What's the Weather Like in Cape Verde in December?
Winter comes gently to Cape Verde. Cape Verde enjoys six hours of daily sunshine in December. The warm climate, lack of rain and the gentle, hot winds blowing from Africa make December an attractive month for family holidays.
What's Cape Verde Like At Christmas?
Cape Verde is a popular Christmas destination with the past three Christmas Days averaging out at a pleasant 26°C. The climate is steady, so you're practically guaranteed an enjoyably warm and sunny Christmas Day.
Is Cape Verde Hot In December?
The average daytime December temperature stays around a comfortable 25°C. With daytime highs at 26°C and nighttime lows at 20°C, it's a predictably warm and surprise-free month, ideal for tourists and families to enjoy.
Is The Sea Warm In December In Cape Verde?
Sea temperature is an inviting at 25°C and the island's numerous water sports activities remain popular through the winter months (December - February).
Rain In Cape Verde In December
There is hardly any rain in December, with a monthly total precipitation of just 1 mm.
Snow is virtually unheard of here in Cape Verde and the island only experiences hailstorms extremely rarely (once a decade or rarer).
Hotels for Cape Verde in December
Che Guevara
The Che Guevara is a popular bed and breakfast hotel in San Vicente's Mindelo. With great service, spacious rooms and a contemporary latino style, this hotel will charm you with its unpretentious approach to quality accommodation.
Pousada da luz
The Pousada da Luz is an attractive and decent budget hotel in the heart of Santa Maria on the island of Sal. While the hotel's services are fairly basic, the staff is very polite and everything is very cleverly planned to offer maximum convenience. The hotel also has a spacious indoors pool.
Mimagui Residencial
Located inside the historic city of Mindelo, the Mimagui Residencial is an exceptional hotel that has gained worldwide fame thanks to its amazing scenery and excellence of service. Surrounded by a charming neighbourhood of classic buildings, the hotel offers comfort and tranquillity at reasonable prices. The Mimagui is often praised as one of the best hotels in Mindelo.
Mindel
The Mindel is a fancy hotel in Mindelo, San Vicente. With a spectacular vista and beautiful indoors and outdoors spaces, the Mindel is a very appealing choice of accommodation for off-season and in-season tourists alike. The hotel is flexible and very accommodating to families with children and large tourist groups.
Clubhotel Riu Karamboa
The Clubhotel Riu Karamboa is a beautiful all inclusive hotel from the Riu chain of resorts that is located on the island of Boa Vista, Cape Verde. The hotel boasts all the amenities expected from a Riu resort plus a very attractive bar that is open to non-visitors. There are several children-friendly facilities that make this hotel ideal for families with young children. These services include changing rooms, kids clubs, children pools, babysitting services and others.
Beaches for December for Cape Verde
Curralinho Beach
Curralinho is a popular and lively beach on the island of Sal. With tons of beach bars and restaurants around, this is one of the liveliest beaches on the liveliest islands of the archipelago. The crowd is young and parties well into the night. This is not a very suitable beach for families with children though.
Fuma Beach
The most family friendly beach on the remote island of Brava is Fuma. Located on the southeastern side of the island, Fuma is a fairly deserted beach that nonetheless boasts great lifeguard services to prevent any accidents and several tourist facilities including restaurants, public restrooms and public showers.
Restaurants and Bars for Cape Verde in December
Leonardo Cafe
The Leonardo Café is an excellent international café bistro in the heart of Santa Maria on the island of Sal. The café attracts sophisticated guests from around the world and tourists often come there for classy music and the quality coffee blends that are constantly on offer. Food is of equally high quality, with delectable snacks that range from authentic croissants to salmon sandwiches and local bites.
Caravela Restaurante
The Caravela Restaurante is a beautiful, African-themed beachside restaurant in Sao Vicente. With panoramic view over the local beach and boasting an impressive menu of amazing dishes, the Caravela has distinguished itself as one of the most highly acclaimed restaurants on the island. Prices are reasonable and the music is always lovely and local.
Limeira Hotel Resort
The hotel bar at the Limeira Hotel Resort is a fantastic beachside live music bar open to visitors, non-visitors and locals alike. With a fantastic view over a scenic bay and serving some of the most delicious cocktails in Santiago, it comes as no surprise that this hotel's bar is popular with locals and tourists alike.
Things to Do in Cape Verde in December
Paradise Beach of Sal
The paradise beach of Sal is famous for footie on the beach where locals and tourists alike come to play ball on the sand. This is the single most popular spot to enjoy beach volley, beach football, beach tennis and numerous other beach sports with athletic tourists and vigorous locals.
Cape Verdean Museum
The Cape Verdean museum presents a unique opportunity for history lovers and adventurers to explore Cape Verde's rich and tumultuous past. The museum gives a clear view on the nation's history, from its piracy days to Portuguese colonialism and from its national independence in the 70ies to the modern-day paradise the archipelago has become.
Cinema Eden Park
The Cinema Eden Park is the most popular cinema and theatre in the island of San Vicente and a must to visit for lovers of local movies as well as international productions. This is actually one of the few places in Cape Verde where you can catch international blockbusters in time (and not months later) so it's only natural that young people flock here, tourists and locals alike.
Dates for the diary
December is a great time for visiting the Cape Verde island of Boa Vista which holds its annual Boa Vista Ultramarathon during this winter month. The marathon covers the entire island and participants have just 60 hours to travel 93.2 miles on foot, with terrain changing from sandy beach to cobbled streets to muddy soil along the way.
Christmas celebrations on the beach are a common phenomenon during the festive season and can make for a really novel way to spend Christmas in Cape Verde. While New Year's eve is a rather low key event in the country, some of the more tourist-focused areas do celebrate in style. Praia and Mindelo have fireworks displays, and the resort complexes on the island of Sal throw parties for guests.
