and Buccoo Reef. This area has large expanses of sand and is dominated by resort type developments. Tobago has many idyllic beaches around its coastline, especially those at Castara, Bloody Bay, and Englishman's Bay.

Tobago is linked to the world through the Crown Point International Airport and the Scarborough harbour. Domestic flights connect Tobago with Trinidad, and international flights connect with the Caribbean and Europe. There is also a daily fast ferry service between Port of Spain and Scarborough.

In a crazy world where we seem to have lost our way a lot of the time, the Tobagonians are a people who quickly remind you of the way it’s supposed to be - being nice to each other, raising children to respect their elders, going to church on Sundays, and they put nature before hotel tower blocks, despite the need for jobs on the island. All Caribbean islands are beautiful, but there’s something different about Tobago. A holiday there will rejuvenate your soul, have you editing your life when you get back home, and you’ll feel good about the world again.

That’s what happened to us. We’ve been going to Tobago for over 13 years and we formed Simply Tobago to let people know what it’s really like.