Castara Guest Houses & Restaurants

[Frank Tettemer]

Castara Guest Houses ... a brief and personal view ...

The Naturalist Beach Resort, owned by Ancle George, was a great place to unwind for our first three nights in Tobago. It’s five rooms are located right on the east end of the beach, with a cluster of deck chairs and patio space.
MaryAnne was a gracious hostess, and showed us her favorite way to clean fresh Silver Fish, and Jacks, marinated with chopped garlic, scotch bonnets, shallots, ‘green sauce’, and plenty of lime squeezings. We had bought them, right off the beach, from the fisherman with the seines. The following week, we waited our turn, to buy some yellow fin tuna from Wayne’s boat.
The men, from Wayne’s boat, had carried their catch to the co-op fishermen’s building, at the beach centre, where other men of the village took turns cleaning and cutting up the boat’s catch. People of the village, and some cooks from two of the ‘restaurants’, would fill their bags with fish, and if it was a bountiful catch, there would be enough to sell to some travelers, like us.

Ancle George’s house is two stories; his family lives upstairs. Below, are five various sized guest rooms, with simple slow-cooking electric counter-top cookers, a below-counter fridge, sink with running water, plus one sink next to the toilet and shower, (warm running water). Rustically simple foam mattresses, clothes closets, and a fan. No screens, in the Salmond room, but we weren’t there during the rainy season. Roosters, all around the village centre of Castara, crow from 3:00 AM until Dawn. Earplus are a must, or you can mask the outdoor village noises by running the fan during the night.

Anchovy is the smallest, economy room with kitchenette , for about TT$180. Salmond, (spelled with a “d”!), was a quieter room, further from the roosters, at TT$228. And the Kingfish, with it’s own roofed patio and air conditioning, was TT$252. These rooms are all basic accommodation, nothing luxurious, yet perfectly functional for self-catering and as a basic, comfortable place to sleep between day-trips and exploratory outings.

............................................................................................................................


The Blue Mango Cottages are four seperate cottages, also near the east end of Castara Beach, just up the paved track from The Naturalist Beach Resort. These cottages vary from one to the other for comfort, location close to the water, and exposure to the street, all within a few hundred meters of each other. They are all self contained units,
perfect for self catering, and some are a bit more tastefully built than the Naturalist. However, the difference is slight, with the biggest difference being a small degree more of privacy from one cottage to the other. More than double the pricing compared to the Naturalist, per night, but with the same noisy roosters at night. Ancle George’s rooms offer the better value per dollar, but the question is mostly of personal taste, and whether you want to pay a good bit more for a smaller bit more of aesthetic value. Prices vary from TT$400 to TT$900 per night, with the Sea Steps cottage having the most romantic setting, most privacy, and most expensive.


...........................................................................................................................

Sundeck Apartments is another good-looking collection of guest houses and rooms, just outside of the village, overlooking Castara Bay, with a great view to the north and east. There’s a small grocery store, on the property, with the same cans of pigeon peas, bags of parboiled rice, and jars of hot sauce, as can be found at the other three
grocery stores in the centre of the village. The room prices seem reasonable for the accommodations, and vary from room to room, (TT$240 to TT$380), and on the amount of demand. A short walk apart from the village proper, thus a bit more quiet from villagers and people, but they also have their own flock of chickens, with roosters!

........................................................................................................................

Castara Retreats is the finest looking guest house, both aesthetically, location-wise, and building construction and design. The three different rooms have been reviewed quite extensively by other forum members, so I won’t repeat. At TT$500 to TT$920 per night, the Castara Retreats ranks as the nicest rooms and the most expensive in Castara. They appear to be booked solidly, well into next year, so there must be something of good value going on there. However, I could book a room at The Naturalist for three weeks, for the same fee as one week at the Castara Retreats. And I’d still be cooking the same rice, peas and fish which are all that’s available at the stores in the village. However, it’s possible that Castara Retreats is a bit farther from those night-crowing roosters, though I suspect they’re around that guest house as well. Another point to note is that this guest house has about a 75 meter
walk, an uphill carry to it’s door, for your luggage or beach bag. This walk represents privacy to most people, a positive attraction. But it also represents inaccessibility to anyone with disabilities. So, you get to choose which priority is for you.

“””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””

Food in Castara .....

Self-catering at Castara Bay is not required, in order to have a good time in that village. However, if you are staying for more than a few days, the four restaurants don’t offer a lot of variety, as they all offer what I would call basic “Tobago Country Cooking”. We mostly cooked for ourselves, as cooking is fun and relaxing for me. The fishermen are very active in this village, and there were so many varieties of fish to try, fresh and tasty. And the tastiest were the smaller fish, which usually went to individual’s home kitchens and never made it into restaurant kitchens. All the more reason for me to experiment with something new and different, something I’d never experienced before in Canada, and might never have opportunity to try again.

Of the restaurants available, the one in the midst of the Blue Mango cottages had an interesting dining patio, sheltered under some almond and mango trees, called The Clay Citchen. The owner also runs the Blue Mango Cottages , probably the pleasantest ambience of the all the eateries in Castara, but the menu was more expensive and is basically
the same as The Boat House Restaurant, just one hundred meters away, closer to Little Beach, (or Paradise Beach), at the east end of Castara. At the Boat House, the music is fun and lively, and tends to spill out onto the beach area, so you can catch some Bob Marley while basking in the sun after lunch. The Boat House borders on Little Beach, which is a small bay, separated by 100 meters of rocky point from the main village beach, and thus has a sense of privacy. Sitting in the dining patio, one can look out at the reef, and contemplate venturing into Castara’s best snorkeling, an easy swim from the shore.

Parboiled white rice, cooked with pigeon peas, a side of coleslaw, and the fish of the day, (typically Kingfish steaks), is the standard fare at all four restaurants in Castara, with some variation being shrimps or chicken, instead of kingfish. Since all the restaurants appear to all cook the same, (basically fishsteaks, with a marinade of lime juice and green thyme sauce), the main difference between establishments is one of price and ambience. In fact, none of the restaurants had a written menu. They simply brought you a meal, with your choices being chicken, fish, or shrimp.

T & J’s Restaurant has an upstairs dining patio, directly above a small grocery store, closest to the fishermen’s co-op, in the centre of Castara’s beach. It’s menu offers the best basic meal at the best basic price. With a choice of chicken, fish, or shrimp, of course.

The fourth eatery, Cascreole, is the largest, and has pool tables, a dance floor, and a lively ‘band’ playing on Friday evenings. I’ve not eaten there, so I can’t vouch for it’s meals. I would be very interested if someone else could add their review for the Cascreole.

[HelenH]

Thanks Frank for your really interesting post. Myself and family are going on our first trip to tobago next easter. We have booked castara retreats and last week organised our flights. Your info will be really helpful to us
helen

[Steve Wooler]

Frank

Brilliant! That is exactly the sort of feedback we need. Thank you very, very much.

[Louise I]

Casecreole - has an outside upstairs area - like a grown ups tree house! We ate there one lunch time - tried the lobster and kingfish. All meals were lovely and plentiful! Would definately go back and would recomend it to others.

Considering the amount of lobster the meal was exceptionally good value - about £40 for 4 (included beers as well!)

[Frank Tettemer]

Hi all,

Just a brief addition to this Castara listing:

A neighbor of ours just came back from Castara, after spending three nights there, and asked if I would make this report for him, and i agreed to post his comments.

He stayed at the Blue Mango cottages, and found them "rudimentary". His complaint was that the toilet was stopped up the first night, and after reporting it to the owner, there was little that could be done to remedy it during their stay . (Plumbers are hard to find?) . However, they thouroughly enjoyed Castara, ate a lot of fish that was caught by the members of the fishing co-op, and bought from them. They also found that the Cascreole restaurant was a fun place, and spent a lot of meal times up in the "tree house" that Louise has mentioned in this forum topic.

He also met Ancle George, got a tour of the Naturalist Beach resort, and wished that they had available rooms, as it seems just as basic and pleasant as where they were staying, and he reported that it was about half the price.

A tour of Castara Retreats also ended up with zero availability, but his view of it was a lot like mine: The finest rooms in Castara. Highly recomended.

Hope this info helps somone's decision making. My take on it all ... Castara is very simple, rustic, laid-back, and a fine choice for the non-night-life peace lovers. Any kind of lovers, actually!

Frank

[Dr Stefan Rustscheff]

My memories of the cascreole is basically the same as of most restaurants in the northern end of the island, mainly overcooked fish or chicken, and the same attributes of hot sauce, rice, and callaloo (without crab or oxtail...). I have always lived on home cooked (and fished) fish, limes, rice, rum and softdrinks. When I go to the Island I stop and stock at pennysaver´s near the airport which I find less expensive. I always have to go back a couple of times during my 10-day period...Generally, I feel restaurant prices to be far higher than in Sweden when You look at what You get. There is ONE good restaurant to the north of Castara, though.
Dr Stefan Rustscheff

[Frank Tettemer]

Thanks for your experiences from Castara, Dr. Stefan Rustscheff.
I'm glads to hear of another traveler who enjoys to cook their own fish. I've found too many fish meals from restaurants that are overcooked. The fresh fish are easily cooked to perfection in less time than it takes to set the table and pour a beverage.

Would you be willing to describe the ONE good restaurant to the north of Castara? What did they have to offer? (Was this the one on the hilltop, overlooking Parlatuvier?)

Frank Tettemer