Hello! I am traveling to Sal and Santiago soon and I’m finding it a bit hard to plan transport and activities. I don’t want to rent a vehicle full time in either place, but I also don’t want to end up getting stranded or not seeing much if I can’t find a taxi at times.

Main questions:

For Sal, should I rent an ATV for the day or do a group tour? I’m very interested in Shark Bay but pretty flexible aside from that. Starting from Santa Maria area. I don’t really want to be rushed through the stops and I’m most interested in ocean activities, so I thought my own transport may be better, but not sure…

For Santiago, I need to secure transport to and from Praia/Tarrafal, and a hiace sounds like my best bet. But I’m wondering if I should do a tour on my way over so I can see some viewpoints since it may be hard to get transportation to hike there. And then not take the second half of the tour back to Praia if they agree to that.

Also, is card reliable or do I need to bring cash? And if so, will it be easy to find ATMs or should I bring the full amount I may need?

Thoughts? ☺️

Hello!

I'm planning my first Cape Verde trip as a solo traveler. I'm into hiking and local culture, with a few beach days at the end to wind down.

Planned route: Fly Amsterdam → Sal (direct, easyJet), same day domestic flight to São Vicente for 2–3 nights in Mindelo, then ferry to Santo Antão for 6 nights of hiking. Ferry back to São Vicente, domestic flight to Sal for 3 relaxed beach days before flying home.

Does this route make sense, or would you change anything? I'm also struggling with the domestic flights — the Cabo Verde Airlines website only shows Praia as a destination from Sal, not São Vicente directly. Is that normal, and how do you usually book these? And how far in advance would you recommend booking for January/February?

Any tips welcome! 🙏