Praia Jalé is one of São Tomé's most remote, unspoilt and special beaches: a strip of sand and palm trees at the island's far southern tip, far from everything, where sea, rainforest and silence meet in an almost untouched corner. What makes it truly unique, though, is that it's one of the country's main sea turtle nesting sites, a place where conservation and tourism go hand in hand.
In season, sea turtles (green turtles, hawksbills and even the huge leatherbacks) come ashore at night to lay their eggs, and later the hatchlings scramble down to the sea. Programa Tatô, a São Tomé conservation project, protects these beaches and runs guided night walks to watch the turtles without disturbing them. It's a thrilling, unforgettable experience. There's also a small, rustic ecolodge where you can spend the night.
This guide tells you how to visit Praia Jalé: when to go to see turtles, how to reach the far south, how the ecolodge and the conservation project work, and how to combine the beach with the rest of the island's wild south. It's a destination for lovers of nature, marine life and remote corners, in one of the least visited countries in the world.
Praia Jalé is an unspoilt beach at the far southern tip of São Tomé, in the buffer zone of Obô Natural Park, famous as one of the country's main sea turtle nesting sites. Turtle conservation work has been carried out there since 1998 and is now run by Programa Tatô, which protects nesting females, fights poaching and organises turtle-watching walks and eco-volunteering. You'll find more on São Tomé's turtles and the project's history on our history page.
Read the full history ↓Equatorial rainforest, a needle of lava piercing the sky and the land of the Angolares, the descendants of rebel slaves who gave the country its first hero: Rei Amador.
Read the history of The rainforest south of São Tomé →No exact prices: a scale from $ (budget) to $$$$$ (luxury), with 2-3 options per category.
Origins, formation and what the sources say.
Praia Jalé lies at the southern tip of the island of São Tomé, one of the most remote, humid and least populated regions of the country. Here the equatorial rainforest of the Obô Natural Park comes down almost to the sea, and sandy beaches alternate with river mouths, mangroves and lush tropical vegetation. It is a hard-to-reach area, far from the capital, and that is exactly why it has kept a wild and authentic character.
This part of the island gets some of the highest rainfall in Africa: the torrential rains that pour down on the southern mountains feed an overflowing natural world, very different from the drier north. Beaches like Jalé, near Porto Alegre, are framed by this landscape of forest, sea and rivers, in a corner where people are few and nature is in charge.
Precisely because of its isolation and untouched setting, the far south became an ideal refuge for wildlife, including the sea turtles that have been coming to these beaches to lay their eggs since time immemorial. The combination of suitable sand, little artificial light and few people makes Jalé one of the most important nesting sites in the archipelago.
The waters and beaches of São Tomé and Príncipe are a sanctuary for sea turtles: five of the world's seven sea turtle species are found in the archipelago. Among them are the green turtle, the hawksbill turtle (highly endangered, hunted for its shell) and the impressive leatherback, the largest of them all, which can exceed two metres in length and weigh several hundred kilos.
Every year, in the season that runs roughly from September to May, the females come out of the sea at night and climb onto beaches like Jalé to dig their nests in the sand and lay dozens of eggs before returning to the ocean. Weeks later, the hatchlings emerge from the sand and race towards the sea in a dash full of dangers: only a small fraction will reach adulthood. Watching this cycle is one of nature's great spectacles.
However, São Tomé's turtles were seriously threatened for decades. The capture of adult females for their meat and shells, the plundering of eggs, accidental bycatch and habitat destruction pushed several species to the brink of local collapse. Saving them required a deep change in the relationship between communities and these animals, traditionally seen as food and a source of income.
The recent history of Praia Jalé is tied to that of turtle conservation. Work in the area began in 1998 with an initial study funded by the Peace Corps for Sea Turtles, within the European Union's ECOFAC programme. In 2002 it was coordinated with the local NGO MARAPA; the project kept growing and gaining independence until, in 2018, it was formalised as the Associação Programa Tatô ('tatô' is the local name for the turtle).
Programa Tatô's mission is to improve the conservation status of the five sea turtle species that reach São Tomé and Príncipe and to promote the sustainable management of marine and coastal ecosystems. Every year, from September to May, its team sets up on beaches like Jalé to watch over the nests, protect nesting females, fight poaching and welcome visitors who want to join the guided observation walks.
One of its keys has been involving local communities: many former turtle hunters have become conservation agents and guides, finding in the protection of these animals a source of income and pride. The project has international support — since 2024, among others, from the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation — and has become a model of community-based conservation in the Gulf of Guinea.
At Praia Jalé, conservation and responsible tourism go hand in hand. The project has built a small, rustic ecolodge on the beach, with a few little cabins close to the sea, which serves both as a base for the conservation team and as accommodation for visitors. Tourism income helps fund turtle protection, closing a virtuous circle.
Guided night walks let travellers watch females laying eggs or hatchlings emerging without disturbing them, under strict rules: red light only, keeping your distance, silence and always with a guide. Programa Tatô also runs eco-volunteering programmes, in which people from all over the world can spend some time helping with monitoring, nest protection and hatchling releases, experiencing conservation work up close.
This model makes Jalé an example of how well-managed nature tourism can be an ally of environmental protection rather than a threat. Every visitor who does the walk or stays at the ecolodge is helping, with their contribution, to keep the turtles coming back to these beaches year after year.
Today Praia Jalé is both one of the most beautiful and unspoilt beaches in São Tomé and a symbol of the country's effort to protect its extraordinary natural heritage. Located in the buffer zone of the Obô Natural Park, in the far south, it combines the beauty of a remote beach of sand and palm trees with the thrill of seeing sea turtles go through their life cycle.
For travellers, Jalé represents the best of tourism in São Tomé: untouched nature, direct contact with wildlife, human contact with local communities and the satisfaction of knowing their visit supports a good cause. Combined with the other highlights of the south — Pico Cão Grande, Roça São João dos Angolares, the Obô trails — it offers an experience that is hard to match.
The future of São Tomé's turtles is not guaranteed: they still face threats, and conservation depends on constant work and on the support of visitors, communities and institutions. But beaches like Jalé, where every year the females return to nest under the protection of those who once hunted them, show that change is possible. A refuge for the turtles and, also, a hope for the sustainable development model of these islands on the equator.
