Brent Pin­heiro & Soyi­ni Grey

As the world con­tin­ues to open up, Na­tion­al Ge­o­graph­ic has is­sued an ear­ly re­lease of its an­nu­al Best of the World com­pi­la­tion and T&T is on the list!

The Nat­Geo re­view helps trav­ellers be­gin plan­ning for the year ahead. T&T has been placed in its Fam­i­ly cat­e­go­ry – kid-friend­ly trips that “ed­u­cate and il­lu­mi­nate,” along with San Fran­cis­co, Colom­bia, Man­ches­ter and Switzer­land. The list was cu­rat­ed in col­lab­o­ra­tion with Na­tion­al Ge­o­graph­ic Trav­eller’s in­ter­na­tion­al ed­i­to­r­i­al teams.

“Best of the World is Nat Geo’s an­nu­al love let­ter to the most in­cred­i­ble places in the world, both near and far,” said Nathan Lump, Na­tion­al Ge­o­graph­ic’s ed­i­tor-in-chief.

“We couldn’t be proud­er to shine a light on these 25 ex­tra­or­di­nary places that most in­spired us this year, and which we know will de­fine trav­ellers’ itin­er­aries for years to come,” he added.

Re­act­ing to the news, Car­la Cu­pid, act­ing chief ex­ec­u­tive of­fi­cer of Tourism Trinidad Ltd, said, “It is great news that our en­vi­ron­men­tal con­ser­va­tion ef­forts are at­tract­ing more and more at­ten­tion from the world of trav­el and tourism.”

She added, “Tourism Trinidad will con­tin­ue to pro­mote the beau­ty and at­trac­tive­ness of our na­ture-based at­trac­tions and sup­port the pro­tec­tion of these as­sets.”

In its write-up on T&T, Na­tion­al Ge­o­graph­ic says, “Kids ea­ger to help save the tur­tles—and en­counter hun­dreds of them as well—can head to Trinidad and To­ba­go. With log­ger­heads, greens, leatherbacks, hawks­bills, and olive ri­d­leys—five of the sev­en species of sea tur­tles—swim­ming off its shores, this Caribbean na­tion is a Mec­ca for tur­tle tourism.

“Tur­tle-watch­ing pro­grammes led by ap­proved guides gen­er­ate rev­enue to help save these crea­tures, which are un­der as­sault from cli­mate change, habi­tat loss, and plas­tic pol­lu­tion.

“Trav­ellers can even vol­un­teer to per­form field work such as keep­ing nest­ing ar­eas clear of de­bris, scan­ning and tag­ging nest­ing tur­tles, and track­ing the size and num­bers of tur­tles and their nests.”

In Trinidad, the go-to for tur­tle-watch­ing is via Na­ture Seek­ers, a non-prof­it or­gan­i­sa­tion whose pri­ma­ry fo­cus is tur­tle con­ser­va­tion.

Es­tab­lished in 1990, man­ag­ing di­rec­tor Su­san Lakhan-Bap­tiste said over the years they’ve found suc­cess once they re­alised the “full sus­tain­able po­ten­tial of eco-tourism through the use of the leatherback tur­tle as a nat­ur­al re­source.”

This work has al­so re­sult­ed in the re­cat­e­gori­sa­tion of Matu­ra beach as a high­ly sought-af­ter tourist des­ti­na­tion.

Na­tion­al Ge­o­graph­ic’s ‘Best of the World 2023’ list is bro­ken down in­to five cat­e­gories: ed­u­ca­tion­al jour­neys for all gen­er­a­tions (fam­i­ly); ex­cit­ing ac­tiv­i­ties in breath-tak­ing places (ad­ven­ture); ex­plo­rations of his­to­ry and her­itage (cul­ture); es­capes to wild, beau­ti­ful places (na­ture); and heal­ing jour­neys, com­mu­ni­ty con­ser­va­tion, giv­ing back, sus­tain­able places and more (com­mu­ni­ty).

For more of Na­tion­al Ge­o­graph­ic’s Best of the World list, vis­it Nat­Geo.com/Be­stofthe­World