The Best Bars in Trinidad and Tobago

The tables at Bago’s spill out onto the salt-white sands of Swallow’s Beach in Crown Point. The bar is open throughout the day, but the best time to visit is early in the evening to catch the cinematic sunsets. The drinks menu features a range of sundowner cocktails, including mango margaritas and classic piña coladas. Visit on a Friday, and you can sip to the sound of live steel drum music.

The rattan armchairs and hanging egg-seats at Waves Bar look out over the shortbread-coloured sands of Stonehaven Bay in Black Rock. There’s a lengthy cocktail menu here; alongside classics like piña coladas, you’ll find drinks with kooky names such as the Coconut Tree Creeper and Rainbow Surprise. Head here at sunset to watch the sky turn golden as you drink.

Signature cocktails at this Port of Spain bar include the Buzzberry Mojito, made with berry rum and strawberries, and the champagne margarita. If you’re on a budget, you’ll be pleased to hear that the bar hosts regular deals on drinks, including weekly two-for-one offers. Visit here with a group, and you can get stuck into the shot platters, which feature up to 15 shots of your choice.

On busy nights, the drinkers spill out of the front of Frankie’s onto the pavement of Ariapita Avenue. Cold Stag and Carib beers and White Oak rum are always the drinks of the day, and the bar hosts regular happy hours on these tipples in the early evenings. Frankie’s also puts on seasonal shots, like the green-coloured Frankenstein at Halloween. The bar serves food, too. Ask about the soup of the day – the bar staff will tell you it’s rum.

The centrepieces at Cazabon Wine & Cocktail Bar at One Woodbrook Place are two wine chillers, where you can help yourself to 25ml (0.8fl oz), 50ml (1.7fl oz) and 100ml (3.4fl oz) tasting portions of up to 32 different bottles of wine. There are a variety of seating options here. Sink into vintage sofas, sit at tables topped with chess boards, or base yourself at the tall wooden bar tables to be closest to the wine dispensers.

Set on the sand of Maracas Bay, Uncle Sam & Sons is a feel-good beach bar. All sorts of inventive cocktails are available here; some are served in hollowed-out pineapple skins, others appear to smoke. The bar staff demonstrate considerable flair as they make the drinks, too. Hungry? Try Uncle Sam’s bake and shark (a little like a fish kebab) – it’s made to a secret family recipe.

V&J Brauhaus on Ariapita Avenue is a little bit different – the whole place revolves around German beer and food. Beers like Paulaner white beer, from Munich, are served in bicep-straining glass steins, and there are dishes like schnitzel bites and bratwurst on the menu. Most of the seating is set in the Bavarian-style beer garden. Visit in October for the annual Oktoberfest celebrations at the bar.