Cape Verde can be found in the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of Africa. The country spans 10 different islands of volcanic origin and several dozen small islets. Every island boasts its own distinctive culture and selection of landmarks and attractions. There are all kinds of islands to explore; each of them offering a different experience, hence the art of "island hopping" is very popular here, with tourists travelling across multiple islands to experience everything this fascinating archipelago has to offer.
Cape Verde is famous for its eclectic mix of music and cuisine; its charming local villages, numerous volcanoes (most but not all of which are extinct), amazing weather, and its unique culture that is a blend of Portuguese, African and Brazilian cultures. Cape Verde's islands are divided into two groups, the Barlavento Islands (windward islands), which are: Santo Antao, Sao Vicente, Santa Luzia, Sao Nicolau, Sal, Boa Vista and the Sotavento Islands (leeward islands), which are Maio, Santiago, Fogo and Brava. A wonderfully diverse holiday destination - definitely add Cape Verde to your bucket list.
Horse/camel riding
Adventure lovers and families with children should not miss to book horse and camel riding trips around the island of Boa Vista. These excursions can take a large number of tourists through little-travelled tracks across the island of Boa Vista, considered to be one of the most magnificent on the archipelago. The trips take you through sandy beaches, across shallow water and into protected animal reserves.
Golf
Golf lovers visiting Cape Verde find themselves drawn to Sao Vicente Golf Club. This is one of the few golf spots on the whole archipelago, and a must to visit regardless of golfing skill. The club maintains a unique 9-hole course that is located at the northern part of Sao Vicente. The course takes golfers through sandy plans, across rolling greens (landscaped and natural) and across tropical forests in a smartly designed trail that provides many clever challenges for golfers of all skill levels and handicaps.
The Faldo Golf Course in Santiago is the largest golf course at Cape Verde's capital, and one that attracts high profile golfers all year round. The course at Faldo is cleverly designed to be breathtaking and challenging at the same time.The terrain cascades down towards the sea from a high plateau, incorporating elements of both cliff-top and coastal design into this unique course.
Walking & hiking
Described as a cross between Morocco and the Himalayas, the island of Santo Antao has a unique climate and ecology not found anywhere else on the planet. The dry, desert-like climate to the south of the island and the wet, humid climate in the mountainous region to the north create a diverse and enchanting landscape. The northerly mountains of Ponta do Sol are a popular hiking spot with the trail from Ponta do Sol to the steep cliffs of Fontainhas as the most popular route among local and tourist hikers. The village of Fontainhas offers the most commanding view over the island.
Situated in Ponta do Sol, the Eduatours adventure company arranges some of the most amazing guided walks across the beautiful island, along with scuba diving, rock climbing, canyoning, sport fishing, hiking and safaris across the desert area of Santo Antao on jeeps, bikes or quads. There is literally something for everyone with Eduatours.
Monte Gordo, Cape Verde's highest peak at 1,304 metres, is located on Sao Nicolau, making the island a prime destination for hikers. The view from atop the peak is just sublime, overlooking the island's volcanic craters. At Sao Nicolau, tourists can book with numerous hiking companies to explore the island and enjoy the majestic peak.
Jeep safari / 4x4 tours
The island of Santiago is the most biologically diverse of all in the Cape Verdian archipelago. Nature lovers can book excursions and jeep safaris across the island to explore its amazing flora and fauna. On top of a locally hired jeep, you can see unique birds and primates, pick exotic flowers and get to intimately know the natural beauty of Cape Verde. The safaris end with a trip into Santiago's mountains to see the banana, coconut, sugar cane, mango and cashew plantations.
Cycling, mountain & quad biking
Santiago's desert section provides a prime spot for quad biking tours and impromptu dirt road races. Tourists can find numerous appealing deals to hire their own quad bike by the hour or by the day. The prearranged tours follow off-beaten tracks to the mountains and across the island's sandy dunes.
Cabo Verde Bikes is the premier provider of quality bikes and quads across the archipelago. You can find their stores across 6 of the islands and they arrange a number of tours either off-road or on well-known cycling and biking trails. The prices are actually very low for hiring your own bike for several days.
Water sports
The Sail Cape Verde company offers a range of water sports, as well as 4x4 jeep excursions which takes travellers to the two volcanoes over Praias. The water sports include snorkelling, scuba diving and many more. The excursions the company arranges include yacht boat trips, jeep safaris and more across the majority of Cape Verde's inhibited islands. Starting from a luxurious yacht, the company takes you across the most impressive vistas of Cape Verde.
Cape Verde is an enormously popular destination for casual water activities such as kitesurfing, body boarding and jet skiing but also for more sport-oriented water sports such as surfing, windsurfing, scuba diving and snorkelling. The islands of Santiago, Sal and San Vicente are without a doubt the best destinations for water sports enthusiasts as they have both the most suitable beaches and the largest number of water sports schools on these beaches.
The island of Sal is the most popular destination for wind-powered water sports thanks to the trade winds and the Hamaattan winds that come from Africa. Cape Verde's largest wind and kitesurfing school, Surf Zone, offer all kinds of surfing and windsurfing lessons as well as renting out water sports equipment to enthusiasts of all levels.
Boat trips
The Seadventure is an amazingly unique underwater boating and scuba diving provider. It offers tourists the chance to explore the sea like never before, with high tech equipment that most divers have never seen before. Using mini submarines and various other gadgets, the Seadventure allows people to explore the ocean floor in fascinating new ways.
The wreckage of Cabo Santa Maria is perhaps the most iconic local wreck tourists can visit to explore. Located in Boa Esperanca (and not Santa Maria!), this huge steel wreck attracts tourists who can reach it via jeep, boat or one of the numerous local excursions.
The Sea Turtle Catamaran Company of Boa Vista organises great catamaran trips around the eponymous island and across the nearby islands too. These half-day cruises get you on the Atlantic Ways and allow you to see Boa Vista from a whole new perspective.
Sailing & fishing
The historic Marina Mindelo is a good place for to go on fishing trips, be taught how to sail or just watch boats come and go. This is the oldest and busiest marina on the archipelago of Cape Verde. Here you can find numerous fishing opportunities for all skill levels as well as various sailing schools eager to take you on a learning voyage.
Praia's beach has a number of sailing schools that offer inexpensive lessons and also arrange sailing trips around the island of Santiago. Families and non-sailors are welcome to join in these trips (as long as they adhere to some basic guidelines) and they can last for half a day.
Fish spa
Operating long before fish spa became popular, the Hug Bucket Fish Spa at Santa Maria is one of the oldest fish spas in the world, and Cape Verde's first and most famous fish spa. The bucket welcomes women of all ages but also surfers and other weary athletes who seek some pampering and relaxation after a tough day at the beach.
Local markets
The local market in Sal's Santa Maria boasts a genuinely Cape Verdian style while catering mostly to tourists. This is perhaps the best place to buy souvenirs and mementos from your visit to Cape Verde, as you can find virtually anything here. From volcanic rocks and local art, to postcards and local dresses, you will find them all here.
The marketplace area of Boa Vista is a more traditional market area where you can glimpse the "real" Cape Verde beyond the tourist spotlights. Here you can find items as they are bought by the locals, while several tourist shops will also offer you their souvenirs at bargain prices.
Local arts & crafts centres
The town of Assomada in Santiago is considered by many to be the arts centre of Cape Verde. Here, at the village square you will find numerous craft centres with locals willing to teach you traditional arts such as pottery and painting.
Capoeira / Pottery classes & workshops
Capoeira is very popular in Cape Verde and the best place to find Capoeira classes is the nation's capital Praia. The classes are part martial arts and part dancing (just like Capoeira is supposed to be) and teach tourists how to move graciously in this lethal yet beautiful dance. Classes typically last for two hours and also present a great opportunity to meet likeminded tourists and locals interested in Capoeira.
Join in with the locals
The paradise beach of Sal is famous for all kinds of beach sports including beach volley, beach tennis and beach footie. Here locals and tourist gather to play ball on the sand in perhaps the most popular destination for all kinds of beach sports.
Throughout the year (but especially during tourist season) beach parties are extremely common in the tourist-focused areas of Cape Verde. Praia and Mindelo in particular are both great towns to join parties and play beach games with locals. Both towns have numerous beach bars and parties often last until late in the morning.
The famous beach of Curralinho is often regarded as the greatest place for beach parties in Cape Verde. With dozens of beach bars and other tourist attractions, this is one of the liveliest beaches on Sal, the busiest island of Cape Verde.
Natural attractions & landmarks
Sal's Pedra Lume Salt Crater and the numerous small villages and communities off the tourist track are an amazing attraction for tourists who wish to explore Cape Verde a bit further than the tourist guides. Pedra Lume, situated in the crater of an extinct volcano, was renowned in the 18th Century for its salt mines. Today, the high concentrations of salt, give swimmer a unique experience of floating on the water, as well as making water sports particularly interesting (and easy) for newbies.
The island of Fogo (meaning "fire" in Portuguese) has an active volcano that erupted in the 90ies. The Pico do Fogo, as it is locally known, dominates the island's interior and is an amazing place to visit either on foot, or via one of the numerous excursions available to tourists. Travellers can also visit the two tiny villages of Portela and Bangaeria that located on the plateau of the crater.
The Maio is the least developed from the inhibited islands of Cape Verde. This makes it ideal for fishing, bird watching and exploring. The area of Figueira da Horta is a remote location, ideal for bird watching. The area is home to many unique desert-dwelling species. For fishing around Maio, you can contact one of the numerous boats for hire at one of its settlements.
The whale watching excursions of Cape Verde are quite unique. No other place in the world allows tourists to watch whales on their natural habitat from so close a distance. These excursions take tourists on quad bikes and boats to chase and watch sea creatures around Maio and Boa Vista.
Historic/religious sites & landmarks
The village of Sao Fillipe in Fogo is perhaps the most scenic old town in Cape Verde. The colourful Portuguese colonial houses and the eerily, slightly dilapidated style, make this village a unique window into the past, before Cape Verde became a tourist destination.
The unique Creole city of Ribeira Brava on the island of Sao Nicolau is a historical landmark and a city unique in the world for its architecture and culture. The colourful houses, the numerous gardens and the cobbled streets create a mystifying atmosphere. Squeezed between two imposing mountains, Ribeira Brava gives off a timeless charm.
The Tarrafal Concentration Camp on Santiago is a living testament of Cape Verde's dark and difficult past, but also of its glorious independence of 1975. A concentration camp built by the Portuguese before Cape Verde's independence, it has since been used as a military HQ, as a state school, and as a refuge camp. It is considered a national monument and will be turned into a proper museum soon.
Museums
The nation's largest and most popular museum is the eponymous Cape Verdean museum. Located in Praia, the museum presents histori lovers with an opportunity to learn more about Cape Verde's incredible past. From the pirate raids to the Portuguese oppression and from the dark days before the island's independence to its modern, impressive state, you will learn everything there.
Located in the heart of Assomada, the Museu da Tabanka or Tabanca is a unique museum in the central part of the island of Santiago in Cape Verde that explores the tabanka culture and music. Tabanka is a term that refers to all the music styles of Cape Verde as they appear in local parades and this is the place to learn about them. The Museu da Tabanka organizes temporary expos and diverse spectacles that attract thousands of locals and tourists alike.
Day trips by sea and air
The Cabo Verde Fast Ferry offers island hoppers a cheap and effective way to move across islands and even reach the remote island of Brava (via Fogo). The ferries are packed with eager tourists and trips are enhanced thanks to impromptu music performances and games tourist play to pass the time.
Santa Luzia is the only uninhabited island of the 10 that make up Cape Verde (without counting the countless islets). Island hoppers who truly wish to explore every single island, board a ship from Sao Vicente and embark on a two hour long trip to Santa Luzia. Visits there can last a whole day (with only the most hardcore hoppers camping on the island). The best day to visit Santa Luzia is on a Friday, as local fishermen chose to travel there that day too. Island hoppers who stay on the island, can choose to return with the local fishermen who return each Monday, bringing back lots of fresh fish.