Arriving in Port of Spain via Piarco International Airport sets you up perfectly, with surrounding cities and experiences a short drive away. Port of Spain is the loud, warm, music-mad capital of Trinidad, where African, Indian, Chinese, and Syrian roots all show up on the same street corner. Steelpan was born here, Carnival is treated like a second religion, and breakfast is a pair of doubles eaten standing at a roadside stall.

Where to start in Port of Spain: - Walk the Queen's Park Savannah and admire the Magnificent Seven, a row of grand colonial mansions - Visit a panyard in the weeks before Carnival to hear steel bands rehearse at night - Lime along Ariapita Avenue in Woodbrook for bars, rotis, and late-night food - Drive the hills to Maracas Bay for bake and shark straight from the beach huts - Look out over the city and the Gulf of Paria from Fort George - Hike or kayak around the Chaguaramas peninsula and the islands offshore - Watch scarlet ibis fly in to roost at dusk in the Caroni Swamp

Beyond Port of Spain, the island stays compact. The Asa Wright Nature Centre in the Northern Range is famous among birders for hummingbirds and oilbirds, and Mount St Benedict above Tunapuna serves tea with a view. San Fernando, Trinidad's second city, is about an hour south, and the strange asphalt Pitch Lake at La Brea makes a memorable stop past it. Tobago is a separate island, reached by ferry or a short hop by air, for a slower pace. Try a cup of mauby or a bowl of corn soup at a fete, and plan around Carnival Monday and Tuesday if you want to see the island at full volume.