Best time to visit Cape Verde

The short answer, by activity

The wind: what the brochures leave out

Cape Verde sits in the path of the north-east trade winds. They blow all year but strengthen considerably from roughly November through March, and ease off from around July to October.

This single fact explains most of the contradictory advice you will find online. Kitesurfing operators call the winter months high season, because they are. Beach holiday companies also call the winter months high season, because that is when northern European customers want sun. Both are right about their own audience and neither mentions the trade-off.

What it means in practice on Sal and Boa Vista, the two flat, exposed beach islands:

• November to March: reliably sunny and warm, but often genuinely windy. Sand moves. Parasols struggle. The sea is choppier. Many people bring a light windproof layer for the evenings and are glad of it.
• April to June: the wind eases. A good compromise if you want warmth without the winter blow.
• July to October: calmest and hottest, with the warmest sea. Also the most humid, and the only period with any real chance of rain.

The mountainous islands — Santo Antão, Fogo, Brava — are far less exposed, and wind matters much less there than heat does.

The two seasons explained

Cape Verde has a dry season and a short, unreliable wet season, rather than the four seasons of a temperate climate.

The dry season runs roughly November to July. Almost no rain falls in this period. Skies are clear, the landscape on the dry islands is brown, and the mountains are at their most arid by around May and June.

The wet season runs roughly August to October, and even then rain is limited and often falls as short heavy showers rather than sustained wet weather. Some years bring very little at all. This is when the mountainous islands turn green, so it is paradoxically the best window for scenery even though it is nominally the worst weather.

Temperatures vary less than in most destinations. Coastal daytime highs sit in a fairly narrow band all year, which is why the marketing focuses on it. Sea temperature varies more noticeably, at its coolest around February and March and warmest from August into October.

Month-by-month at a glance

For a fuller month-by-month breakdown including what is on, see Cape Verde by month.

The Saharan haze in January and February

Several times each winter, dust carried west from the Sahara settles over the islands. Locally this is often called the bruma seca. It usually lasts a few days at a time and is most common from around December through February.

What it means for a visitor: the sky turns milky rather than blue, visibility across the water drops, sunsets go dull, and photographs come out flat. It is not dangerous for most people, though anyone with a respiratory condition may notice it.

The more practical consequence is that inter-island flights are occasionally delayed or cancelled when visibility falls, which matters if you are island hopping on a tight schedule. Build in a buffer before an international departure — never connect a domestic flight or ferry directly to a flight home on the same day.

Turtles, whales and wildlife timing

Wildlife is the strongest reason to pick a specific month, because the seasons are narrow and do not overlap.

Loggerhead turtles nest on the beaches of Boa Vista, Sal, Maio and Sale from around June to October, with hatchlings emerging from roughly August into November. Boa Vista has the most important nesting beaches. Tours must be run by licensed guides — see turtle watching for the rules and why they matter.

Humpback whales pass through and calve in Cape Verdean waters roughly from March to May, with sightings concentrated around Boa Vista and Sal. See whale watching.

If both matter to you, you cannot have them on one trip. Choose one and plan the rest of the holiday around it.

Crowds, prices and school holidays

Demand is driven mostly by northern European winter, not by local conditions. The busiest and most expensive periods are Christmas and New Year, the February half-term, Easter and August.

The quietest and generally best-value windows are May to June and September. Both fall outside school holidays in most of Europe, and both happen to be periods when the wind is light and the sea is comfortable — which makes them, on balance, the most underrated months to visit.

Note that quiet is relative and varies by island. Sal and Boa Vista feel noticeably busier in high season; Maio, Brava and São Nicolau are quiet all year.

Best time varies by island

If you are still deciding where to go at all, start with which island should you choose.