beaches or take a swim in breathtaking waterfalls or rivers. The Northern Range boasts of exceptional flora and fauna with no equivalent in any neighboring Caribbean island (2300 varieties of flowers, 433 species of birds and 620 species of butterflies).

Places To Stay: Northeast Coast

As you travel the coast you will notice many signs offering rooms for rent in homes or well-located but poorly marketed cabins. Prices and conditions range considerably.

acajoutrinidad.com/  Acajou Hotel [Average price*: USD$132] 209`Paria Main Road, | Grande Rivière,, Toco, Trinidad   #1 of 44 hotels in Trinidad at "Warning - this place will steal your heart! Will make you want to stay there forever!Beautiful! More stylish and elegant than anything else in T&T, while wonderfully understated and modest! Quiet!!! If most tourist places advertise themselves as "paradise beach" "paradise retreat" - this one should call itself "metaphysical", if only this wasn't too pompous!" Member from Warsaw, Poland

legrandealmandier.com Le Grande Almandier House 670-2294 * Toco 10 creatively decorated rooms  classic tropical beachfront  popular open-air restaurant and bar attract both locals and visitors. set around a motel-style courtyard

www.tocofoundation.org.  Set on a nine-acre working farm that is worth a tour in itself, visitors will find a modern 10-bedroom facility, each room with private bath,

mtplaisir.com/ Mount Plaisir Estate Hotel and Spa,  Grande Riviere, Trinidad * Rooms: 10 Average price*: $89 "We love and respect nature and everything we do is to remind you why it is so important to save our Mother Earth."

salybiaresort.com Salybia Nature Resort and Spa 13 ¾ Mile Post, Toco Main Road Salybia Village Matura 28 rooms A resort getaway nestled along Trinidad’s North East coast offering conference, leisure and spa facilities. Other facilities include airport transfers, business cntree, meeting and banquet facilities, complimentary coffee/tea, beach facilities, television in room, radio in room, cable TV and gym facilities

Esterel Cumana, Toco, Trinidad - (868) 670-4767

Rampanalgas
Following the Toco Road will take you past Arthur's Grocery which although it is on the outskirts of Rampanalgas, acts as the town center since it is also the post office, a deli with crab cakes and bar with pool table.
Rampanalgas or Cirra Falls is up  a dirt road just past the sign announcing the Rampanalgas. The path has been landscaped somewhat by the locals and there's two levels to the modest cascade with a nice pool for swimming and jumping at the base of the falls.

Guayamara Point
Another 3km on the Toco Road gets you to this jut in the landscape which affords a spectacular views of the long palm fringed southern beaches

Cumana This is the location of the last gas station as well as the end of the good highway as you near Tocl and will begin heaing West till the road deadends.

Galera Point
One of the most dramatic spots in Trinidad: an old lighthouse overlooks the point where the murky Atlantic meets the turquoise clearCari bbean waters, waves crashing on the rocks at the most Eastern spot on the island. The lighthouse, built in 1897, is sometimes open to visitors where a climb to the top is rewarded with the view of Tobago and the inland coconut estates. One lighthouse keeper is convinced ghosts that inhabit the eerie spot.   Below the spray is Fishing Rock where the waves crash ltravels far up the cliffs spouting through a blow hole with a regular rhythm.
The nearby Salybia beach is a popular and safe bathing spot and favored resting point for those  driving up to Toco. Facilities include changing rooms and showers.

Toco region enjoys a reputation as Trinidad's leading surf area  with many beaches favored by surfers.

Toco

This is the main population center. Many folks live in charming if dilapidated,  wooden gingerbread houses. Meanwhile there is some impressive new construction spouting up here and there. Toco Folk Museum: Run by school teachers and open during school hours till 3:30pm. One of its best features is the knowledgeable folks who answer questions. The museum permanent collection  features a broad assortment of items from Amerindian artifacts to local insects, shells and rare Calypso recordings.  At the Toco Composite School

  Past the town of Toco, the main access road becomes the Paria Main Road, memorable not just for the wild and rugged coastal scenery but also because the road runs perilously close to the eroding cliffs. This is a remarkable coastline for a Caribbean island and speaks to the island being an extension of the Venezuelas mountain range.

Salybia Bay: [Salibea Bay] Long, scenic bay, often windswept with surging breakers but you may well find it a placid beach with shallows and nice shade. Like many of the beaches on the northeast coast, this one is packed with people and music trucks blaring soca and reggae on weekends along with plenty of vendors. GETTING THERE: Just after the town of Toco. Off Toco Main Rd.

Sans Souci Bay: A slightly sloping bay with often-choppy waves. Popular with surfers in the winter and venue for surf competitions. Sans Souci is a relatively safe beach with two restaurants on the nearby road. The most popular beach is known as Big Bay.

Coming out of the valley of Sans Souci (“without problems in French”), the narrow winding road twist and bends down the hills from the tiny inland villages of Monte Video and L'Anse Noire before opening unto the bridge across the majestic fast-flowing Grande Rivière river whose banks are decorated with foliage of forests and fruit trees, large heliconias and drooping vines.

Grand Rivière:

"Grande Riviere may be small but it has the best hotel in Trinidad. Mount Plaisir Estate " Grand Riviere's eastern beach is well known among surfers This small fishing community boasts a laid-back life enjoying views from their narrow hilly streets. The cocoa growing industry, stretching back more than 100 years, was once the main industry but more important  these days, is that Grand Rivière has become the center of the highly touted visitor industry of the northeast coast. Local fishermen are happy to take you along in the traditional boat of the region, the pirogue, so you can try your skills against theirs. The sea also offers good surfing while hikers can trek up to Paria or Madamas Falls . It does not take a tour guide to walk up the rivers to refreshing pools and lush greenery. The Grande Riviere Nature Guide Association and the Tourism Development Organization have recently built an  information center on the beachfront where you can arrange a more ambitious and informative tour. Except during the peak turtle-breeding season.

Paria Main Road crosses many rivers and the most popular and largest for campers is Shark River. Good swimming is found in pools near where the water meets the Caribbean Sea and there are plenty more further upstream.

Matelot: The very last beach along the North-East coast stretch. There is a village centre with a small Catholic church but nary a restaurant to be found. The Matelot Waterfall is a full half-day’s hike along the Matelot River which is the most popular place for swimming as it approaches the sandy beach. The Paria Waterfall is also accessible from this direction, look for the TIDCO sign pointing to the Madamas River Walk. It's 19km of wild coast to where the road begins again at Blanchisseuse on the other side of the Mariane River. A guide is advised for this walk and they are plentiful.