About This Site
Beyond the Beaches
The Chocolate Islands exists because São Tomé and Príncipe deserves better than generic travel advice. This is a fact-based resource grounded in local knowledge, practical experience, and real respect for the islands.
We live here
Jack is based in Santo António, about a 15 minute walk from the city. These pages are built on daily life, local contacts, and direct experience, not researched from a distance or compiled from other travel sites.
We are honest
If a restaurant is overpriced and aimed at tourists, we say so. If a hotel is expensive and the service is slow, you will know. If a road is too rough for a regular car, we tell you that before you go.
Local economy first
We point visitors toward businesses where the owner lives on the island, shops here, and reinvests here. Too much tourism money leaves São Tomé and Príncipe almost as soon as it arrives.
Our Approach
Honest about the past, honest about the present
True appreciation of São Tomé and Príncipe requires understanding its complex past: cocoa plantations built on coerced labour, the Batepá Massacre, and the islands' uneven and still evolving relationship with tourism and development. Our job is not to flatten that into something comfortable.
We live here. We shop in the markets, drink beer with local residents on streets pockmarked by potholes, and eat in the restaurants. If the food is overpriced and aimed at tourists, we will say so. If it is expensive and the service is slow, you will know. If a restaurant is genuinely good but still plagued with flies, we will tell you that too.
Many visitors end up at the house in Santo António, drinking a Nacional on the deck and carving their names into the table. That is part of what this site is built on: not distance, not brochure language, but lived experience, blunt honesty, and a real relationship with the islands.
Our Goal
Help money stay on the islands
Too many tourism businesses exist mainly to extract money from visiting travellers, sending it off the island as quickly as possible. That is a modern echo of older patterns of extraction. We work against that model.
When you follow our recommendations, you are not just planning a trip. You are helping support the islands in a more direct and accountable way. Your spending can strengthen local businesses, reward people who are actually rooted here, and give you a better, more honest experience in return.
The person behind the site
Jack "Fitz" Fitzgerald
Jack lives and works in Santo António a beautiful poor community just outside the capital, where he teaches full-time. He has spent years building The Chocolate Islands as a practical, honest resource for anyone planning a trip to the archipelago.
He is a native English speaker and is available to answer questions directly, help with last-minute problems, or just share a drink and point you in the right direction. His dog Bilbo is usually on the deck and does not bite. Meet Bilbo, our mascot.
If you have a question that the site does not answer, WhatsApp is the fastest route. He checks it regularly and will give you a straight answer.
How we work
How we choose what to recommend
Reliability
Can they be reached easily? Do they show up when they say they will? Do they have a track record? These basics matter more than glossy branding.
Local rootedness
Is the owner actually based here? Are they part of the community? Businesses where the money stays on the island get our attention first.
Honesty
We only list things we would genuinely recommend to a friend. If something is not good enough, it is not on the site.
No pay-to-play
Nobody buys a listing here. We have recommended people and later stopped because circumstances changed. That independence is not negotiable.
Planning a trip?
We are happy to answer questions whether you book anything or not. WhatsApp is the quickest way to get a real answer from someone who is actually on the island.