The island is very beautiful, and full of the oddly weathered remnants of extinct volcanoes that look like huge pillars, some of which rise 600m (196ft) straight up out of the jungle. The coasts are ringed with white sandy beaches and beautiful, clear water. You can make excursions to many of the coffee and cocoa plantations not far from town.North of town, there is some stunning scenery but not many beaches. The country dries out around the north of the island, where magnificent baobab trees grow among rolling hills. The road peters out into dense jungle just past Santa Catarina, which is as far as the taxis will go on the west coast. The road south of town takes you past some of the island's best beaches. The poetically named Praia das Sete Ondas (Beach of the Seven Waves) is about 12km (7.4mi) south of town. The spectacular blowhole Boca de Inferno (Hell's Mouth) nearby is worth seeing.

If you get as far as Porto Alegre, 37km (23mi) south of São Tomé, you can hire a motorised pirogue to take you to Ilha das Rolas, an islet smack on the equator. You can tell your friends you've been, but otherwise there's no point in making the trip. The difficulty is getting to Porto Alegre, as the road is almost more pothole than tar and vehicles are few.

The capital is a picturesque little town on the north-east coast of the main island. Nestled on a bay, it is full of badly neglected Portuguese colonial buildings but superbly maintained parks and gardens. The town centre is small enough to negotiate on foot in a couple of hours. Worth seeing are the 16th century cathedral, and the National Museum in the 400 year-old Fort São Sebastião on the peninsula, about 1.2km (.7mi) from the centre of town. It has a good range of displays on agriculture, religion, handcrafts and juju, and a hard hitting display on the slave trade. You should also not miss the Agustinho Neto Manor House, with more than 30 rooms behind one facade. The old Santo Antonio Quarter is fascinating to walk around and it reveals some of the island's history.There is a limited number of reasonable hotels and pensãos around the centre of town, some of them clean and family run. The best place for street food is around the market, where you can find cheap bread rolls stuffed with canned salami or sausages from Portugal. Several restaurants offer good, Portuguese-inspired meals for as little as US$3.

Trinidade is a pleasant town in the island's interior, and you can visit the waterfall Cascadas de São Nicolau nearby. You can also use Trinidade as a base from which to hike up Pico São Tomé, the highest point on the island at 2024m (6639ft). There are buses every two to three hours from São Tomé to Trinidade, a trip of about 10km (6mi), or you can hitch.