NOTE TO SELF
Previous to travelling, preparation is an absolute must!
Plan health care in advance. Visit a doctor to prepare your trip at least 2 weeks prior (travellers appointment), because you’ll might take vaccination and medication. Apparently in some countries it’s disregarded, but in Portugal is taken quite seriously.
While in São Tomé: avoid raw food, especially veggies, you don’t know how they’ve been washed or if disinfected, and water of all kinds must be avoided. No drinks with ice, no teeth washing with tap water, an be mindful not to swallow water in the shower… use bottled water.
Mosquitoes: malaria, dengue, yellow fever… just be prepared and wear repellent (on your skin and clothing), especially at sunset.
There’s very few info on STP online, and most in Portuguese, so prepare this trip carefully. A few tips more:
Money: take cash, euros are accepted everywhere, but it’s really hard to find ATM machines, so always travel with cash. You can exchange at arrival, at least part of your money to dobras, it’s better to carry both currencies, though they’ll always give you the euro pricing.
Choosing the hotel is an important deal, it’s not Europe, standards are not the same, so beware of expectations. Expect modest, humble but authentic. The simplest places can be dreamy if you wake up to birds twittering over the ocean sound….
Roads/access: OMFG!!… imagine the worst road you’ve driven on… this is worst… I lack of words to explain the extent of it. I read and heard over and over from previous travelers that the roads were bad on your way to the south, but the thing is, they’re not bad, they just don’t exist.. it’s like as if u need to drive your 4×4 on a place nobody ever passed before and Nature took over… you don’t really know whether the 4×4 will go through sometimes… my reaction was just 😲😲 for more than 1,5h of driving.
Because access is a problem, the choice of hotel and what you want to see is key. Check the “HELL NO” section for more on this.
Car rental: we’d recommend it. During our trip we met people who took transfers and taxis, but they were quite limited to move around. If you want to be able to discover freely, rent a car. We recommend Get-a-car rental, not only were they nice, but the service was 5*!! Write them a WhatsApp!!
Weather cold and rain
Roaming
Visa, no contactless
Andar noite sem luz pública
Donativos e revenda
HOLLY GRAILS ☺️
Waking up to the waves sound… natural white noise on your footsteps. Our wood house in Praia Inhame Ecolodge was just that, a small place in heaven. In the morning birds and waves, in the evening crickets too.
The local food tasting experience at Roça São João dos Angolares by the chef João Carlos Silva from the food show “Na Roça com os Tachos”.
Equilíbrio cabeça mulheres
HELL NO
There’s only 1 road in the island, and it’s in terrible condition.. and to make matters worse, it does not connect the island circularly. Yes, that’s what I mean, if you’re in the south and want to go Northwest, you must drive northeast first… many hours of travelling if you decide to be based in one hotel only. You must decide:
1/ you want to be close to the beach, and that’s your trip’s priority – you go south and stay there, because you don’t want to be driving anywhere from there;
2/ you want to discover the island’s culture and enjoy some beach time – you select one hotel in the centre of the main road and you drive everywhere from there (1:30h roughly to both ends);
3/ you want to be on the move constantly, visiting everything in the island – you change hotels a few times and drive around.
Driving at night
Donativos
Queimadas
Motos and car safety. Poupança luz faróis
Sunset schedule
Publicada toilets- Take paper
MYTH BUSTING
Beggars, mostly kids: don’t believe in all they say, and don’t say yes to anything you don’t want to compromise. They don’t like to hear “NO” and they can be real pain in the arse… so be ready with polite answers and find techniques that work best for you. They’ll ask for
Money for anything, or if small enough, they’ll ask for candy or toys. Avoid giving them things to not incentivise them to be out in the street begging.
RESTAURANT RECOMMENDATIONS
Roça São João dos Angolares (must-do several course tasting experience).
Mucumbli, mostly for the place, the food is ok.
Xico’s Café has a good ambiance.
Praia Inhame hotel in the south. We haven’t tried many others but our French friends were quite disappointed with what they tried.
MUST-SEE PLACES
Roam like a Local 