Things to Do on Sal Island

The four places everyone comes for — Pedra de Lume, Buracona, Shark Bay and the Terra Boa mirage — are spread across an island roughly 30 km long, and most of the road between them is not the kind you want to negotiate for the first time. A taxi can do it, but you will pay for waiting time at every stop and still get no explanation. The tours start at €27, and only a handful say the entrance fees are included — that line is worth reading before you compare two prices.

When the sun is high and the sea is calm — the glow comes from light entering an underwater opening, so it is a midday phenomenon, not an all-day one. In winter, under cloud, or with swell running, you will see a dark hole in the rock instead. If the Blue Eye is the reason you are going, pick a departure that reaches Buracona around noon and accept that nobody can promise it.

No. Loggerheads nest on Sal roughly from June to October, with August the busiest month, and hatchlings follow into December. The guided night walks only run in that window. Outside it, what remains is daytime snorkelling and boat trips that look for turtles feeding in the bay — those go all year, but they are a different thing and no sighting is guaranteed either.

Not from here. Humpbacks do pass Cape Verde between about December and May, with the best chances in March and April, but the whale-watching trips are sold from Boa Vista, and our inventory for Sal contains none at all. If whales are the point of your trip, plan it around Boa Vista rather than expecting to book it in Santa Maria.

Amílcar Cabral airport sits next to Espargos in the middle of the island, about 16 km from Santa Maria, which is a twenty-minute drive. Taxis wait outside arrivals and the fare is usually agreed before you get in. Several operators also sell a fixed-price private transfer, which is worth it mainly if you are landing late or travelling with a lot of luggage.

The Cape Verdean escudo is pegged to the euro at a fixed rate, and in Santa Maria euros are accepted almost everywhere tourists go — but change will often come back in escudos, and at a rate set by the shop rather than the peg. For the market, a taxi or a bar away from the main street, having escudos is simply easier. Your tour is paid online in euros in any case.