Tristan da Cunha - Edinburgh of the Seven Seas

HELLO FROM THE TOURISM DEPARTMENT

My name is Dawn Repetto and I am the newly appointed Tourism Co-ordinator. It is my job to ensure you have an enjoyable stay while visiting here at Tristan da Cunha. 

You may well ask "why would anyone want to visit Tristan?" - a small Island stuck in a small corner of the world. Well, we the people of Tristan da Cunha invite all people from all walks of life to come on down and experience first hand how we live and see our beautiful wildlife, flora and fauna, much of which is endemic to Tristan. Come and see for yourself how unique we really are.

Although we are small and isolated we feel that we can cater for everyone’s needs.

If you are not the physical type we can offer more leisurely excursions. We recommend that you try one or more of our cultural tours and learn first hand what it is like to live in this remote corner of the world. How about a culture tour around our village with a local guide who will tell you all about our life on Tristan, our history and its culture, or a trip to the 1961 volcano with a local guide who will tell you all about the volcanic eruption, how we were evacuated and how it affected all our lives. You will be very fortunate to get a beautiful scenic view of the whole settlement from the volcano summit, or maybe a walk to the potato patches where you can hear all about our subsistent farming, wildlife and many more attractions. If you don’t feel up to all this excitement why not leisurely wander around the settlement and patches area at your own pace.

If walking is not for you why not take our bus tour to the potato patches and hear all about how we live.

If you are not a person for crowds and need some time out then we can organise a private taxi service for you. Not up to all of this, then why not have a game of golf; Tristan’s golf course is a unique experience not to be missed. Where else in the world can you play with a few chickens and cows? At the end of it you will have in your possession a scorecard, golf certificate and Tristan da Cunha golf tie - imagine having that on your mantle piece.

Maybe you’re the fishing type, how about a fishing trip by boat with two local fishermen, catching all sorts of fish from Yellow Tail to Steenbrass. Not forgetting a few delicious lobster on the side.

If you really want to get in tune with nature, we can offer day trips with local guides to Nightingale and Inaccessible. These two Islands are situated some distance away from Tristan and are unpopulated. However the wildlife living there is out of this world and a visit is something I would recommend.

The Tourism Department was recently formed in February 2009 and is still under development. We hope to offer many more excursions by next year, however if you would like to visit Tristan and there is something specific you would like to do or see then please feel free to contact me on tourismtdc@gmail.com We will do our best to arrange this for you.

If you have already visited and feel events could have been done differently, then please drop us a line and let us know, as our aim is to please.

Photo credit:  Cynthia Green