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Sao Tome and Principe

Middle Africa

A two-island volcanic republic straddling the equator in the Gulf of Guinea off Central Africa, once the world's leading cocoa producer. Rainforest peaks and the spire of Pico Cao Grande rise above old plantation estates, black-sand beaches and warm reefs, and the islands are known for bean-to-bar chocolate, nesting sea turtles and some of Africa's richest endemic birdlife.

4 activities · 4 pairings · 6 verified providers

What you can do in Sao Tome and Principe

Culinary / Cooking

Sao TomeJan Feb Jun Jul Aug Sep DecSao Tome was once the largest cocoa producer on earth, and it is now one of the best places in the world to follow chocolate from the tree to the bar in a single afternoon. The island grows some of the most sought-after fine-flavour cocoa anywhere, and two makers have built their reputations on it. In the capital, Claudio Corallo runs tastings that walk you through fermentation, roasting and conching and end with pure chocolate of 73 to 100 percent that tastes nothing like a supermarket bar. On the western coast, Diogo Vaz opens its plantation for a walk among the cocoa trees before a tasting of vintage-dated bars at its estate cabin, and keeps a stylish chocolateria in town. Both are small, hands-on and run by the people who make the chocolate, so you learn how origin, fermentation and roast decide the flavour. For anyone who cares about where food comes from, this is chocolate at the source.

Scuba Diving

Sao TomeJan Feb Jun Jul Aug SepSao Tome is one of the last uncrowded dive destinations in the Atlantic, an equatorial island where you can have a reef to yourself. The water is warm all year and the volcanic coast drops straight into it, so dives run from shallow coral gardens to black-rock walls and pinnacles a short boat ride from the beach. The marine life is the draw: big schools of barracuda and jack, groupers, rays, moray eels, and the reef fish of the Gulf of Guinea, with green and hawksbill turtles common and the chance of dolphins on the surface run. Between roughly July and October humpback whales pass close inshore and are sometimes heard underwater. There is almost no dive traffic, so the sites are unspoilt and the operator can tailor the day to the conditions. For a diver who has ticked off the busy tropics, the appeal here is space, warm blue water and a coast almost nobody dives.

Trekking / Hiking

Obo National ParkJun Jul Aug SepThe Obo forest is one of the great walking wildernesses of Africa, and almost no one hikes it. The park protects most of Sao Tome's mountainous interior, a dense, dripping rainforest that rivals Madagascar and the Galapagos for the number of species found nowhere else, from the Sao Tome grosbeak to giant begonias and lobelias taller than a person. The prize walk is Pico de Sao Tome, the island's 2,024-metre summit, usually done as a two-day camping climb through primary forest that gets wilder and mossier as you gain height, with a night at a forest shelter before a dawn push to the top. Shorter walks reach the crater lake of Lagoa Amelia, forest waterfalls, and the classic viewpoint of Pico Cao Grande, a 300-metre volcanic needle that erupts straight out of the jungle. Trails are muddy, steep and unmarked, so a local guide is essential, and that is part of the appeal: this is real forest, not a boardwalk. For a hiker who wants somewhere almost untouched, Obo delivers.

Wildlife Safaris

Sao TomeJan Feb Nov DecSao Tome is one of the most important sea-turtle nesting grounds in the Gulf of Guinea, and here you can watch the animals come ashore in the wild rather than at a tank. Five of the world's seven marine turtle species use the island's beaches, including the small olive ridley that gives the local conservation programme its name. In season, guided night patrols take small groups onto dark beaches to watch a female haul out, dig and lay, and separate evening sessions release hatchlings to scramble down to the surf. The walks are run with the island's turtle-conservation organisation, so the money goes straight back into protecting the nests and the guides are local monitors who know each beach. It is a quiet, low-key wildlife experience with real conservation weight behind it, and between about July and October humpback whales pass offshore as a seasonal bonus. For travellers who want an encounter that helps the animals it shows them, this is the island's best.

Best months at a glance

	J	F	M	A	M	J	J	A	S	O	N	D
Culinary
Scuba Diving
Trekking
Wildlife Safaris