Port of Spain Cruise
Ancient cocoa and coffee plantations
Those arriving to Trinidad with an MSC Caribbean cruise, immediately notice the Northern Range, Trinidad’s mountain chain, a triumph of wild nature. and stalagmites.
During your holiday in the Caribbean, you will be able to go on an excursion to some of the biggest accessible caves of the island, the Aripo Caves, which penetrate 90 metres into the ground and are full of stalactites On the slopes of the Northern Range covered by a flourishing rain forest, hides a former cocoa and coffee plantation that has been transformed into the Asa Wright Nature Center. This 80-hectare nature reserve is a spectacle of colourful wildlife with many hiking trails.
Here, bird watching is almost a requirement: you can see rare birds such as the blue-crowned motmot or the palm tanager. To admire the scarlet ibis, which fill the mangroves with thousands of red dots at sunset, head for the island’s other bird temple: the Caroni Bird Sanctuary. Between these hills, opens the Santa Cruz Valley, once full of plantations and cocoa-processing plants, it is now a beautiful residential area.
Just 40 minutes from the capital, you will find Maracas Bay, the deepest bay on the northern coast of the island. Its U shape makes it perfect for any recreational sea activity, from sunbathing to windsurfing and bodysurfing. Another way to admire the island is to securely fasten yourself to a pulley and take a ride on a zip-line at locations such as the Macqueripe Bay Zip-Line in Chaguaramas, located five km west of Port of Spain. This sip-line has seven descent routes, the highest starting at an elevation of 30 minutes and lasting 45 minutes: an experience that has no equal anywhere in the world. Book an excursion to the Pitch Lake in La Brea, the biggest natural tar lake in the world.