Best Sustainable Hotels, Resorts and Eco Lodges in Trinidad and Tobago
Best Sustainable Eco Lodges, Resorts and Eco Friendly Stays in Trinidad and Tobago
The 4 best places to stay in Trinidad and Tobago are sustainable and all run on solar power, cook with locally grown produce and back real conservation work on the islands. From Castara Bay on Tobago’s leeward coast to the Arima Valley in Trinidad’s Northern Range these eco lodges are top rated for low-impact eco friendly comfort that keeps guests coming back to a place where the rainforest still meets the sea and leatherback turtles still nest on the sand.
How we decide the best place to stay in Trinidad and Tobago
What earns a place on our Trinidad and Tobago list, and what we look for in each stay.
On these two islands the sustainability story starts on the beach. At Mt. Plaisir Estate Hotel the rooms are solar powered and deliberately designed to block bright light, so the glow from the windows never disturbs the leatherback turtles that haul up to nest on the sand outside. We rate a stay on whether its wildlife protection is built into the architecture like this, not bolted on as an afterthought.
We look hard at how a property handles its waste and its plastics. Asa Wright Nature Centre & Lodge sits inside a working rainforest reserve and runs a plastic free operation, sorting its waste and leaning on solar panels rather than the grid, which is exactly the kind of low footprint housekeeping a nature lodge owes the forest around it.
Food is the next thing we trace back to source. At Footprints Eco Resort & Spa the Cocoa House restaurant cooks farm to table from the resort’s own garden, pulling preferentially on organic produce grown a few steps from the kitchen, so the journey from soil to plate is measured in metres.
Finally we weigh what a stay gives back to the people and the reefs around it. Castara Retreats was built by some forty villagers using local labour and materials, an act of heritage preservation in its own right, and it sponsors the Environmental Research Institute Charlotteville to regenerate the coral reef in Castara Bay.
The eco lodges on this list of best places to stay in Trinidad and Tobago have proven they are making a real effort to protect the islands while taking care of their guests.
If the twin islands of the steelpan and limbo have only whetted your appetite for the wider Caribbean, our guide to the best sustainable hotels across the Caribbean gathers the whole region in one place, or follow the island chain north to the eco stays of Grenada, on to St Vincent and the Grenadines and across to Barbados.
Top Picks, Where To Stay in Trinidad and Tobago
- Castara Retreats: Green Key, locally owned eco lodge
- Asa Wright Nature Centre & Lodge: Green Key certified rainforest reserve
- Footprints Eco Resort & Spa: Off grid, female owned, farm to table
Castara Retreats is a Green Key certified, locally led eco lodge of treehouse style cottages set where the rainforest meets Castara Bay on Tobago's quiet leeward coast, a partnership between a British family and Tobagonian local management with a real stake in the business.
Solar panels supplement the power and the in house Caribbean Kitchen cooks from scratch with locally grown produce, while the retreat sponsors the Environmental Research Institute Charlotteville (ERIC) to regenerate the coral reef in Castara Bay and was built by some forty villagers using local labour and materials.
Asa Wright Nature Centre & Lodge is a Green Key certified rainforest reserve lodge in the Arima Valley of Trinidad's Northern Range, a locally run conservation centre and one of the oldest nature lodges in the Caribbean.
Solar panels installed with an EU funded grant cut its carbon footprint, alongside water conservation, waste sorting and a zero plastics approach, with the surrounding protected forest reserve safeguarding the birds and wildlife at the heart of the centre’s mission.
Mt.
Plaisir Estate Hotel is a Green Key certified eco lodge on a former cocoa estate in Grande Riviere, set directly on the beach that holds the world’s densest concentration of nesting leatherback turtles. The property is solar powered and its rooms are designed to block bright and white light that would disturb the turtles, while the village beyond is fitted with turtle friendly streetlights, tying the hotel into the community’s long running leatherback conservation work.
Footprints Eco Resort & Spa is a small, female owned eco lodge fronting Culloden Bay on Tobago's Caribbean coast, set across sixty two acres of reforested former sugar and cocoa estate.
It is built almost entirely from locally grown or reclaimed timber with reclaimed teak, recycled wallaba and traditional timit palm leaf roofs, and its Cocoa House restaurant runs a farm to table kitchen drawing preferentially on organic produce from the resort’s own garden.
More Caribbean Sustainable Stays
Book Your Next Stay Consciously
Travel is a wonderful opportunity to connect with Mother Earth.
However, it is also frequently undermined by reckless development and disrespectful tourism practices.
This directory is a curated, verified list of hotels, lodges, and resorts that honour our planet and are led by visionary stewards of the environment.
From farm-to-table culinary experiences to dedicated ocean conservation efforts, such as marine protection and coral restoration, these establishments are redefining hospitality.
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