A first-time guide to São Tomé and Príncipe

16.09.2024 - 16:27 / lonelyplanet.com

Sep 15, 2024 • 9 min read

Off Africa’s west coast, the archipelagic nation of São Tomé and Príncipe is one of the continent’s most special secrets.

Made up of two main islands, São Tomé and Príncipe offers the best of tropical paradise: long and deserted beaches fringed with palms and a plethora of activities to help you access all this beauty.

But there’s something more here – in a word, harmony. On these islands, nature holds sway and the people move in respectful tandem with the natural world, those who make the long trip here will find superb landscapes and a tourism industry in sync with the surroundings.

Expect quiet pleasures, like lingering over a banquet of moqueca de peixe (fish stew) and gloriously named blá-bla (smoked fish) while gazing out over the Atlantic. Hiking through a forest, finding a beach and being the only one there.

Interest piqued? Read on to learn more before your first visit to São Tomé and Príncipe. 

The busiest time to visit – a relative term, given those wonderfully low arrival numbers – is between June through August. These are the driest months, and they coincide with European summer holidays, drawing visitors from Portugal (from which São Tomé and Príncipe gained independence in 1975) in particular. To avoid even the hint of a crowd, come in June, before Europeans set off on summer vacations but when the weather is already lovely. Note that while deep-blue skies are the norm in summer, since this is the tropics it can (and often does) rain at any time.

There are two shoulder seasons in this part of the world. The first, from March to May, begins with the last rains of the wet season in March and April; May can be magnificent or torrential, depending on the year. The same applies from September to November. September is usually lovely, though rising humidity can be an uncomfortable sign of things to come. By October, everything is steamy; November usually brings the first rains. In these shoulder months, the rain is rarely constant, arriving instead in the form of apocalyptic afternoon storms that disappear almost as soon as they arrive.

December to February is the rainy season. It can be busier than usual at this moment due to Christmas–New Year holidays in Europe, though with near-constant rain, we wouldn’t recommend this season as the best time of year to visit.

It’s feasible to see most of what this compact country has to offer in 10 days. Yet two weeks would be ideal for truly taking it all in, for São Tomé and Príncipe deserves to be savored, rather than just “seen” and “done.” (What’s more, budgeting an extra day or two for rain disruptions is never a bad idea.) So in addition to the must-do list of attractions, any trip here is enhanced by slowing down and embracing