- Where
- Southern Grenadines, Caribbean
east of Mayreau - Coordinates
- 12.632° N
61.355° W - The cays
- Petit Rameau, Petit Bateau, Baradal,
Petit Tabac, Jamesby - People
- No residents
- Protected
- Tobago Cays Marine Park
SPAW-listed 2014 - Getting there
- Boat from Union Island or Mayreau
about 30 minutes - Best visited
- December to May
Five little islands, palms and scrub and white sand, sat in water clear enough that our hull seemed to hover above the sand. Beyond them, right across the horizon, one long band of breaking surf held the ocean off. A turtle surfaced beside me, took one breath, regarded me with polite indifference and returned to its grazing. I floated there a long time, hands kept carefully to myself.
The short answer
The Tobago Cays are an archipelago of five small islands, Petit Rameau, Petit Bateau, Baradal, Petit Tabac and Jamesby, with extensive coral reefs, in the Southern Grenadines of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Wikipedia records. They are the key element of the Tobago Cays Marine Park, owned and run by the government, which takes in a sand-bottomed lagoon of about 1,400 acres around the five cays, the inhabited island of Mayreau, and the 4-kilometre Horseshoe Reef. The park was listed as a regionally significant ecosystem under the Caribbean’s SPAW Protocol in December 2014. Nobody lives on the cays.
Why it's worth knowing
A lagoon behind a reef. Around the cays are shallow fringing reefs, and to the east a large bank-barrier reef, Horseshoe Reef; inside it, south of Baradal, lie most of the park’s seagrass beds, turtle grass and manatee grass, which feed young fish, starfish, conch and green turtles, Wikipedia records. Green, hawksbill and leatherback turtles use the beaches and seagrass, and the park has marked a turtle-watching area off one of the cays, travel guides report. Surveys in 2007 found most reefs dominated by dead coral rubble, with live coral cover of 5 to 30 per cent, and all of them in decline.
Bought for the public. The cays and Mayreau were privately owned from at least the sixteenth century until 12 April 1999, when the state bought the five cays after long negotiations; Mayreau stayed in private hands, Wikipedia records. The Fisheries Division had declared the area a conservation area in 1987. Wikipedia estimates about 3,000 yachts anchor in the lagoon each year, and that some 10,000 of about 50,000 cruise-ship visitors a year come to the cays. The park has since banned all anchoring at Petit Tabac, where yachts’ anchors had damaged coral, and is installing dinghy moorings there, sailing press reports.
The field notes
Poisonous trees and a rare cactus
The cays are covered in dry forest, grass and shrubs. Manchineel, a highly poisonous tree, grows as low shrubs on Petit Rameau, Baradal and Jamesby; Petit Rameau has the cays’ one patch of red mangrove, and the near-threatened cactus Melocactus broadwayi grows here, Wikipedia records. Brown pelicans, bridled terns and iguanas live in the park.
Old islands on a young arc
The Grenadines are older than St Vincent, Wikipedia explains, and sit on a broad shallow bank of volcanic origin, raised in the Miocene, along the active boundary of the Caribbean and South American plates; the undersea volcano Kick ’em Jenny lies to the south, north of Grenada. The shallow bank is what makes the seagrass, mangroves and reefs possible. Hurricane Beryl struck the Southern Grenadines in July 2024.
A rainbow over the cays after an August squall, 2008.
Photograph: Jason Pratt · Tobago Cays Rainbow - panoramio · CC BY 3.0 · cropped
Sailing yachts anchored off the cays in February 1989.
Photograph: cazah · Tobago Keys - Grenadines - 02-1989 - panoramio · CC BY 3.0
- Find a boatman the evening before and settle the hour and the price over a handshake.
- Start listing the colours in the water. It now holds more blues than words to name them.
- Watch the turtles from above and give them all the room they want. They are eating.
- Pay the park fee to the ranger when the boat comes alongside, and thank them for the work.
- Stay inside the lagoon unless your boatman says otherwise. The surf out there means it.
Horseshoe Reef. The 4-kilometre bank-barrier reef that curves around the east side of the Tobago Cays and takes the Atlantic swell, sheltering the lagoon, the cays and their seagrass beds, by Wikipedia’s account; it is part of the marine park. It is seen as a long white line of surf from the cays, and snorkelled only where the rangers allow.
Tally, in the marginI spent the whole day admiring the islands. Leaving, I looked back and saw they were only the decoration: the long white line of the reef was the thing, quietly holding the entire sea at arm’s length.
Getting there
How to get there. By boat only. Water taxis and day boats leave from Union Island and Mayreau, the nearest inhabited islands; the crossing from Union Island takes about 30 minutes, travel guides report. Union Island is reached by ferry from Kingstown, on St Vincent. Sailors come on their own or chartered yachts and pick up a mooring.
When to go. December to May, outside the Atlantic hurricane season of June to November; the State Department notes that the country regularly experiences hurricanes. Calm days give the clearest water for snorkelling.
What to arrange ahead. A boat and a boatman, booked the day before on Union Island or Mayreau. All visitors pay a park fee to the rangers who patrol the park, EC$10 a person in 2026, and yachts pay a further fee for the night, travel guides report. No fishing or jet skis are allowed. Bring water, food and sun protection.
Safety. The State Department has Saint Vincent and the Grenadines at Level 1, exercise normal precautions (advisory dated 7 July 2026 in its feed, read 5 October 2026), noting hurricanes. The hazards here are the place’s own: sun, currents near the reef, and the manchineel, which Wikipedia calls highly poisonous: do not touch it, eat its fruit or shelter under it.
Mark this place
Common questions
Where are the Tobago Cays?
The Tobago Cays are five small uninhabited islands in the Southern Grenadines of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, in the eastern Caribbean, just east of Mayreau. They are not part of Tobago, which belongs to Trinidad and Tobago.
How do you get to the Tobago Cays?
By boat only: water taxis and day boats run from Union Island or Mayreau, about 30 minutes from Union Island, and yachts come by sea. Union Island is reached by ferry from Kingstown on St Vincent.
Is there a fee to visit the Tobago Cays?
Yes. Every visitor to the Tobago Cays Marine Park pays a park fee to the patrolling rangers, EC$10 a person in 2026, according to travel guides; yachts pay an additional nightly fee, and anchoring is banned around Petit Tabac to protect coral.
Can you see turtles in the Tobago Cays?
Yes. Green turtles graze the seagrass beds inside Horseshoe Reef, and green, hawksbill and leatherback turtles use the Tobago Cays’ beaches and seagrass; the marine park has marked a turtle-watching area off one of the cays.
Who owns the Tobago Cays?
The government of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. The five Tobago Cays were privately owned from at least the sixteenth century until 12 April 1999, when the state bought them after long negotiations; they are now the core of the Tobago Cays Marine Park.
What is Horseshoe Reef?
Horseshoe Reef is the 4-kilometre bank-barrier reef that curves around the east of the Tobago Cays, breaking the Atlantic swell and sheltering the lagoon and seagrass beds inside it. It is part of the Tobago Cays Marine Park.
Does anyone live on the Tobago Cays?
No. None of the five Tobago Cays is inhabited. The nearest inhabited island, Mayreau, lies within the marine park but remains privately owned.
Are the Tobago Cays reefs healthy?
Not entirely. Surveys in 2007 found most reefs in the Tobago Cays Marine Park dominated by dead coral rubble, with live coral cover of 5 to 30 per cent, and all reefs in decline, Wikipedia records; the park has since banned anchoring at Petit Tabac to protect coral.