Pigeon Point - Tobago

[Bubbalee]

Hi,

Anyone been to Pigeon Point?

What is it like? Is it a good beach to go to?

How far and what would a taxi cost from the ship?

[qm2lover]

Sorry I cannot help with your enquiry, but if you dont mind me butting in, I would also like to know ...

 

Are taxis readily available at the dockside? Are they safe? (Have read a few scare stories concerning Trinidad - not Tobago) Will the drivers drop you at a beach and come back later to pick you up? Or is it best to arrange a half day tour including beach stop? Where to? Costs? Times?

 

I do hope someone will be able to answer both our questions.

 

Thanks.

[SqueakyDust]

I'm interested in both the above points too.

Not much on here about Tobago - even when you search! Is it not a popular port?

 

thanks

[qm2lover]

Hi SqueakyDust and Bubbalee,

 

Doesn't look like we are going to get much information on Trinidad and Tobago.

 

Dont know when you go Bubbalee, we will be there in January on Arcadia.

 

SqueakyDust, it could be that you get to visit these ports first. Please could you let us know what they are like? What other ports are you callling at? Perhaps you could report back? Anyway have a wonderful cruise.

 

 

 

Anyone else out there with information on Trinidad and Tobago?

 

 

(My thanks to Tarheelbelle who gave me some information under my original post)

[Bubbalee]

Hi,

We are in Tobago on Monday 2nd Jan with Ocean Village.

I think we are going to head off to Pigeon Point for the day, as it's only about 15min taxi ride away from the ship.... after reading reviews on other sites it sounds like a good option. You have to pay a small amount to enter, but thats fine, and apparently 90p a bottle of beer! Can't complain!

A lot of people have said the beach is lovely, and food and drink available.

 

When do you go on your cruise?!?

[qm2lover]

Hi,

 

We go on 13 January, just after you - so looks like we will be relying on Squeakydust to provide us with all the answers!!!

 

We go to Tortola, Antigua, St. Kitts, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, Mayreau, Margarita, Trinidad, Tobago and Barbados.

 

Were do you go?

 

Got any ideas or advice for these other islands?

[SqueakyDust]

Hi guys!

 

Well Bubbalee, I'll be able to give you a FULL report on the OV - and I WILL come back and do so. Are you doing 1 week or a b2b?

 

Qm2lover, Your ports are quite similar to mine. We'll not visit St Vincent or Trinidad, but add Dominica, Grenada & St Maarten.

 

I think we're planning on Pigeon Point too as we'd like to do the Glass Bottom Boat trip out to Bucoo Reef & Nylon Pool. We'll probably do most trips ourselves.

 

As I've received so much help from others on these boards I feel it's only polite to come back and do a report etc - no matter which ship you're on.

 

3 weeks tomorrow and I'm on my way down to London...... :D

[Welly172]

Hi SqueakyDust,

 

We do OV in Feb 06 on the 2 week Back to back, saw your posts re Mayreau on another link so any hints or tips on any trip must do's or must avoids on any of the islands when you return would be greatly appreciated, definately want to snorkel the Tobago Cays off Mayreau but struggling to decide which trip or how to do it independantly.

 

Only booked at the weekend so just about to go into planning overdrive, thinking of doing the sports fishing in either St Kitts or Antigua (we have already visited both these islands on previous holidays) so if you happen to talk to anyone that does either and could feed back on the best that would be fantastic.

 

The turtle snorkelling in Barbados is fantastic but not sure how crowded it would be if doing as part of cruise tour, we did it while staying on Barbados with a company called Small Cats only 6 of us on the boat and we were there before all the big trips arrived.

[SqueakyDust]

Hi Welly.

Good to see others booking up with Ocean Village.

 

I'm not sure what we'll do in Mayreau.

We are taking two smallish (age 9 and 10), poor swimming kids ;) so our snorkelling will be mainly in shallow waters. However, I'll keep my ears peeled and I'll be mentioned Cruise Critics to others, in the hope they post their experiences too.

 

One things that concerns me over Tobago, is that I was told you need local currency - US dollars aren't so easily accepted!

I was hoping to find out if this was true.

[Bubbalee]

I'll agree...it is good to see others booking with OV!

 

We are leaving from Gatwick on Dec 27th for 2 weeks... so going to all the same places as you.

 

We are doing the Rhum Runner in Grenada (my parents have done this with Oceana before, and loved it...lots of rum punch! sounds good to me)! Especilly as we are there on New Years Eve!!

 

May do river tubing in Dominica.

Shopping in St Maarten...and the Guavaberry place for sure! Possibly even head to Grand Case for a bit if we have time! Saw it on sky travel on sunday, the food looked great!

 

St Kits - the boys (my hubby, my dad and my sister's boyfriend) are doing the quad biking! gotta be done apparently!

 

Everything else we will do ourselves (probably just shopping and beaches)!

 

These forums have been a great help, so thanks guys!

[syndyj]

Hi,

Anyone been to Pigeon Point?

What is it like? Is it a good beach to go to?

How far and what would a taxi cost from the ship?

 

Pigeon Point is a very nice beach, the fee to enter is $18.00 TT and you can rent chairs for $5.00 TT. The Government recently acquired the facilities from the previous owners, so I am not too sure what vendors are still there, but there was a bar and several booths with food on sale.it is not a very long beach, but if you continue walking past the beach umbrellas to the other side it is more secluded.

 

Here are some pics that I took:

 

 

 

 

You can also take a tour out to Bucco Reef and the Nylon Pool from Pigeon Point. The reef has suffered some damage over the years so snorkeling is not the best, but Nylon Pool is awesome. It is a sand bar in the middle of the ocean with shallow, clear waters. Most boats stop there for a while so you can have a swim.

 

Since I am a local I don't know what they charge tourists, but a taxi should be between $25.00 to $50.00TT from the pier. It should take about 20 minutes to get there.

[SqueakyDust]

Many thanks for the info Syndyj!

 

I never knew you had to pay to get onto the Beach At Pigeon Point ! - don't think it's been mentioned on the boards before.

Also notice you quote TT dollars - is it possible to pay in US Dollars?

How many TT dollars do you get to TT Dollars?

 

Lovely pictures too.

[Welly172]

Hey Squekydust,

 

Can't be long till you are off??

 

Hope you have a great cruise and please report back with all your hints and tips, I have just started planning big style and sorted out that we will do the baths at Virgin Gorda on our own, found a really good website with all the ferry times etc and a map of the baths, looks like we can do it for about half the cost by not doing the organised tour.

 

Anyway have a great time!!!!

 

Welly172

[SqueakyDust]

7 more sleeps, and the last one will be down in London! :D

 

I'll certainly come back and report, as quickly as I can. Hopefully I'll get a bit of time before Christmas and won't be too jet-lagged.

 

We plan to use Speedy's I think.

 

Now where did I put the cases....? ;)

[syndyj]

Yes, you can pay in US dollars, $6.30TT is = $1.00US so it should work out to about $3.00US.

[SqueakyDust]

Many Thanks, again.

 

Bit of an odd exchange rate to remember, but I'm sure we'll cope for the day :D

[emac]

We also go on 13 January on Arcadia.

 

We go to Tortola, Antigua, St. Kitts, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, Mayreau, Margarita, Trinidad, Tobago and Barbados.

 

Qm2lover...

Are you on the same cruise?

 

We are trying to book independent tours but so many of them require more than 2 people. There are not many Brits. on these boards so it will be difficult to find people to share trips with before we leave.

 

Any advice from SqueakyDust about the islands will be welcome.

[SqueakyDust]

Emac, have you looked at the UK Passengers in the Floataway Lounge?

There's a few of us Brits there.

[emac]

SqueakyDust

 

No, never heard of the Floataway Lounge. More details please.

 

Elaine

[SqueakyDust]

Go to the Message Boards, then to the bottom in Fun Stuff you'll find the Floataway Lounge. In there are loads of other groups and the UK passengers is one of them :D

[emac]

Thanks SqueakyDust, have a wonderful trip. Please post a review when you return.

[qm2lover]

SqueakyDust,

 

Have a wonderful cruise. Cannot wait to hear all about it.

[SqueakyDust]

We're back!

'll do a proper review as soon as I can, but meantime here's a short version on my thought onTobago;

 

Our son got Prickly Heat this day and the poor thing nearly went bonkers with it.

After getting stuff for him we decided to do a last minute afternoon booking with the ship for the Glass Bottom Boat trip to Buccoo Reef and Nylon Pool.

It was a 20 min bus drive through pretty scenery to Pigeon Point. Our driver was quite good in pointing our local flora & fauna and was cheery too.

The entrance to Pigeon Point isn't very attractive and we were met by a huge Digger! We didn't go through the final gate to the private beach, but parked up just at the end to get our boat out. You have to wade out into the water to get onto the boat. Bear this is mind for clothing and if you are able to climb onto a moving boat. We had an elderly infirm Gent who managed.

There were 3 fairly small windows on the bottom or the boat to see through. It is very shallow so quite easy to see. Not especially clear, but that could be due to reef damage as mentioned above.

The boat sped out across the sea for about 15 minutes and stopped over reefs. The guys asked if anyone wanted to swim. Only one woman put up her hand. In the end she and her son, myself, my husband and our daughter went in.

I was terrified initially but there is a rope leading to a buoy so you just hang onto that. We all got life jackets too. It was quite choppy and as I only use the snorkel mask I tended to get gulps of sea water frequently. However,t eh water was pleasantly warm and it was brilliant to look down. The Captain of the boat went off with my water camera and took approx 15 pictures. I've not got it developed yet so goodness knows what will be on it - I'll report back later.

We were in for approx 5-10 minutes and were proud of our 9 year old daughter. She hung in there eventhough she was clearly petrified.

back on baord we sped on again passed a sandbank that had Pelican on it. I thought this was where we'd get off, but on we went.

We saw Pigeon Point and it did look lovely.

Nylon Pool is quite large and is 4ft at it's deepest. The sand is sharp (coral) and nearly everyone got in. It was cooler here as shallower. Only the odd fish to see. We were here for 20-30 minutes then off back to shore.

 

At the shore we'd acquired 3 more passengers. Our driver (who sang us Christmas carols on the return trip!) gave three girls empty seats as there were no more taxis there - bear this in mind. Book a return taxi trip if you're doing it yourself. I think he said taxi's stopped going there about 4pm.

 

The trip was 'okay', but we'd not do it again.

We did see other boats off Pigeon Point so it certainly looked possible to do a trip independantly. Try and get prices first.

We found this island expensive for souveniers and didn't buy anything and the Port area was very busy.

 

Hope this helps.