About the country
São Tomé, the island “at the middle of the world”, sits right on the equator and the Greenwich meridian. A former Portuguese colony, São Tomé and Príncipe are two independent Atlantic islands off the coast of Gabon, in the Gulf of Guinea. Together they make up one of the two smallest countries in Africa.
The country is lush with humid tropical forest (cocoa, coffee, tropical fruit, primary forest) and dry forest (baobabs). Life moves at the gentle “Léve Léve” pace. We only visited São Tomé itself (there was no longer a dive club on Príncipe when we did our research in 2019).
There are a good fifteen dive sites, very little known among divers. The topography is beautiful : fissures, caves, tunnels. Everything would be ideal for a diving paradise, but unfortunately there are far too many fishermen in motorized boats with very fine-mesh nets who come every day and deplete the larger species, including groupers, barracudas, rays, turtles, even seahorses. Atlantic Diving laments the net loss on some sites and is desperately trying to set up marine parks.
We dived around the many islets on the east coast : the seamount Sete Pedras, the Santana canyon and caves, the wrecks Do Arroz, Pico Douro, Mikao, and to the north the wonderful Lagoa Azul.
Our opinion
Difficulty
Visibility
Diversity
Atmosphere
Practical
In May 2019.
Atlantic Diving Center, located at the Santana club : you’ll need a car to get there, or stay at the club. Alberto put together a perfectly balanced week of dives for us. The dives are drift dives, the sites furthest from the club are a 40-minute boat ride away (Pedras). They run 2 outings a day.
The club has a big, powerful boat (10 people), but not really set up for diving : a toilet with no pump, no benches, no roof for shade, and a small dinghy (4 people) that’s actually more practical.
Alberto and the other divemaster speak good French and are very professional.
In May 2019.
Club Santana : has its own dive club, sparing you the cost and time of transfers. The club is luxurious and comfortable, with a seawater pool and a jacuzzi facing the bay. Note that prices are 5 times higher than on the rest of the island. There’s an evening of entertainment once a week, on Saturdays, an excellent BBQ on the beach bar, which means the rest of the time it’s quiet . We can only recommend staying elsewhere on the island to see the real São Tomé.
Casa Tiago in the pretty little village of Belém, a few minutes from Trinidade, in the “jungle”, is a small, very comfortable and well-equipped traditional wooden house. Arcadio, its owner (also the owner of Casa Ediana), is a welcoming host who’s passionate about showing off his island off the beaten path and close to the local people.
In May 2019.
São Tomé City : Taste the chocolate of passionate chocolatier Claudio Corallo and visit Cacau, the contemporary art gallery of local artists.
Around Trinidade : Visit the Monté Café museum and the San Nicolau waterfall.
Try the local specialties at the “Kioskes” and Christina’s famous Calulu in the Kabelo Mole neighborhood. Stroll through the forest at Belém and taste freshly tapped palm wine.
Around Bom Sucesso : Walk to lagoa Amelia in the primary forest.