Sao Tome and Principe Travel Guide

Sao Tome and Principe OVERVIEW

If your days are best defined by deadlines and even more deadlines to meet, the omnipresent stress and life lived at a hectic pace, Sao Tome and Principe is the place to pack your bits and pieces and just go. Why? For life is tick-tocked in these two volcanic islands in a "leve-leve" manner . The minute you land, the "slowly, slowly" mood will start oozing into your tensed body from every corner you turn to - be it the spectacular palm-adorned sandy beaches, pristine seascapes of waves gently crashing against the shores and much unexplored jungles. Here, 250 kilometers off the coast of West Africa, the active and mere pleasure-seekers will find their place on Earth. For how better can a holiday be described if not by wild frolics diving or snorkeling in the unexplored waters, a bit of peeking into languid fishing villages dotting the seashore or playing a diehard trekker in the dense jungle forests? All of them best topped off with a cup of world's best coffee or some exquisite chocolate at the end of the day. Heaven.

Tiny as it is, Sao Tome and Principe is a promise of holiday money well spent provided you take the time and effort to get there. Few do and hence, you can be sure of virtually no one getting into your beach pics. Chances of meeting a fellow traveler are really humble and in fact, the country's concern is to make the arrival figures go up for the good of both travelers, who could cherish a really scenic spot and the nation, whose small national budget could swell a little. And there surely is something to marvel at and learn about. This Portuguese-Creole scented tropical paradise used to be dominated by slave trade and hurt by labor and land-intensive farming. From mid-1500s to late 19th century the local sugar, coffee and cocoa plantations where heavily exploited in terms of work abuse by Portugal colonizers making the two tiny islands become world's biggest producers of sugar and cocoa. Pretty a success for a 1000-suare-kilometer area, pity it was paid with blood. Today the post-colonial architecture and the crumbling roças (houses) of the old colonial plantations only add to Sao Tome and Principe exotic flavor and enrich its tourist potential.