Cape Verde Travel

CAPE VERDE TRAVEL

Covid-19

We are updating the information on this page every week, usually Wednesday. Latest update – 16 June 2021

Cape Verde Travel – Cape Verde is a lovely country to visit, but how do you get there and how do you travel around? This section of the website provides information on both these aspects of visiting Cape Verde. It also deals with the visa requirements and online registration and tourist tax. All visitors need to complete an online registration prior to arriving in Cape Verde. Visitors from some countries will require a visa in addition.

Travel to Cape Verde

International flights to the country are increasing in number and also in frequency. There are flights from many countries in Europe and also from the USA, Brazil, and from some African countries. We aim to keep this site updated with new routes as and when they start up. The most popular times to visit are the winter months from October through to May. Therefore more flights are available during these months than during the summer months.

Special Notice: Cape Verde’s borders are open. There are International flights, although not yet back to the previous levels. TAP is flying into Praia, São Vicente and Sal. CV Connect Services has suspended flights between Lisbon and Cape Verde but they are flying weekly between Boston (USA) and Praia via Ponta Delgada. Air Senegal is flying between Dakar and Praia. TUI are flying from Amsterdam to Praia and São Vicente and are showing flights from UK to Sal and Boa Vista starting in mid-July. Cabo Verde Airlines is flying from Lisbon to both Sal and Praia. Travellers to Cape Verde are required to have a negative Covid test (PCR) result in the previous 72 hours before boarding the plane.

Travel around Cape Verde

Domestic travel within the country is improving and is generally more reliable than it once was. Visitors will find some islands easier to visit than others. Most islands have an airport, and are also served by ferries. The islands of Santo Antão and Brava, however no longer have airports and so they can only reached by ferry. Making an extra effort to visit some of the islands that are more difficult to reach, or that are not the main tourist destinations, will prove very worthwhile. There is such variety amongst the islands that to stick only to the main tourist islands (Sal and Boa Vista) would be a shame. Domestic flights are now operated by Bestfly and ferries by CV Interilhas.

Cape Verde Travel domestic flight to praia

Airports in Cape Verde

The capital city of Cape Verde is Praia, on the island of Santiago. There are regular flights to Nelson Mandela International Airport from Lisbon, Gran Canaria, Casablanca, Dakar, Fortaleza, Bissau and Ponta Delgada. The capital is also a hub for travel within the Cape Verde archipelago. The city provides internal flight connections to all the other airports within Cape Verde and also ferry connections. The busiest international airport however is Amílcar Cabral International Airport on the island of Sal. Santa Maria on Sal has become one of the main tourist destinations. The island of Boa Vista a close second for tourism and also has an international airport. International flights also operate to the airport on the island of São Vicente, however there are far fewer than to the other three international airports.

Choosing which of the international airports you fly to will depend on which islands you wish to visit. If you want to visit Santo Antão, then São Vicente would be the nearest airport. If you wish to visit Maio then Praia would be the best choice. For Fogo and Brava then Praia or Sal would be a logical choice.