Carribean Chagville Trinidad and Tobago Beaches

Chagville Beach is located at Carenage Bay, opposite the Convention Centre in Chaguaramas. It is a man made beach, sandy and about 600 m long. Service facilities include 2 large car parks, changing rooms, showers and toilets. The service facilities and the beach are well maintained and Chagville is a popular location for wind-surfing. There are no lifeguards at this beach.

For those of you who have not visited Chagville Beach, Chaguaramas, in the scenic northwestern peninsula within the past two years, the change in the scenery may be nothing short of remarkable.

The new beachfront facilities include concessionary stalls, all weather benches and tables, landscaped surroundings and even a sporting facility.

Although more needs to be done about the changing rooms and washrooms, as well as providing at least one lifeguard at the site, the improvements have encouraged bathers to keep their beach clean.

The dilapidated beach-house, which doubled as a bar and restaurant about ten years ago, was completely removed and the surrounding trees seemed to have been pruned to provide extra shade for the beach area.

Our drive to the site proved to be just as thrilling as eventually reaching the beach.  The calm, blue inviting sea on one side was a fitting balance to the huge treks of virgin forest on the other side that sheltered some of the best wildlife and bird watching trails in the region.

Chagville beach stretches for about one kilometre from Pier 1 to the Military Museum and Helicopter Facility in Chaguaramas, and almost all of it includes the clear blue waters that originally made the beach famous in the early 1900s.

The broken seawall that was originally built by the American Military to accommodate construction along the beach, now protects the shoreline from erosion and shelters young children from the waves as they splash and wade in the small ponds nearby.

On our visit, the beach was filled, as the country seemed to have rediscovered Chagville.  Apart from the space that seemed to have been set aside for playing football, elsewhere was filled with picnic baskets, beach umbrellas and children running around.

The beach was calm and clear, with small waves raising just a few inches at the edge of the seawall.  This allowed children to play in the water while their parents relaxed a footstep away under the shade of an almond tree.

The southern end of the beach, which includes the sporting facility, car parks, concessionary stalls and even a KFC outlet, has traditionally been the more populated portion of the beachfront.  For beach bums wanting less of the crowds and sporting activities, and more of he slower paced lying-in-the-sun fun in more peaceful surroundings the Museum side of Chagville is just their solution.

Unlike the other end of the beach, the Museum side even has portions of the beachfront that is still grassy, rather than just sandy.  This indicates that it is not along the beaten path.

The clean clear waters, the children playing, the improved facilities and the scenic back drop of the ‘small boats’ in the bay nearby, makes a spectacular fame for a scenery that has been clipped out of a Caribbean Dream Vacation Poster.

The unique appeal of the Chagville beach is that it seems to make everyone feel at home in or out of the water.  The quality of he water is good as it is pleasantly warm, yet cool enough to be your saviour on a hot dry day.

For visitors to the hotel and convention centre nearby, the beach will be an unexpected windfall. One visitor we met described the water as warm as in his bathtub.  He added that during his stay in Trinidad, he only came out of the water to eat.

Unlike many other beach facilities, Chagville has somehow managed to preserve much of its delight since most of the visitors seem to be residents from nearby Carenage and Chaguaramas.  Viewing this beach as their own, the impulse to abuse or litter the grounds as is common on other beaches seemed to be more restrained.  We noticed many visitors were filling their garbage bags bought from home and disposing of their soft-drink bottles and candy wrappers in the waste baskets provided.

This is a clear sign that the splendour of this beach will be preserved for many years to come.