São Tomé and Príncipe
Sao Tome
A volcanic rainforest island on the equator that once grew more cocoa than anywhere on earth, its old plantation estates still standing in the jungle.
Sao Tome is the larger of the two islands that make up Africa's second-smallest country, a volcanic, rainforest-covered island sitting almost exactly on the equator in the Gulf of Guinea. Its interior climbs through old cocoa and coffee plantations to the cloud forest of Obo Natural Park, and in the south the sheer spire of Pico Cao Grande stands straight out of the jungle. Life gathers in the low-rise capital and the fishing villages along the coast, and the pace is famously slow.
Suggested stay
4–7 days
Language
Portuguese
Currency
STN
Timezone
UTC
Why you'll love Sao Tome
The roças colonial cocoa and coffee estates all over the island, their hospitals, mansions and workers' quarters still lived in, a few restored as guesthouses
Cao Grande a sheer volcanic needle rising around 300 metres straight out of the southern rainforest, the image most visitors take home
The forest Obo Natural Park covers the wet, mountainous interior, with cloud forest, an old crater and birds found nowhere else on earth
Chocolate the island's fine-flavour cocoa goes to small chocolate makers, and you can follow it from the pod on the tree to the finished bar
Best time to visit
Mar, Jul-Sep, Dec-Jan
27-30° days
0.339° N, 6.731° E
UTC · Africa/Sao Tome
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Weather & when to go to Sao Tome
Month by month: typical highs and lows, rainfall and rain days.
✓ Best Mar, Jul-Sep, Dec-Jan
Hiking prime Jul-Sep
Activity seasons none fair good prime
Watch for Jun monsoon flooding risk
Cards tinted by calculated verdict · big number = typical daily high, small = low · hover for conditions
When to avoid Sao Tome
June is the month to avoid. The rest of the year is hot and humid, and the mountains and the south can see rain in any month. July to September, the heart of the gravana dry season, is easiest for the Pico trek and the slow southern roads; turtles nest on the southern beaches roughly November to February, and humpback whales pass offshore from about July to October.
Top things to do in Sao Tome
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Pico Cao Grande - the volcanic needle over the southern jungle
scenic nature wildlife 👍 PopularA sheer plug of volcanic rock rising around 300 metres straight out of the rainforest in the south of the island, visible for miles from the coast road. Most people photograph it from the roadside; a muddy guided trail leads through the forest to its foot.
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Ilheu das Rolas - standing on the equator
scenic 👍 PopularThe small forested islet off the southern tip is where the equator crosses the country, marked by a monument set in a world-map mosaic a short walk up from the boat landing. The rest is forest paths, quiet coves and a resort; most visitors cross from Porto Alegre for the day.
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Roça Agostinho Neto - the great hospital of the cocoa era
history 👍 PopularOnce the Rio do Ouro plantation and renamed after independence, this is one of the grandest roças: an avenue climbing to a huge colonial hospital, now largely a ruin, flanked by rows of workers' quarters where families still live. Walk respectfully and ask before photographing people or homes.
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Lagoa Amelia - an old crater in Obo Natural Park
hiking nature wildlife ⭐ Highly recommendedA half-day walk from the park gateway at Bom Sucesso climbs through cloud forest to an extinct volcanic crater whose floor is a spongy marsh rather than open water. It is the easiest way into Obo's interior, with endemic birds, orchids and giant tree ferns along the trail. Go with a guide; the path is steep and slippery after rain.
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Pico de Sao Tome - the summit trek
hiking adventureThe island's highest point, just over 2,000 metres, reached by a long, steep and muddy climb through cloud forest from Bom Sucesso. Most people take two days with a night camped on the mountain, always with a guide, and the summit is often in cloud. It is the hardest walk on the island.
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Praia Jale - nesting turtles on the southern beaches
nature wildlife ⭐ Highly recommendedSeveral species of sea turtle nest on the beaches of the far south, and Praia Jale near Porto Alegre is the best-known place to see them, with simple beach bungalows tied to local conservation work. In nesting season, guided night walks watch females come ashore and hatchlings make for the sea.
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Fort Sao Sebastiao - the National Museum on the bay
historyA squat 16th-century Portuguese fort on Ana Chaves Bay at the edge of the capital, now home to the national museum, with rooms on plantation life, religious art, the colonial era and independence. Statues of the Portuguese navigators who reached the islands stand outside, moved here after independence.
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Sao Tome city - the cathedral, the market and the bay
culture arts historyThe capital is small enough to walk: the seafront road around the bay, the old cathedral, the presidential palace, and the crowded central market, where fish, breadfruit, bananas and palm wine change hands. Faded colonial facades line the streets in between.
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Boca do Inferno - the blowhole on the east coast
scenicJust south of Agua Ize, the sea is forced through a narrow channel in black volcanic rock and bursts out in a plume of spray. It is most dramatic at high tide and in a big swell; keep back from the edge, as the rock is wet and slick.
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Claudio Corallo - chocolate tasting in the capital
foodAn Italian cocoa grower and chocolate maker who has farmed on the islands for decades runs tastings at his workshop in the capital, walking you from fermented bean to finished bar. It is the clearest short lesson in why the islands' cocoa once mattered to the world.
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Roça Sao Joao dos Angolares - a long tasting lunch
food culture artsThe old estate house above the Angolar fishing town is now a guesthouse, gallery and restaurant run by a well-known local chef, serving a long tasting lunch of island fish, fruit, leaves and spices, course after small course. Book ahead, and plan little for the afternoon.
Best areas to stay in Sao Tome
$ Budget $$ Mid-range $$$ Premium
Sao Tome city
First-time visitors $$Low-rise colonial capital on the bay
Explore hotels in Sao Tome city →
The east coast, Santana to Sao Joao dos Angolares
Coast and roças $$Fishing towns, beaches and old roças
Explore hotels in The east coast, Santana to Sao Joao dos Angolares →
The deep south: Porto Alegre, Praia Jale and Ilheu das Rolas
Beaches and turtles $$End-of-the-road beaches and turtle lodges
Explore hotels in The deep south: Porto Alegre, Praia Jale and Ilheu das Rolas →
Neves and the north-west coast
Quiet coast $$Fishing port, cliffs and quiet ecolodges
Explore hotels in Neves and the north-west coast →
Live nightly prices from Booking.com, Agoda and others, centred on Sao Tome
Getting to & around Sao Tome
Getting there
Fly into TMS on the edge of the capital, about ten minutes by taxi from the centre
Flight
Sao Tome International Airport (TMS)
Most international flights come from Lisbon, with fewer regional links through West and Central African hubs such as Luanda and Accra. The airport sits just outside the capital; taxis wait at arrivals, and many guesthouses and tour operators will meet a flight if asked.
Getting around
Taxi
Taxis work the capital and nearby routes; there are no meters, so agree the fare before you get in
TBC
Shared taxi or minibus
Link the capital with the towns along the coast roads, leaving from around the central market when full; slow, but how islanders travel
TBC
Car with driver or guide
The usual way to reach the south, the highlands and the roças: roads are narrow and slow, signs are few, and a local driver knows the way
TBC
Walking
The centre of the capital, from the market to the bay and the fort, is compact enough to cover on foot
Free
Day trips from Sao Tome
Ilheu das Rolas and the equator
Full dayEquator islet
The equator monument and its world-map mosaic, a walk through the islet's forest and a swim from a quiet cove. It is a long day there and back, so many people stay a night in the south instead and add the beaches around Porto Alegre.
Getting there
car | tour | ferry
Around two to three hours by car or tour down the east coast to Porto Alegre, then a short ferry crossing by small boat
The east coast to Sao Joao dos Angolares
Full dayCoast road and blowhole
The coast road south passes the fishing town of Santana, the old cocoa estate at Agua Ize and the Boca do Inferno blowhole, ending with a long lunch at the roça above Sao Joao dos Angolares. Push a little further south for the first views of Pico Cao Grande.
Getting there
car | tour
About an hour and a half south by car or tour, with stops along the way
Monte Cafe and the highlands
Half dayCoffee estate and waterfall
Roça Monte Cafe, the old coffee estate with a small museum on how the beans were grown and processed, the Sao Nicolau waterfall dropping through the forest nearby, and the botanical garden at Bom Sucesso, gateway to Obo Natural Park. Cooler than the coast, and often in cloud.
Getting there
car | tour
Around 45 minutes up into the hills by car or tour
The north coast: Lagoa Azul and Neves
Half dayBay, baobabs and estates
Past the vast hospital of Roça Agostinho Neto to Lagoa Azul, a clear, sheltered bay framed by baobabs and dry grassland that feel nothing like the wet south, good for a swim and snorkel from the rocks. The road continues to the fishing port of Neves and on down the west coast.
Getting there
car | tour
Under an hour by car or tour along the northern coast road
Principe
2 daysWilder sister island
Smaller, greener and far quieter, Principe is a UNESCO biosphere reserve of rainforest, volcanic peaks and empty beaches, and home to the roça where Eddington photographed the 1919 eclipse that confirmed Einstein. Two days is the minimum; most people wish they had longer.
Getting there
flight
A short domestic flight north-east from the capital
A little history of Sao Tome
Sao Tome was uninhabited when Portuguese navigators reached it around 1470. Portugal settled it in the 1490s with convicts, Jewish children taken from their families in Portugal, and enslaved Africans from the mainland, and by the early 1500s the island was one of the world's leading sugar producers and a hub of the Atlantic slave trade. Revolts, most famously Amador's in 1595, and competition from Brazil ended the sugar boom, and the island spent two centuries as a slaving and supply stop.
Coffee and then cocoa brought it back. Through the 1800s great plantations, the roças, spread across the island, and by the early 1900s the islands were the world's largest cocoa producer, worked by contract labourers from Angola, Mozambique and Cape Verde under conditions that drew an international boycott. Independence came in 1975. The roças were nationalised and most declined, leaving the estate houses, hospitals and workers' quarters that visitors explore today, many of them still lived in.
Portuguese navigators reach the uninhabited island, traditionally on the feast of St Thomas
The first lasting settlement is founded, with convicts and Jewish children deported from Portugal
The island becomes one of the world's leading sugar producers and a hub of the Atlantic slave trade
Amador leads the largest slave revolt in the island's history
Cocoa is brought to the islands from Brazil
British chocolate makers boycott the islands' cocoa over forced labour on the plantations
The Batepa massacre: colonial forces kill islanders who resisted forced plantation labour; 3 February is now marked as Martyrs' Day
Sao Tome and Principe becomes independent from Portugal on 12 July
Know before you go
Payment
Cash only
English
Rare
Wifi
Limited
Power
Type C / F
230 V, 50 Hz
Dialing
+239
Bring cash. Foreign cards and ATMs are unreliable to unusable here, so plan on carrying what the trip needs and changing money on arrival.
Monsoon flooding risk in this window; check current conditions before you go.
The months our climate read flags to avoid: the wettest, lowest-rated weather of the year.
FAQs about Sao Tome
▸ When is the best time to visit Sao Tome?
July to September, the heart of the gravana dry season, is the easiest time: less humid, drier trails for the Pico trek and better going on the southern roads. December, January and March also score well. June is the month to avoid. Turtles nest on the southern beaches roughly November to February, and humpback whales pass offshore from about July to October.
▸ Sao Tome or Principe?
Sao Tome is the bigger, busier island, with the capital, most of the roças, the Obo highlands and Cao Grande. Principe, a short flight away, is smaller, quieter and wilder, with fewer places to stay and beautiful, often empty beaches. With a week or more, most visitors split their time between the two.
▸ Do you need a car or a guide on Sao Tome?
Not in the capital, which is easy on foot and by taxi. For the south, the highlands and the roças, a car with a local driver or guide is the usual way: roads are slow, signs are few and English is rare. Shared taxis reach the coast towns if you have time, and the Obo trails, the Pico above all, should be walked with a guide.
▸ Is Sao Tome safe for travellers?
The island has a calm, unhurried reputation, and serious crime against visitors is uncommon. Take normal care with valuables in the capital after dark, swim only where locals do because some beaches have strong currents, and take medical advice before you go on malaria, which is present on the islands.
▸ What does 'leve-leve' mean?
It is the islands' unofficial motto, roughly 'easy, easy' or 'slowly, slowly', and it describes the pace of life, service and transport. Build slack into plans, expect meals to take their time, and treat the slowness as part of the point rather than a problem.
▸ What language is spoken on Sao Tome?
Portuguese is the official language and the one you will need, as English is rare outside the bigger hotels and tour operators. Many islanders also speak Forro, a Portuguese-based creole, and Angolar is spoken along the south-east coast. A few words of Portuguese go a long way.