Cape Verde
The Islands
Santiago
Santiago is the main island of the Cape Verdean archipelago and home to Cape Verde’s capital, Praia. The island offers a combination of spectacular mountain landscapes, palm framed beaches, all sorts of watersports and hiking activities as well as a buzzling cultural scene. Yet, unlike Sal and Boavista, Santiago island is still relatively untouched by tourism.
Santo Antao
Santo Antao is the north-most island of the archipelago and offers stunning mountain landscapes, which are best explored by hiking individually. The most beautiful (must visit) valleys are Ribeira de Paul and Ribeira Grande. Therefore, the island is mostly visitied by individual tourists. Besides its breathtaking landscapes the island has a reputation for producing the best Grogue, the cape verdean equivalent of cuban rhum. Santo Antao is accessible via the international airport of neighbouring Sao Vicente and by a ferry service.
Sao Vicente
Undoubtedly, Sao Vicente is the cultural epicenter of Cape Verde. It was home to the famous Cape Verdean singer Cesaria Evora, and it is renowned for its Carnival, its vibrant cultural scene and for its Portuguese colonial Architecture. The island is not very hilly, scarcely vegetated and offers a couple of white-sand beaches. The marina of the island capital, Mindelo, is a popular stop-over point with yachts before crossing the Atlantic, heading towards the Caribbean. Sao Vicente is equally well known for game fishing and diving.
Fogo
Fogo (Portuguese for “fire”) island is home to the only active volcano of the Cape Verdean archipelago. The eruptions in 1995 and 2014 destroyed villages and wine and coffee growing areas inside the caldera, however didn’t cause any casualties. Thus the island offers stunning magma landscapes, and spending a night at a hotel inside the caldera is an unforgettable experience. The island capital of Sao Felipe is famous for its cultural festivals.
Boavista
Boavista is known for its endless (and outside the international hotels) rather untouched white sand beaches with beautiful dunes and for its wave- and kitesurf spots. For over a decade, the island is on the tourism world map, mainly offering “all-in” formats coupled with convenient daily direct flight connections to various countries in Europe.
Sal
Sal island, like neighboring Boavista, exclusively offers beach holidays, predominantly in all-in formats. Due to predictable and constant wind and challenging waves, Sal is one of the world best wave- and kitesurf spots. Not surprisingly, it is home to Mitu Monteiro, a world champion in wave-kitesurfing, who currently runs a prestigious kitesurf school in Sal. Besides beaches and watersports, you may visit a salt mine, which gave the island its name – sal is Portuguese for salt.
