Travel tips for a holiday at Sal Island, Cape Verde Islands

When we had our holiday at Sal Island in Cape Verde Islands we stayed at the southernmost coast south of the town Santa Maria. This is a fine place for vacation if you enjoy blue clean sea water for swimming and water sports. In this area there are quite a number of developers building new hotels, tourist facilities and infrastructure. But still the coast with a huge sandy beach is very attractive. The beach is 8 kilometres long and quite broad.

We stayed at the ClubHotel Riu Funana with an all-inclusive arrangement that worked very well This hotel has probably the best location for beach life and water sports.

Sal is famous for its windsurfing – and windsurfers come here from all over the world as Sal is regarded as one of the five best locations for windsurfing. I will post a full review of the all-inclusive package and the resort ClubHotel Riu Funana later.

Sal Island is in general a very flat island with only a few smaller mountains of weathered down old volcanoes, the highest point being just 1332 feet.

Sal is like a dessert, barely any rain, but very, very dry, and therefore attractive for many visitors who are searching for sunny days during winter time.
When we stayed there one week in November we had sunshine more or less all days.

Sal Island is convenient for tourists from abroad because Sal is just one of two islands of Cape Verde that host an international airport.

Sal has a limited number of tourist attractions aside from the marvellous sandy beach at Santa Maria in the south of Sal. I will give you a few more tips of these attractions.

The first name given to Sal was Llana but because the discovery of salt by the Portuguese it was changed to Sal. Sal as well as other islands may have been known to salt seeking ‘Moors’ before the Portuguese discovery. The first settlement was by slaves from the other Cape Verde island Boa Vista but population remained insignificant until the late 17th century when the demand for salt and livestock grew. The island was a common stop for ships to get salt for ballast and for trade at little or no cost. Now an old salt mine in a volcano crater is one of the main landscape attractions at Sal.

More about windsurfing, diving, snorkeling, sailing, deep sea fishing and birding at Cape Verde  to come.

Related posts:

1. Tropical Cape Verde Islands in The Atlantic Ocean
2. Island Vacation Tips – a Warm Welcome
3. Island Vacation Tips: Your First Travel Abroad Packing Checklist
4. Sexiest Beaches of the World 2008 at Islands for Vacation and Fun