The boats out on the water
Picking the best beach in Tobago is like trying to crown the world’s cutest koala. There is simply no wrong or right answer. The island is home to dozens of the most beautiful stretches of sand in the Caribbean, but even Tobagonian locals will tell you that Store Bay is a must-see. Sure, it’s on the touristy side, but it’s also clean, free, safe, and actually staffed with lifeguards (a rarity in Tobago). Oh, and the water is that surreal neon blue/green that everyone expects in the Caribbean — the kind that guidebooks love describing with impossibly flowery words like “azure” and “aquamarine”.
A steady stream of glass-bottom boats with names like Miss Jo, Millennium 2001, and — my own boat — Sugar Lips eagerly await tourists at Store Bay. It’s no surprise as the best way to see the area is from the water, so I hopped aboard a glass bottom boat tour of Buccoo Reef that includes a bonus stop at the island’s famous Nylon Pool. The three-hour tour includes snorkeling, swimming, marine life viewing, plenty of sunshine, and copious doses of Caribbean music.
Getting ready to anchor the boat
I stepped into the warm Caribbean waters to board the S.S. Sugar Lips along with two dozen families, couples, and local Trinidadians. After a week of gray, hazy days on the island, the weather for my day cruise couldn’t have been better. The tour guides greeted us with gleaming Tobagonian smiles and a thickly accented “You ready to have some fun, ya?” We headed off on the water under a cloudless sky, past the sun-soaked tourists lining the sand at the nearby five-star Coco Reef hotel.
Everyone looking down the glass bottom of the boat
In less than twenty minutes, we arrived at Buccoo Reef, where the boat slowed to a trawl to glide effortlessly over the tops of the giant underwater coral formations. Our guides narrated the steady and curious stream of marine life passing by the large window mounted on the bottom of the boat. Regular travelers to the Caribbean will recognize a colorful flourish of familiar marine faces here, including sergeant majors, trumpetfish, parrotfish, and hundreds of others. Even at a slow crawl, the fish swim quickly and, by the time you figure out what you’re looking at, they’re gone in an instant. Tobago is also well known as one of the world’s premier stops on the annual sea turtle migration. The big draw, however, is the possibility of seeing giant leatherback turtles on the way to their nesting sites in nearby Stonehaven Bay and the aptly named Turtle Beach.
Perhaps the biggest draw, however, is the boat’s stop at the famous Nylon Pool — Tobago’s most visited tourist attraction. The shallow coral lagoon derives its name from the sunlight reflecting off the bottom in a unique pattern that resembles nylon fabric. At midday, the water is barely 18 inches deep — perfect for sitting down and relaxing in the soft white sand as though in a chaise lounge surrounded by some of the most picture-perfect water in the Caribbean.
Relaxing on the boat
We arrive in time to meet just one other glass bottom boat, but within a half hour, a handful of others join us. Amid a steady backdrop of local steel drum music, hundreds of tour-goers splash around the water in what feels like the world’s biggest, private ocean pool party. Our tour guides invite us to grab a cold drink and climb to the boat’s rooftop viewing platform for 360-degree, panoramic views of the reef.
The beautiful sunset
For more than an hour, we relax in the sand and surf before heading back to “the real world” at Store Bay. Here, the tour disembarks amid a handful of bars, restaurants, artisan stands peddling local artworks, and souvenir tchotchke shops. There’s a noticeable tourist vibe, but the beach and the water are so breathtakingly beautiful that it’s hard to care much about anything else.
-Contributed by Mike Richard
Touring the Turquoise Waters of Tobago’s Buccoo Reef and Nylon Pool from Caribbean Things to Do
