Tobago got its name from its resemblance to a tobacco pipe (tavaco) used by local natives.
Trinidad and Tobago is the only country whose capital city is named after another country: Port of Spain.

Currency : The Trinidad and Tobago dollar (tt$)

Languages : Tobagonian Creole Trinidadian Creole Trinidadian English Trinidadian Hindustani Chinese Arabic Carib Yoruba Portuguese Spanish French Creole

Trinidad and Tobago Time: 8 am = noon GMT.

Until 10,000 years ago, Trinidad and Tobago were both part of the South American mainland.

Festivals : Carnival Canboulay Hosay Diwali Holi

Trinidad and Tobago Holidays: New Year’s Day, 1 January; Carnival, 14–15 February; Emancipation Day, 1st Monday in August; Independence Day, 31 August; Republic Day, 24 September; Christmas, 25 December; Boxing Day, 26 December. Movable holidays include Carnival, Good Friday, Easter Monday, Whitmonday, Corpus Christi, ‘Id al-Fitr, and Dewali.

Religion : Islam, Hinduism, Spiritual Baptist Rastafari movement

Government : Elections are held every four years (usually about two years after a general election) for representatives to nine regional corporations, two city corporations (the main cities of Port-of-Spain and San Fernando), and three boroughs. The city and boroughs elect a mayor and city council. In addition, elections are held every four years for the House of Assembly in Tobago, which was established in 1980. Contention has historically existed between Tobago and Trinidad on issues such as the division of financial responsibilities, taxes and spending. The unpopularity of the central government’s policies were reflected in the strong showing of the Tobago-based DAC party in elections to the House of Assembly between 1980 and 2004. The DAC and its successor the NAR went from controlling 8 out of 12 seats in the Assembly in 1980 to winning 11 in every other until 1996. (The PNM won the remaining seat(s) but an independent also won a seat in 1996.) It was only in 2004, with the PNM solidly back in control in Trinidad and a popular Tobagonian leading the party’s efforts in the Assembly election, that the PNM won 8 seats to the NAR’s 4. The new PNM hold was consolidated in 2005 when it gained 11 out of the 12 seats, with the re-formed DAC confined to only one. Governmental relations between the two islands have improved.

Pitch Lake in Trinidad is the world’s largest natural asphalt deposit covering almost 100 acres 245 feet deep.

In the Americas, only the USA and Canada have a higher GDP per head than Trinidad and Tobago.

Trinidad and Tobago is the Happiest Country in the Caribbean – In 2015 (and 2013), the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Solutions Network, ranked Trinidad and Tobago the Caribbean’s happiest country.

In 2012, CNN listed the Trinidadian accent as one of the sexiest in the world. In the same year, a poll released by Gallup ranked Trinis the fifth most positive people in the world!

Trinidad and Tobago is the Best Caribbean Destination for Nature Holidays

Tobago has a Swimming Pool in the Middle of the Ocean

Trinidad and Tobago is the best Caribbean Destination to see Leatherback Turtles

Trinidad is the birthplace of the steel pan.
Tobago has the Largest Brain Coral in the World

Trinidad and Tobago has the biggest celebration of Divali in the Western Hemisphere. Known as the “Festival of Lights”, this religious festival celebrated by the Hindu community is enjoyed by the entire population of Trinidad and Tobago who partake in prayer, reenactments and the lighting of deyas (clay lamps) to symbolize the victory of light over darkness and the return of Rama from his exile in the forests of Ayodhya.

Film location Trinidad & Tobago : Fire Down Below (1957), Swiss Family Robinson (1960), The Hummingbird Tree (1992), The Mystic Masseur (2001), Limbo (2010), Home Again (2013), and some others.