Cape Verde
Santiago: Tarrafal
Santiago, the biggest island of Cape Verde. Beaches, culture & nature, this one has it all.
But the main reason for me to visit this island was to go to Tarrafal. A laid back small little village.
I first arrived at the airport in Praia, spent 1 night there to continue my journey the next day to Tarrafal. If you don’t like chaotic cities I wouldn’t bother to explore the city of Praia.
PS. I actually met 5 other women who also all were travelling solo, what a coincidence on this small island!
What To Do
How To Get Around
The options for getting around are: taxi’s, aluguers or rent a car. In Cape Verde they drive on the right side of the road.
Aluguers are minibuses and there are 2 types: Hiace and Hilux. These names refer to the type of Toyota vehicle. Hiace is the type of minibus where you sit inside, Hilux is a truck where you sit in the back outside. Some of the Hilux buses have a roof. There are no time schedules and they will only leave when all the seats are taken. Unless you want to pay for all the empty seats, than you can basically use it as an taxi.
The taxi’s I used where arranged by my Airbnb hosts. My plane arrived at night in Praia and I paid €20 from the airport to the city. During the day the price should be cheaper. For the taxi from Praia to Tarrafel I paid €60, this is not to bad compared where I come from and considering it’s 1.30 hour drive. In Praia there are a lot of taxi’s so if you’re walking around and want to use one, just wave one down. You won’t have to wait long to get one.
In Tarrafal it’s a different story, there are no taxi’s only aluguers. Sometimes the local people use them as a taxi and rent one for the day with a group of people. In Tarrafal there are aluguers that do the longer distances and aluguers who drive to the nearby towns. You can wave them down wherever you are. To know which one to take, it’s best to ask the local people. It’s a very cheap way of getting around. To get from Tarrafal to Praia I used an aluguer and paid about €5. You pay the driver when you have reached your destination. The aluguer will stop at the Sucupira market in Praia and from there I took a taxi to get to the airport.
Costs
Accommodation:
Budget: €25-€35 per night
Midrange: €35-€50 per night
Luxury: €50+ per night
Restaurants:
This will range between €5 and €18, including basic drinks. Expect to tip around 5%/10%.
Transportation:
Using the aluguers as transportation is super cheap. To get from one side of the island to the other one was just €5. So the short distances is basically nothing. Here is a short list of the costs I made for transportation.
- Taxi Praia – Tarrafal: €63 – Time: 1h30m. 65,5km.
- Taxi Praia airport – Airbnb Praia (night): €20 – Time: 15 minutes. 9,3km.
- Aluguer Tarrafal – Praia: €5 – Time: 1h30m. 71km.
What I spent on my trip:
Trip – 8 days
- Plane ticket: €740
- Airport Security Tax: €31
- Taxi Praia – Tarrafal: €63
- Taxi airport – Airbnb Praia (night): €20
- Aluguer Tarrafal – Praia: €5
- Accommodations: €263
- Serra Da Malagueta Tour: €32
- ATM (for food and drinks): €270
I went out for dinner every evening. Breakfast I made myself and for lunch I bought some snacks in the supermarket.
Total: €1424
Practical Information
Language: Portuguese, Creole
Currency: Cape Verdean Escudo
Travel documents: Passport, EASE (after filling in the EASE form you can pay for the TSA online), TSA (Airport Security Tax)
Water: Not drinkable
Electricity: 220 volt
Best time to travel: October till June is the dry season. The months October and November are the best options because it’s right after the rainy season and everything will still be beautiful green. After those months the scenery changes because of the drought. December and March are known for their dust clouds. It can be covered by Sahara sand those months.