Become a member

Asa Wright

Now24° Tomorrow30°

An old cocoa and coffee estate in the rainforest of the Arima Valley, kept for birds since 1967, with oilbirds in a cave below and hummingbirds at the verandah rail.

Fly to Asa Wright All of Trinidad and Tobago
Arrival
Piarco International · POS
To the lodge
About an hour by road from Piarco
Private jets
General aviation at the South Terminal, POS
Best time
January to April

The city

A plantation house given back to the forest.

Spring Hill was a working estate when its house went up between 1906 and 1908, growing cocoa, coffee and citrus on the slopes of the Arima Valley. Asa Wright and her husband bought it in 1946, and she let much of the land return to forest. Scientists began to stay on the recommendation of William Beebe, who ran a field station at Simla next door. In December 1967 friends from the Florida Audubon Society raised the money to put the estate in trust as a sanctuary.

More than 180 bird species have been recorded on the property, and on a good day seventy can be seen from the grounds. A ten-year concession now runs the ecolodge, which reopened in April 2023 with 29 rooms after a long refurbishment. Eight trails lead into the forest. The dry months, January to April, are the busiest, and rooms should be booked well ahead.

  • Dunston Cave A colony of oilbirds, fruit-eaters that fly at night, open to guests who stay at least three nights.
  • The verandah From the lodge’s verandah you watch hummingbirds, antshrikes and honeycreepers in the trees.
  • Simla William Beebe’s tropical research station of 1949, a neighbour in the valley about 8 km north of Arima.

Arriving

An hour from the runway to the rainforest.

Trinidad has one international airport, Piarco, about 30 km east of Port of Spain. The lodge lies some 14 km to the north in a straight line, but the road climbs into the Northern Range and the drive takes about an hour.

Business & First Class Scheduled flights Travellers from Europe arrive on the KLM service from Amsterdam or the British Airways flight from Gatwick. American comes from Miami, JetBlue from New York and Air Canada from Toronto. Business & First fares Private Jet Private aircraft Business aircraft use Piarco’s South Terminal, which has fourteen parking positions shared with cargo and helicopters. The runway is 3,200 metres long. Charter a jet
Approximate flying time by midsize jet
  • Barbados 45 min
  • St Maarten 1 h 25
  • Palm Beach 3 h 45
  • São Paulo 5 h 40
  • London 9 h 25 long-range jet

When to go

January to April.

The figures are Port of Spain’s, from the coast, the nearest long-term record; the lodge stands higher, in the hills of the Northern Range. The dry season runs from January to April. May brings the rains, and from June to November each month has close to 200 mm or more.

  1. 30° J 69
  2. 30° F 45
  3. 31° M 35
  4. 31° A 48
  5. 32° M 110
  6. 31° J 240
  7. 31° J 253
  8. 31° A 236
  9. 31° S 193
  10. 31° O 199
  11. 31° N 212
  12. 30° D 145
Best months weather2travel.com, long-term averages for Port of Spain

Where to dine

Dinner in Port of Spain.

The nearest high-end tables are in Port of Spain. These are Fodor’s Choice restaurants there, both on Tripadvisor’s fine dining list for the city.

  • The Meena House Fodor’s Choice Indian and fusion $$$$ Newtown, Port of Spain, about 25 km west
  • Aioli Fodor’s Choice Mediterranean $$$$ Maraval, Port of Spain, about 25 km west

Elsewhere in Trinidad and Tobago

More reasons to come.

All of Trinidad and Tobago

Flying to Asa Wright?

Choose how you arrive.

A Business or First Class seat on a scheduled airline, or an aircraft of your own. Tell us the date and how many are travelling, and we reply with one final price, our margin included.

Business & First Private Jet