Trekking in São Tomé and Príncipe | Rainforest and Cocoa Trails, 9 Days

Direct flight from Lisbon, around 6h30 and with no time difference, arriving in the late afternoon. You are met by the agency guide, helped with currency exchange and transferred to the hotel in São Tomé city. Welcome dinner with a briefing on the route, the kit you will need and the rhythm of the days ahead. No walking. Overnight in the city.

A short, easy first stage to find your feet and gauge the heat: around 2h30 on foot along the waterfront and Ana Chaves Bay, past the São Sebastião fort and the old town, then out of the city on a coastal path. Flat ground, negligible ascent. Afternoon to rest and sort your kit. Overnight in the city.

The hardest stage of the circuit, and the reason many people come. Setting off from the Bom Sucesso botanical garden at around 1,150 metres, you climb through primary forest inside Obô Natural Park to the crater of Lagoa Amélia at around 1,400 metres — an old volcanic crater whose floor is now covered by a floating carpet of vegetation you actually walk on. Around 5h of walking, roughly +400 m and −400 m, on mud, roots and natural steps, almost always under the canopy. Along the way, the island's endemic botany: marmulanos, giant begonias, wild orchids and tree ferns. Descent to Roça Monte Café, an old high-altitude coffee plantation, with a tasting of the arabica grown there. Overnight in the city.

A mixed forest and coastal stage of around 4h, with moderate ascent. You follow the old service paths that linked the northern plantations to the coast, through abandoned groves and secondary growth, down to the fishing village of Neves against the sea, where lunch is fish and spider crab just off the boat. On the way back, a stop at Lagoa Azul, clear water over volcanic rock, and the route of the centuries-old baobabs standing alone in the dry northern landscape. Overnight in the city.

Around 4h walking among cocoa trees in the shade of the fromagers — the giant trees that shelter the cocoa — along plantation tracks and secondary forest trails. Gentle ascent. You arrive on foot at Roça Santa Luzia, a restored cocoa plantation in the middle of the forest, where you follow the bean from harvest to drying and taste the white pulp of a freshly opened pod. Dinner and overnight at the plantation itself, forest all around.

Down to the south of the island, the greenest and least populated part, stopping at the viewpoint over Pico Cão Grande, the volcanic monolith rising 663 metres above the forest. A coastal stage of around 3h30, along deserted beaches and trails between woodland and sea, to the mouth of the Malanza river and its mangroves. Check-in at Inhame Ecolodge, on the beach. A swim at the end of the stage and dinner at the lodge.

A morning walking along the Malanza river, around 2h, followed by a boat trip through the mangroves with local guides, among roots, birds and silence. In the afternoon, the boat crossing to Ilhéu das Rolas and the walk up to the Equator marker raised at Gago Coutinho's request: the exact point where you stand with one foot in each hemisphere. Time on the islet's beaches before heading back. Dinner and overnight at Inhame Ecolodge.

A free morning in the south, with Praia Piscina minutes away — natural warm-water pools between the rocks that fill and empty with the tide — for a last morning by the sea. Back to the city and a visit to São Tomé's Central Market, among fruit, roots, spices and tropical flowers, for any last purchases. Farewell dinner and airport transfer, with the overnight flight home.

Arrival in Lisbon early in the morning, boots still unwashed and the whole island walked.