The flight across to Tobago from Port of Spain, Trinidad was just about 15 minutes from take off to touch down. We spent longer in the departure lounge than we actually did on Caribbean Airlines flight BW1814 hopping between the two main islands of Trinidad and Tobago.

After collecting our hire car we started the hour long drive from Crown Point, through the outskirts of Scarborough (the capital of Tobago), to Castara. Until we got away from Scarborough we were having doubts about Tobago, but our accommodation at the Castara Retreats couldn't have been more different from our guest house in Port of Spain. The staff were chatty and welcoming, the rustic bedroom had great views over the sea, and it felt nice and peaceful. With just 17 rooms it is not a large place, but it's large enough for us.

On our first evening we ate at the hotel's restaurant, the food was really good, albeit fairly pricey. We had also taken advantage of 'happy hour' and the 2-4-1 cocktails before dinner with expansive views across Castara Bay, made this a place that we quite liked from the word go.

We decided to return to the south of the island to visit Crown Point, Pigeon Point and Scarborough on our first full day in Tobago. Sadly a couple of the places we had chosen to visit were closed so that was a bad start and by the time we arrived at Pigeon Point it was raining quite heavily. Pigeon Point is one of the premier places that people visit when in Tobago and we stayed around an hour. It looked nice when we arrived with a manicured entrance road, but there were a couple of bars/restaurant (neither of which seemed to be open properly), people touting glass bottom boat tours and two, out of the half dozen or so 'tourist tat' shops, open. It may have just been an 'off day' due to the weather, but despite having a nice beach, it wasn't really what we were looking for.

In the afternoon we visited the Botanical Gardens and Fort King George in Scarborough which filled a couple of hours before heading back to Castara.

One of the beach bars in Castara was having a bonfire and live music night, so we ate at the Cascreole restaurant on the beach front. The food was OK, but not brilliant, and the evening musical entertainment at the adjacent bar had some drummers (with an accompanying singer . . . or a screecher?), a local reggae artist and they were followed by a steel pan band. The latter group were good, but not a patch on what we had previously seen/heard in Trinidad.

Our second full day had us driving around the northern part of Tobago. This area is much less busy than the south and had some great winding forest roads to travel on, secluded beaches and bays to view/visit and small rustic towns/villages to pass through. It felt far more local.

We travelled via the Main Forest Ridge to the Argyle Waterfalls close to the town of Roxborough. After the 15 minute walk to the falls we found we had them completely to ourselves - it certainly wasn't Niagara, but it was rather pleasant. There was also the opportunity to spot a few of the local birds on the walk to/from the falls as we passed by massive bamboo plants/trees and other tropical forest vegetation.

We continued via Speyside and onto Charlotteville where we decided it was time for lunch. We stopped at the Suckhole Restaurant and Bar (not the most attractive name) on the beach front which seemed to be doing a good trade. There was no written menu but the server rattled off a list of food options all of which came with steak chips, vegetables and salad. They must have gone fishing for the tuna and had to catch one of the local chickens as it took well over an hour for the food to arrive (that said there was a steady stream of takeaway orders also coming from the kitchen) . . . . but when it did arrive, it was a well presented and rather large portion of food. We didn't need an evening meal!

Heading back to Castara along the narrow Northside Road we passed through some fabulous scenery, avoided the occasional landslip and a fair few potholes and sleeping dogs in the road. This wasn't a main road for sure, but more a constant switchback of left/right turns and steep gradients as we caught glimpses of the sea. The 35kph speed limit seemed a little pointless as there really wasn't much opportunity to put your foot down!

Given the rather large lunch we decided an evening sundowner cocktail or two, and a shared starter and dessert would be enough food for us. The view from the Castara Retreats bar area looking out over the bay was a great way to finish the day off before leaving Tobago the following day. The view will certainly be missed by us both.

Our next port of call would be St Lucia, which involved a drive to Tobago Airport after breakfast before catching Carribbean Airlines flight BW1509 back to Port of Spain, Trinidad. With a couple of hours between flights there was chance to grab a snack for lunch ahead of boarding the one hour flight to Castries on the northern coast of St Lucia on flight BW434.