Discover Buccoo: Bay, Boardwalk and History

Buccoo brings together mangrove-fringed Buccoo Bay, a boardwalk and a distinctive local event history. Its landscape and culture offer different points of reference when deciding which aspect of the area suits your holiday.

Bay Scenery and Boardwalk

Buccoo Bay is fringed by mangroves and other dense vegetation that provides shade. This green edge gives the bay a distinct landscape character. For travellers who take a green coastal landscape into account when choosing a destination, Buccoo offers a specific point of reference.

A boardwalk for visitors is located in Buccoo; it was commissioned in 2021. The bay and the boardwalk represent different aspects of the area: the vegetation along the bay and a purpose-built visitor facility. When looking for accommodation, you can consider whether these are the kinds of experiences that suit the holiday you are planning.

Events and Activities in Buccoo

On 3 April 2018, Buccoo hosted the 93rd Annual Buccoo Goat & Crab Race Festival. That edition included goat races. The date and competition make the festival a specific historical point of reference for Buccoo.

When the community tourism initiative Buccoo Passport was launched in November 2019, it offered visitors a selection of seven activities in Buccoo. These included a Buccoo Reef tour, entertainment by the Buccooneers Steel Orchestra and horseback rides. The selection at the time thus brought together very different types of activities—a reef tour, music and horseback rides—and adds another historical facet to the picture of Buccoo.

Buccoo in the Wider Context of Tobago

Tobago also offers a broader cultural and scenic context for planning your trip. The Trinidad and Tobago Inter-Island Ferry Service operates daily ferry connections between Trinidad and Tobago. Check the operator’s schedule before travelling, as schedules may change.

Tobago’s history also includes cocoa cultivation: in 2005, Tobago’s cocoa industry was revived through the initiative of Duane Dove, a young Tobagonian and sommelier. In Tobago’s fishing communities, groups bring in the day’s catch using a method called “pulling seine.” This practice is also known as the tradition of “lending hands.”

The Tobago Harvest Festival began as a religious harvest thanksgiving for the produce of the island’s villages. The programme described includes a morning service to bless the food and an afternoon concert featuring sketches, poems and a cantata performed by the village choir.

On Tobago, Buccoo Historical Park is located on Golden Grove Estate in Buccoo. The historic nature park features the remains of two watermills, a copra-drying area and an old cocoa building. At Tobago Cocoa Estate, the focus turns to Roxborough: the estate is set in green hills overlooking the Atlantic. A variety of cocoa known as “fine” or “flavour” cocoa is grown there and used to make chocolate.

When looking for a holiday rental, it helps to distinguish Buccoo as a specific destination from topics relating to Tobago as a whole. If your focus is primarily on the bay, the boardwalk and cultural points connected to Buccoo, these experiences can guide your choice. Cocoa, fishing traditions and the Harvest Festival broaden the context with other island topics.

Discover more destinations: Black Rock, Carnbee, Bon Accord Village, Les Coteaux, Castara, Lowlands, Plymouth, Arnos Vale

For the broader travel overview: Western Tobago.