Crown Point

Crown Point takes its name not from a crown but from the Duchy of Courland, the Baltic duchy that ruled Tobago in the late 17th century. The island was fought over by the Dutch, Courlanders, English, French, Spanish and Swedes and changed hands 33 times, more than any other place in the Caribbean, before it was secured by Britain. Under British rule sugar, cotton and indigo were produced by enslaved Africans brought to the island.

The sugar economy collapsed after the end of slavery in 1834 and a severe hurricane in 1847, and in 1889 Tobago became a ward of Trinidad. The airport that defines the town began in December 1940, when a 670-metre landing strip was laid here, and it was enlarged with a new terminal in the mid-1980s. In 1963 Hurricane Flora destroyed many of Tobago's plantations, and the island's economy turned towards tourism, which grew up around the airport and the beaches of the south-west.

In 2005, after a controversy over the entry fee charged by its private owner, the Tobago House of Assembly bought the Pigeon Point peninsula for TT$106 million, and it is now run as a public heritage park. In May 2011 the airport was renamed A. N. R. Robinson International Airport in honour of the Tobago-born former president and prime minister.

Crown Point is the most visitor-oriented corner of Tobago, but its beaches are also where the island relaxes. Store Bay is the beach favoured by locals and by Trinidadians who come over to visit, while Pigeon Point, with its thatched jetty, has become an internationally recognised signature of Tobago. Liming — relaxed time with friends, food and music — fills the beach bars at sunset.

Tobago's population is mainly of African descent, and the island's culture is distinct from Trinidad's: smaller in scale, more rural and rooted in village life. Just up the coast, the village of Buccoo has held goat races since 1925, started by a Barbadian, Samuel Callendar, on Easter Tuesday, an unofficial holiday in Tobago that draws thousands of spectators.

The sea is central to local identity. The Buccoo Reef, a protected marine park since 1973, is visited by most tourists who come to Tobago, and the island's own Buccoo Reef Trust has worked since 1999 on marine education and the protection of its reefs. The Nylon Pool, a clear, sandy shallow out at sea, was named by Princess Margaret on a visit in 1962.

Crown Point is a small town whose life follows the airport and the beaches. Tobago as a whole had about 61,000 people at the 2011 census, and the south-west, around Crown Point, Store Bay, the Buccoo Reef and Pigeon Point, is its main tourist area, with large stretches of sand dominated by resort-type development. Hotels, car-hire offices, restaurants and tour boats are concentrated here.

Across Tobago, government spending is the largest part of the economy, with the Tobago House of Assembly employing most of the island's workforce; tourism, still a small industry, and fishing follow. In 2011 a 60 per cent fall in arrivals raised questions about plans to expand the airport.

Boats leave Pigeon Point for the reef, Store Bay draws locals, and in the evening people gather at the beach bars and the restaurants of Milford Road. Most residents drive; visitors rely on taxis, the irregular buses to Scarborough and hire cars.

Tobago's signature dish is crab and dumpling. Seafood is central to the island's cooking, and the restaurants of Milford Road serve fish, roti and Caribbean dishes alongside pizza, pasta and gyros for visitors.

The national dishes of Trinidad and Tobago are found here too. Roti — a soft flatbread wrapped around curried chicken, chickpeas, potatoes or vegetables — is the everyday meal, and doubles, curried chickpeas between two small fried flatbreads with tamarind and pepper sauces, are eaten for breakfast on the go. Creole home cooking brings callaloo, made with dasheen leaves, okra and coconut, pelau, rice cooked with pigeon peas and meat, and macaroni pie.

To drink there is fresh coconut water, mauby, a bittersweet drink made from tree bark, sorrel at Christmas, and sea moss. Carib and Stag are the local lagers, and rum shops are found all over the island. A short drive away in Scarborough, cow heel soup and pig tail soup are easy to find, and its Chinese restaurants stay open late.