Sal, Cape Verde
On December 11, 2019 my husband and I took a direct flight from Washington DC Dulles airport to Sal, Cape Verde. Not many people know this country, never mind where it is in the world. Why would you want to go there, you may ask. Well, for me it was because I was looking for a relaxing warm holiday, and saw it being advertised being one, with a direct flight from DC. I quickly looked it up and its beaches look beautiful and there are several nice-looking hotels including a 5 star Hilton there, so here we go!
Booking and Checking in with Cabo Verde Airlines
So Icelandic Air became the major shareholder of Cabo Verde Airlines in March, 2019. Cabo Verde is also an island in the middle of the Atlantic. It is about three hours to Senegal in Africa and five and a half hours to Brazil, which makes it a nice hub.
Booking the ticket was relatively straightforward until the point that I had to pay for the tickets. I first used the MasterCard that I use most often and got an alert from the credit card company right away reporting suspicious activity. I replied “It was me” and cleared it, tried it again, and the website just said it couldn’t complete the transaction. I remembered that I also had some trouble paying on the Kenya government website for my visa there, but it worked with a debit card. I tried my debit card, but Cabo Verde Airlines only takes certain types of debit card, and would not take mine. Finally, I tried my Visa credit card, it did work after the bank flagged it as suspicious activity and declined it, and I cleared it and tried it again.
We had some trouble checking in 20 hours before the flight, but then I tried again a couple of hours later it worked. We were not able to enter our known traveler number to get TSApre though. We lined up at the counter trying to get that sorted but were told that they don’t offer TSA pre.
The flights
The flights were uneventful. They aren’t very full but then again we took the first flight out of DC to Sal, perhaps not many people knew about it. Only 3 other people are going to Sal, the rest have connections to other countries in Africa or to Brazil. Again, the Icelandic Air business model.
Entering the country
Cape Verde requires a visa for US citizens, which can be obtained online before entering or at the point of entry. Europeans do not need a visa to enter the country so I made the mistake of not registering online (https://www.ease.gov.cv)/. It turned out that we still had to pay the Airport Security Tax (TSA) of 3,400 escudos (~USD $34) and we had some trouble with their credit card machine and that took quite a while (~30 minutes).
After that, we went outside and got in a taxi to the hotel. We asked for the price upfront and was told 20 euros. I think the standard price is 10–15 euros but we didn’t argue. It took about 20 minutes and we probably only saw 1–2 cars until we reached Santa Maria town.
Hilton Cabo Verde Sal Resort
This is the only five-star hotel on the island and it is indeed very nice. It has three restaurants and a bar, a nice pool and pretty much right on the beach. It also has a nice quiet spa. Our favorite is the restaurant on the beach called The Bounty. It is a bit expensive but it is convenient and the food (and the view) is excellent.
Santa Maria
While there are locals living in Santa Maria, it is more like a tourist town. There are lots of restaurants and souvenir stores. There are also locals that trying to get you to take a taxi or buy their souvenirs, but they are not too pushy. The town beach is beautiful, and it has some fitness equipment. There were locals and tourists there lifting weights, a bit reminded me of Venice Beach in California. Overall, a very relaxing environment. The town fishing pier is also quite interesting. The fishermen sell fresh fish and shellfish there and it was quite interesting to have a peek.
Driving around Sal
We rented a car for a day to drive around Sal. We did not pre-book but managed to get an SUV at the hotel counter. Similar to Europe, it is not so easy to get an automatic and we were told that they only have manual cars. Sal has one main highway going between north and south with very few cars on it, the road condition on the highway is excellent. However, almost as soon as leaving the highway you are entering gravel roads and some of them have big bumps and lots of rocks. They are still manageable as long as you drive slowly.
Shark Bay
Shark Bay, in my opinion, is a must-see. It is super cool to have your feet in the water with baby lemon sharks swimming around you! Here are some logistics: You will need water shoes as it is very rocky, if you have those please bring them with. If not, no worries, there are locals there that charge 3 euros to rent you a pair, if you rent from them, they will even go in the water with you, and spot the sharks and point them out for you. We also met someone with a guide that brought some fish food, when he dumped those fish food there were like 20 sharks going around, it was quite a scene!
Salinas de Pedra de Lume
Salinas de Pedra de Lume is where the salt mines are. The salt evaporation ponds sit in the crater of an extinct volcano and make it a beautiful scene. This is the world’s second saltiest water with a salinity of 26%-28%. You can pay for a ticket and then try floating on the saltwater. We only took a look from the top of the crater.
Buracona
Buracona is famous for its blue eye cave, it turns turquoise by the sunlight. We went on a cloudy day and didn’t see that effect. However, it was still very beautiful (and windy) there. There is also a pool in the rocks if you fancy a swim.
The Sailing Trip with Cape Verde Sailing
We signed up for a half-day sailing trip with Cape Verde Sailing. It was fun and relaxing to be out in the ocean. We saw sea turtle swimming and lots of flying fish. They also provided nice cakes when we stopped for snorkeling.
Overall, we enjoyed the short trip to Sal, Cabo Verde. As many people pointed out, it is a very windy island but it is still durable. The ocean was warm enough to swim in when we were there in mid-December. If you are looking for winter sun and have a direct flight there, it is a good choice for a change of scenery. After all, a trip to the Caribean with connections may take just as long.