There is no single best island in Cape Verde, and anyone who tells you otherwise is usually selling something. The nine inhabited islands differ enormously: some are flat and dry with long sandy beaches, others are steep, green and have almost nowhere to swim. Choosing well matters more here than in most destinations, because getting it wrong means a fortnight in a landscape you did not want.
The quick answer
If you want to stop reading here: Sal for a first trip focused on beaches, watersports and easy logistics. Boa Vista for the same but quieter, with bigger dunes and turtles. Santo Antão for hiking, and it is not close. São Vicente for music and city life. Fogo for the volcano. Santiago for history and the most lived-in feel. Maio, Brava and São Nicolau if you want almost nobody around and are prepared for the travel that entails.
All nine islands compared
| Island | Landscape | Best for | Beaches | Getting there |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sal | Flat, dry, desert-like | Beaches, kitesurfing, first trips | Excellent | International airport |
| Boa Vista | Flat, dunes, desert | Beaches, turtles, quiet resorts | Excellent | International airport |
| Maio | Flat, dry, very quiet | Empty beaches, slow travel | Very good | Domestic flight or ferry |
| São Vicente | Dry, hilly, one real city | Music, culture, nightlife | One good town beach | International airport |
| Santiago | Mixed, green interior | History, markets, real life | Modest | International airport |
| Santo Antão | Steep, green valleys | Hiking — the best in the country | Very few | Ferry from São Vicente |
| Fogo | Volcano, black rock | Volcano climb, wine, coffee | Black sand, limited | Domestic flight or ferry |
| São Nicolau | Mountainous, green | Hiking without crowds | Few | Domestic flight or ferry |
| Brava | Small, green, misty | Solitude, flowers, walking | Very few | Ferry only |
Still torn between the two main beach islands? Read Sal or Boa Vista? for a direct comparison.
Note the last column. Four islands have international airports; the rest require a domestic flight or a ferry, which changes how much of your holiday is spent travelling. See flights and ferries.
Best for beaches: Sal, Boa Vista, Maio
These three are the flat, dry, sandy islands, and they are where the vast majority of visitors go.
Sal is the most developed and the easiest. Santa Maria is walkable, full of restaurants, and has the best range of watersports in the country — it is the main kitesurfing destination. The island itself is barren; people who come expecting scenery are disappointed, and people who come for the beach and the sea rarely are.
Boa Vista has longer, emptier beaches and genuine sand dunes, plus the most important turtle nesting beaches in the archipelago. It is quieter and more resort-dominated than Sal, with less to do independently. Roads outside the main routes are rough, so getting around takes longer than the map suggests.
Popular resorts on Sal and Boa Vista
Most beach holidays here are built around an all-inclusive resort. Two family favourites, one on each island:
Meliá Dunas Beach Resort & Spa
The only resort on this list with clubs for babies and teenagers as well as children: from six months to 17.
- Baby club (6 months–4), kids' club (5–12), teen club (13–17)
- On-site aqua park and splash park
- Beachfront, about 4 km west of Santa Maria
Riu Palace Boavista
Next to the adults-only Riu Karamboa, whose Splash Water World water park guests can use.
- RiuLand kids' club for ages 4–7 and 8–12
- Children's pool with slides and a small children's pool
- Water park at neighbouring Riu Karamboa
Compare more resorts on Sal and Boa Vista →
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Maio is the same landscape with almost no tourism. Long empty beaches, very little infrastructure, and few organised activities. Excellent if that is what you want, frustrating if it is not.
Best for hiking: Santo Antão, Fogo, São Nicolau
Santo Antão is the reason serious walkers come to Cape Verde. Deep valleys, cobbled paths between villages, terraced slopes and a dramatic drop from arid ridges into green ravines. The Paul Valley and the Cova crater are the classic routes. There is no airport — you fly to São Vicente and take the ferry from Mindelo to Porto Novo. Compare every route, with distances and elevation profiles, in our Santo Antão hiking routes guide.
Walk Santo Antão with a local guide
Prices, times and availability are shown on GetYourGuide. Many tours offer free cancellation.
Guided hikes on Santo Antão
- Day hikes with local guides
- Two-day tours including the ferry
- Pick-up available
Santo Antão day trip with lunch
- Ferry from Mindelo, then 4x4 or minibus
- Cova crater and the Paul Valley
- Short hike and a Cape Verdean lunch
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Fogo is a different kind of walking: a single enormous volcano, with the climb to Pico do Fogo and the strange landscape of Chã das Caldeiras, where people still live and farm inside the caldera among the flows from the 2014 eruption.
Climb Pico do Fogo with a guide
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Pico do Fogo summit hike
- Guided climb from Chã das Caldeiras
- About 3 hours to the top
- Fast descent on volcanic ash
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São Nicolau offers mountain scenery similar in character to Santo Antão with far fewer visitors, at the cost of less developed infrastructure and fewer marked routes.
Full detail in our Cape Verde hiking guide.
Best for culture and music: São Vicente, Santiago
São Vicente exists around Mindelo, the country's cultural capital and the best place in the archipelago to hear live music — morna and coladeira played most nights in small bars. The island is dry and not especially scenic, and there is really only one good beach. You come for the town.
Tours from Mindelo, São Vicente
Prices, times and availability are shown on GetYourGuide. Many tours offer free cancellation.
São Vicente highlights tour
- Monte Verde viewpoint and villages
- Small groups, pick-up available
- Private tours from Mindelo port
Snorkel with sea turtles
- São Pedro bay, near Mindelo
- Pick-up available
- Turtles all year round
Staying in Mindelo? Where to stay in Mindelo, with a map of places to stay
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Santiago is the largest and most populous island, home to the capital Praia and to Cidade Velha, a UNESCO World Heritage site and the first European settlement in the tropics. The interior is green and mountainous, the markets at Assomada are the real thing, and the island feels lived-in rather than visited. Beaches are its weak point.
Best for peace: Brava, Maio
Brava is the smallest inhabited island, green, often misty, reachable only by ferry, and visited by very few people. Walking, flowers and quiet are the entire proposition. Getting there requires commitment and flexibility — see getting to Brava.
Maio offers solitude of a different kind: flat, sandy and sunny rather than green and misty, and slightly easier to reach.
Both suit travellers who are content with little to do. Neither suits a one-week trip with tight flight connections.
First trip, families, couples
| You are | Choose | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Visiting for the first time | Sal | Direct flights, walkable town, most choice, easiest logistics |
| Travelling with children | Sal or Boa Vista | Calm swimming beaches, resorts with facilities, short transfers |
| On a honeymoon | Boa Vista | Quieter beaches and more secluded resorts than Sal |
| A walker | Santo Antão | No real competition in the archipelago |
| Interested in music and culture | São Vicente | Live music most nights in Mindelo |
| A kitesurfer or windsurfer | Sal | Reliable wind November to March, established schools |
| Returning for a second trip | Fogo, São Nicolau or Brava | More rewarding once you know how travel between islands works |
The mistakes people make
- Booking Sal expecting green landscapes. Sal is desert. The name means salt. It is not a scenic island and it does not pretend to be — the sea is the attraction.
- Booking Santo Antão expecting beaches. There are essentially none worth planning around.
- Trying to see four islands in a week. Inter-island travel is slower and less reliable than people expect. Two islands in a week is comfortable; three is pushing it.
- Underestimating the wind. On Sal and Boa Vista the wind is strongest roughly November to March. Excellent for kitesurfing, less so for lying on a beach. See best time to visit.
- Assuming islands are close because they look close. Some pairs are well connected; others require going via a third island.
Combining two islands
The most rewarding trips usually pair one beach island with one mountain or cultural island. The classic combination is Sal or Boa Vista plus São Vicente and Santo Antão: sun and swimming first, then music in Mindelo and hiking across the channel.
Fogo pairs naturally with Santiago, since flights and ferries connect them and Praia is the main hub for the southern islands.
Work out the route before you book, not after — flight and ferry frequencies shape what is realistic. See island hopping and our ready-made itineraries.
Frequently asked questions
Which Cape Verde island is best?
There is no overall best island — they differ too much. Sal is best for a first beach trip, Boa Vista for quieter beaches and turtles, Santo Antão for hiking, São Vicente for music, Fogo for the volcano and Santiago for history.
Which Cape Verde island is best for a first visit?
Sal, for most people. It has direct international flights, a walkable town in Santa Maria, the widest choice of hotels and restaurants, and the easiest logistics. Boa Vista is the main alternative if you want somewhere quieter.
Which Cape Verde island is best for families?
Sal or Boa Vista for most families. Sal is the easiest: Santa Maria is compact and walkable, and Praia de Santa Maria shelves gently into calm, shallow water. Boa Vista is quieter and wilder, with big resorts and a sheltered bay at Sal Rei. Santo Antão and Fogo are wonderful, but long winding roads and serious walks make them better suited to teenagers than to young children. See Cape Verde with kids.
Which island has the best beaches?
Sal and Boa Vista, with Maio close behind and far emptier. All three are flat and sandy. The mountainous islands have very few beaches.
Which Cape Verde island has the best weather in winter?
From November to March every island is warm and almost entirely dry, so the real difference is the wind. Sal and Boa Vista are the driest and most beach-focused, but they are also the most exposed to the trade winds, which blow hardest in those months: ideal for kitesurfing, less so for a still beach day. The mountainous islands, such as Santo Antão and Fogo, are far less exposed to the wind but cooler and more changeable at altitude, and have very few beaches. See best time to visit.
Which is better, Sal or Boa Vista?
Sal is more developed, easier to explore independently and better for watersports. Boa Vista has longer, emptier beaches, sand dunes and the main turtle nesting sites, but is more resort-focused with less to do outside them.
How many Cape Verde islands can I visit in a week?
Two comfortably. Three is possible but you will spend a significant part of the week travelling, since inter-island flights and ferries are limited and delays are common.
Which island is greenest?
Santo Antão, followed by Brava and the interiors of São Nicolau and Santiago. Sal, Boa Vista and Maio are dry and desert-like year round.