myTobago – your questions, review and comment about Tobago

Hello, what a nice site! I have just spent hours reading!!!

We are family with two children, 11 and 13 years old. We have never visited the Carribean, and have now picked the island Tobago. We will go there 2-22 February 2007. We have the air tickets, and now starts the planning for the rest!

We are planning to start with a PADI open water dive course all four of us, and we found a Swede at Manta Dive, Goran. We think it could be nice to have Swedish instructor, regarding our kids. Do any of you have any experince of this company (I read your comments in the Diving chapter, which made me a little bit concerned...or?).

Accomodation? You have so much nice information on your site, so I think we will find something for us (80-140 USD?). We are used travellers, like to go budget, but if a place is nice we can pay for it as well. For this trip we are planning to book in advance. We are thinking of staying the first 10 days in Crown Point area, then moving to Charlotteville or Speyside for some days, and then maybee back south. Do you have any suggestions or tips? We noticed that the carnival was at the end of February, just before we are going back home, which is fun. Any recommendations where to be in Tobago then, to join the carnival?

Maybee this looks like a "too active" vacation for you, but don´t worry. I have noticed and look forward to Lime as well

We hope to hear from you all [/b]

Hello Erik

Welcome aboard!!!

I am sure you can look forward to a brilliant holiday on Tobago and you are certainly going at a very popular time of year. We might even bump into each other!!!

I am also sure you will be fine with Manta Dive. I can understand the attraction of finding a Swedish instructor.

While doing the diving with Manta Dive, you will want to be staying in the Crown Point area. You are almost spoiled for choice. The best bet is to use the Advanced Search facility in our Accommodation listings to search for all properties within your price range in the Crown Point region. You will be able to whittle that down to a list of four or five possibilities. You can then read the reader reports and/or come back here to ask any specific questions you might have before making a final choice.

Yes, the north of the island is by far the nicest and it would be a good idea, in my opinion, to spend a few days up there. The Blue Waters Inn and the Speyside Inn are the only two realistic choices in Speyside and my automatic choice for Charlotteville - which would be my preference by far - would be Top River Pearl.

The main carnival activities take place in Scarborough, so you will ideally need to be staying in the south-west of the island if you are going to experience that.

Enjoy your research (it goes without saying that you will enjoy your holiday).

Thank you Steve for your quick response!

A month ago we had som nice mail contact with Amanda (Goran´s wife) at Manta Dive. Regarding accomodation in the Crown Point area, she recommended us to stay in an apartment, with a kitchen, to keep the cost´s down. She wrote that eating out or at the hotel three times a day, could but not necessary, be expensive. What is your opinion?

A nice place we have noticed before entering this site was Toucan Inn, and we might pick the place for the last days when we return to the south of Tobago. It is also nice to hear you mention Top River Pearl in Charlotteville, since we also have spotted that place before we found you, that was nice!

When going to the north, do you have to book dives in advance, for example at Speyside? Or is it possible to arrange that upon arrival? I have also noticed that there are full day dive trips from Crown Point, with dives in the north. Is this recommended, or is it better to do the "north dives" directly from Speyside?

Anyone having experience about diving around Tobago with kids (11 and 13, with good swimming and snorkelling experience)?

Looking forward again to hear from you all.

Hi Erik

I can highly recommend the Toucan Inn and it would be an excellent choice (in fact my first choice, within that price range) for the Crown Point area. They do not have self-catering aprtments, however. Its worth writing to them to ask if they do any meal plans - this can reduce the cost considerably.

By the way, we have full reviews of the Toucan Inn and Top River Pearl available in the Accommodation listings for each property, or through the Reviews menu at the top of the page.

I always hate that question "should we book". If I say "no", you can guarantee that it will be a busy period and you should have. All I can say is that its always best to book in advance. All the decent diver operators will offer dives at both ends of the island.

Hi Erik.
You have a couple of options for diving around Speyside.

One would be to use Stuart Samson (Caribstu) and go as a party with just your group diving (Not cheap but well worth the cash IMHO)

The other is to use one of the Dive centres, I always dive with Aquamarine at BWI they run around 3 dives a day out of BWI so they should be able to fit you in and I have seen younger people diving there and I think they put additional dive guides on with those groups.

You will need to book with Stu but I have seen people just turn up and dive with Aquamarine but a phone call to check times and how full they are would be wise.

Regards
Kevin

Thank you all for your response. We really look forward to February!
/Erik & Cecilia