What's on in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago through the year

Busy — Trinidad Carnival, school holidays in 3 of the markets that fill it

• Season

  Dry season

  1 Jan – 31 May · usually

  The northern range dries out and the tracks up to Maracas and the waterfalls are walkable. It is also when the bush fires get going on the hillsides above the city and the afternoons turn hazy.

• Festival

  Trinidad Carnival

  6 Jan – 10 Mar · usuallyCrowdedBook early

  The season runs from just after Christmas — panyards rehearsing nightly, Panorama, the fetes — to J'ouvert before dawn on Carnival Monday and the Parade of the Bands on Tuesday. Rooms are taken a year out and priced accordingly. Source ↗

Busy — Trinidad Carnival

Nothing new starts in February.

Still on: Dry season (1 Jan – 31 May (usually)), Trinidad Carnival (6 Jan – 10 Mar (usually))

Busy — Trinidad Carnival, school holidays in 2 of the markets that fill it

• Nature

  Leatherback nesting

  1 Mar – 31 Aug · usuallyTurtle nesting

  Trinidad has one of the densest leatherback rookeries anywhere, on the north-coast beaches at Grande Riviere and Matura. Both are a long drive from the capital and both need a permit and a guide after dark. Source ↗

Still on: Dry season (1 Jan – 31 May (usually)), Trinidad Carnival (6 Jan – 10 Mar (usually))

Shoulder season — an ordinary month

Nothing new starts in April.

Still on: Dry season (1 Jan – 31 May (usually)), Leatherback nesting (1 Mar – 31 Aug (usually))

Shoulder season — an ordinary month

Nothing new starts in May.

Still on: Dry season (1 Jan – 31 May (usually)), Leatherback nesting (1 Mar – 31 Aug (usually))

Busy — Hosay in St James, school holidays in 3 of the markets that fill it

• Festival

  Hosay in St James

  1 Jun – 15 Jul · usuallyMuharram & AshuraCrowded

  Tadjahs — model mosques built over weeks — are drummed through St James on the last nights of the ten, then carried to the sea. It follows the lunar calendar, so it arrives eleven days earlier each year. Source ↗

Still on: Leatherback nesting (1 Mar – 31 Aug (usually))

Peak crowds — Hosay in St James, Emancipation Day

• Holiday

  Emancipation Day

  30 Jul – 1 AugNational holidayClosuresCrowded

  Trinidad was the first country to make it a public holiday. The Kambule procession leaves before dawn on the first and the village on the Savannah runs for days either side of it. Source ↗

Still on: Leatherback nesting (1 Mar – 31 Aug (usually)), Hosay in St James (1 Jun – 15 Jul (usually))

Busy — Emancipation Day, school holidays in 3 of the markets that fill it

Nothing new starts in August.

Still on: Leatherback nesting (1 Mar – 31 Aug (usually)), Emancipation Day (30 Jul – 1 Aug)

Shoulder season — school holidays in 2 of the markets that fill it, an ordinary month

Nothing new starts in September.

Busy — Divali

• Holiday

  Divali

  15 Oct – 15 Nov · usuallyDiwaliClosures

  A national public holiday here, with deyas along walls and driveways from the east-west corridor out to Chaguanas, where the Divali Nagar site runs for a week before it. Source ↗

Busy — Divali

Nothing new starts in November.

Still on: Divali (15 Oct – 15 Nov (usually))

Shoulder season — school holidays in 3 of the markets that fill it, an ordinary month

Nothing new starts in December.