myTobago – your questions, review and comment about Tobago

We're staying 2 nights at Footprints Eco-Resort on Culloden Bay. We have some snorkeling experience, and we will have our own car. The resort offers a couple of different snorkeling trips. One is a half day in Culloden Bay, and the other is a full day in several bays on the Caribbean coast. Is it worth the money to have someone take us to these places, or are they accessible without help? This is our first trip to Tobago and we definitely want to spend time snorkeling, but we're fairly independent and budget-conscious. Any advice?

Hi Sally !!
You won`t need a guide for snorkeling. Especially if you are experienced.
It is more the tour you are paying for or maybe the equipment.
They, of course, know the right spots to do snorkelling but you could try any rock on any beach.
Speyside, Arnos Vale and the small beach in Castara are the spots i could recommend. If you like to spend some money, why not trying out
the scuba-diving ?? Should not be much more money but is definately
a different experience. Most Dive centers offer "Discover-dives" for
beginners. I did it once and got hooked. Just be prepaired to have a
BIG FISH experience..
Irie, Thomas

I'm getting steadily tempted to have a first scuba dive.

Once in a lifetime and all that.

I always thought you had to be trained over some time before allowed to dive, if that's not the case I may well take the plunge.

Anyone recommend somewhere where I can go scuba and the missus and nipper could hang about waiting and yet still have a bit of fun?

head for the world of water sports in tobago plantaions they do first dives and your wife can go on the massive beach while your diving.
You do some practice in the pool and then you go into the sea for a dive. the sea dive was a short drive away for me at kariwak reef it was really good and brilliant for first time divers! hope this helps

Hi Marc !!

I thought so too. Lots of trainig sessions etc etc.
But then it was like 45min. training and half hour in the shallow water.
When you do well and feel save the trainer then takes you out.
I did it with " Redman " in Speyside. Very simple/basic but very
friendly and i felt safe. Don`t risk anything, just tell them if you don`t feel well/safe.
A next good adress is " Wild Turtle Dive Safari ". They are the real professionals.
Lots of fun, Thomas

We were fairly new to snorkeling when we went to Tobago, had gone a few times before in St Lucia. It was very easy to find good spots, driving ourselves, that we felt safe in. Arnos Vale was good as was Castara and Pirate's Bay; all three had excellent access from the beach to really nice snorkeling sites.
We did hop on a boat in Speyside for the trip to the Bird Sanctuary Island ( I forget the name) and had a snorkeling event included. There are likely other good spots but these are the ones we enjoyed. We brought our own gear which was a good choice since we could go whereever we wanted, when we wanted to.
Enjoy the trip.

Thanks for the information. I think that's what we'll do too. We have our own equipment except for life vests. We're both average swimmers, and I don't know if we'll wish we had vests to make snorkeling less work. Do you know of anyplace in the vicinity of the airport where we can rent a couple of vests for four days? We're on our way 2 weeks from tomorrow, and we can't wait!

I don'tknow where to get vests but I can tell you we didn't have them and had no trouble staying out for very long intervals. I guess that is a personal choice around safety.