Trinidad and Tobago

Trinidad and Tobago is a twin-island republic that punches so far above its weight in cultural output that you would think it had ten times its population. These two islands just off the coast of Venezuela invented the steel pan - the only acoustic instrument created in the 20th century. They gave the world calypso, soca, and limbo. Their Carnival is one of the greatest street festivals on Earth, rivaling Rio for sheer energy and spectacle. And the food - a glorious collision of African, Indian, Chinese, Creole, and European cooking - is among the best in the Caribbean.

The two islands could hardly be more different. Trinidad is the larger, more industrialized sister, sitting on substantial oil and gas reserves that make it one of the wealthiest nations in the Caribbean. Port of Spain is a cosmopolitan capital where Hindu temples sit alongside mosques and churches, where roti shops compete with Chinese restaurants and Creole doubles vendors. Tobago, by contrast, is a laidback tropical paradise of coral reefs, rainforests, and fishing villages, with one of the oldest protected rainforests in the Western Hemisphere. Together they form a country where every cultural celebration seems to involve music, food, and an infectious refusal to take life too seriously.