Sal - Cape Verde travel guide: West Africa's hidden gem

I’ve been to several African countries and islands already, most usually a bit further away and more tropical than Sal in Cape Verde, however, in this travel guide it will become clear why this island in West Africa is a true hidden gem.

Sal is just a 6-hour flight from the Netherlands, offering both rugged landscapes and tropical white-sand beaches, with sunshine almost 350 days a year.

The archipelago of Cape Verde, a volcanic chain of 10 islands located 560 km off West Africa's coast, perfectly combines its unique Creole culture and Portuguese heritage with that tropical and laid-back Caribbean vibe. While some of these islands are quite lush and green, as the name Cape Verde refers to, most islands, like the arid Sal, are more Sahara than tropics.

Once a sugarcane and salt outpost and now a popular winter sun destination for tourists, with also many music festivals and eco-adventures offered here.

And while some might say that there’s hardly anything to see or do on Sal, as the island is quite small with just a few towns, it also has many facilities. And the trade winds, long sandy beaches and extensive dunes make it ideal for wind-, kitesurfing and beach relaxation.

Besides some much-needed relaxing at our brand new 5-star all-inclusive resort, about which you can read more in my previous affordable luxury blog, we also booked several excursions during our stay.

This enabled us to see much of the island in just 2 days and combine adventure with relaxation. I will happily share all my sightseeing and travel tips for Sal, as always through my own experiences and many of my own pictures, in this blog.

Sal - Cape Verde travel guide: sightseeing tips

While I love chilling, I also truly want to experience the authenticity and soul of each destination I’m visiting. On Sal the easiest way to do this is by booking a (private) excursion.

We booked one of the most popular day tours via Corendon, executed by a local guide: the full-island excursion.

This tour shows you Sal's raw beauty beyond its resorts in just 6 hours and includes hotel pickup and an English-speaking guide. The tour circles the 28 km-long island with many highlights:

Shark Bay

We started the tour at the Baía da Parda, a shallow, rocky nursery with many juvenile lemon sharks, which can grow up to 3 meters long, but are harmless to humans. Females return annually to breed here.

For €3 a local guide will take you there and borrow you water shoes to navigate the rocky bottom, if you did not bring your own. It's too shallow to swim here, but it’s already a thrill to stand amidst these sharks in their natural environment.

While some guides do feed the sharks you should not touch them and they are not harmed during this experience at all!

Pedra de Lume Salt Mines

Next up were the biggest salt flats of the island, located inside an extinct volcano crater. This unique and desolate historic place is righteously nominated as a UNESCO site. You can admire it from above, like we did, but for a fee of €6 p.p. you can also descend to swim in the saline pools.

These 18th-century pools have the world's second-saltiest water, in which you can float like the Dead Sea.

North Coast

The rugged north has otherworldly landscapes with the picturesque Monte Leão (lion-shaped peak), and Terra Boa desert dunes, which form a big contrast to Sal's beaches.

Here you can see desert mirages and experience what it’s like to be all alone in the world. Sometimes it even felt like we landed on Mars, truly a unique experience.

Fun fact: Sal's 'lunar' side was still uninhabited till 18th century.

The Blue Eye

In our open-air jeep we drove northwest to Olho Azul, Buracona, a unique phenomenon in a volcanic cave. This is only visible when the sun pierces the underwater tunnel, illuminating the turquoise 'eye' in the pool.

There are a restaurant and shop here and you can also swim in natural lava pools amid the crashing waves of this wild coastline, with many hidden caves to discover.

Palmeira

Lastly, we stopped at this authentic and colorful fishermen's village in the northwest port of Sal, where the ferry departs to other islands. Here the daily tuna and octopus catch still comes in with traditional wooden pirogues.

A beautiful sight and a lovely small village with an authentic vibe, many murals and just a few shops, get an impression through this gallery:

We also drove past the capital Espargos and the slums of Sal, which will make you realize this is truly Africa.

Scattered in the capital Espargos and Terra Boa outskirts, these aluminum-sheet houses are home to about 10% of Sal's 40,000 residents. Luckily the government is building more subsidized units to replace them and give these people a real home!

Quad or buggy tour

On a different day we booked a 2-hour quad tour of the south via Corendon. This tour will take you over rugged trails which also run through the Reserva Natural da Costa da Fragata, a 351-hectare protected area renowned for its pristine dunes and turquoise waters.

It's a stunning area to explore by quad, but also has many uneven paths, and the tour passes rough terrains on its way there. That’s why I would recommend renting a buggy instead, which will make it easier to navigate and more fun to experience!

Reserva Natural da Costa da Fragata

This nature reserve includes wide dune areas, Praia da Fragata beach and a 300-meter marine buffer, to protect its delicate coastal habitats. Here you can also go hiking along cliff paths, go birdwatching, and snorkeling amid coral reefs full of fish.

The reserve's dynamic dunes support unique flora like beach grasses and fauna like seabirds and lizards.

As one of Sal's '7 Natural Wonders', Costa da Fragata promotes eco-tourism with sustainable trails and minimal infrastructure.

Other activities

Other things that we did not have time for during this trip, but were recommended to me and are certainly on my list for next time:

• Stroll Santa Maria Beach, an 8 km stretch of white sand backed by palms and beach bars with a boulevard, pier and a quaint town to explore. Here you can experience the authentic vibe of Sal in Santa Maria’s local restaurants and shops and watch the locals play and fishermen clean their daily catch.

• Kiteboard at Kite Beach (winds peak December-April), or go snorkeling to admire the beautiful marine life and reefs with sea turtles, sharks and even dolphins, (best between April-November, in dry season, when the waters are less rough).

• Go on a guided night watch of the endangered loggerhead sea turtles, possible from June-October in the Reserva Natural da Costa da Fragata.

Affordable package deals incl.flights 

We booked a semi-direct flight from Amsterdam to Sal (stopover in Gambia on the way there and direct flight on the way back) in an affordable luxury package via Corendon.nl.

Corendon has the best package deals for 12 different 3-5-star hotels and resorts on Sal, combined with a return flight via Corendon Airlines.

Find your ultimate Sal holiday on: Corendon/Kaapverdie.

Or book the same 5-star all-inclusive resort we stayed at affordably via: Corendon/Royal Horizon Ponta Sino.

Sal - Cape Verde travel guide: tips & good to know

• The best time to visit Sal is November-June, when 25-30°C days are dry and breezy. From November-February there’s more wind, which is ideal for (wind-) and kite surfing, but less for snorkeling and diving. Best avoid July-Sept. with more chance of rain and hot temperatures.

• Pack light layers, reef-safe sunscreen, and Euros (ATMs are sparse outside towns), as you can generally also pay with Euros everywhere, besides the local currency Escudo.

• What I really loved about Sal is that it hardly has mosquitos, because of the dry landscapes and wind! Resorts can have some mosquitos due to their tropical vegetation and irrigation, bit luckily this is limited.

• Most people in the tourist areas on Sal and Cape Verde speak English, while the official language is Portuguese and Creole is generally used. French is also sometimes spoken here.

• Taxis are cheap (€1/km), but you can also rent a buggy for more freedom.

• Pay the €31 airport tax p.p. online in advance by credit card on Ease.gov.cv at least 7 days, and latest 5 days prior to your departure.

• And don’t forget to support locally by booking local guides, but also tipping the maids, hotel staff and guides, generally €2-5 is fine. Life is quite expensive here, as they have no natural resources and everything needs to be imported. Locals don’t have much, for example: the monthly minimum wage here is less than €160.

Sal’s saltpans, once the economic backbone of the island, add historical charm, while its beaches, turtle nesting sites and marine life provide unique nature experiences.

The relaxed vibe, local markets, and Creole music in villages like Santa Maria, make Sal distinct and a fun holiday destination, while luckily not overrun by tourists yet. The people are friendly and it’s relatively safe, also as a woman to travel to alone.

Therefore, I would highly recommend visiting Sal while it’s still a hidden gem.

And if you’re looking for the most affordable deals to stay here in comfort and style, then do check my previous Sal resort blog about our affordable luxury stay on Sal via Corendon.nl.

And visit my Africa page for even more inspiration for a winter sun holiday in other destinations of this unique continent.