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Photo by IDS.photos from Tiverton, UK, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Best time to visit Cape Verde
Cape Verde · Africa
All twelve months scored on daily temperature, rainfall, humidity and holiday crowding.
The year in Cape Verde
Tap a month for its page
- JanJCape Verde in January: good, busy
- FebFCape Verde in February: good
- MarMCape Verde in March: sweet spot
- AprACape Verde in April: sweet spot
- MayMCape Verde in May: sweet spot
- JunJCape Verde in June: sweet spot
- JulJCape Verde in July: sweet spot
- AugACape Verde in August: sweet spot
- SepSCape Verde in September: good
- OctOCape Verde in October: sweet spot
- NovNCape Verde in November: good
- DecDCape Verde in December: good
- Sweet spot
- Good
- OK
- Avoid
- Busy
Dry all year: 6 or fewer rainy days in every month.
Plan this trip
Each site opens on its own search: choose your dates there. A few open on their home page, where you type the place too.
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Flights from
Flights
Your city is a guess from your time zone. Choose your city
Where are you flying from? Choose your city for its flights and fares.
Book with the airline
Where to stay
Book direct
Luxury
Things to do
Car hire
Rent direct
Travel insurance
Check whether your bank card or home insurance already covers this trip.
If the trip needs a visa, the travel agent or visa centre usually sells the cover it asks for.
Mobile data (eSIM)
Your own plan's EU roaming may already cover this.
Renting a pocket Wi-Fi is the other common way to stay connected.
These are sites people in book with. Each opens in a new tab, on the site's own pages.
Things to do in Cape Verde
- Praia da Chave Beach in Cape Verde
- Cabo de Santa Maria Beach and coastal sector on Boa Vista, Cape Verde
- Santa Maria Beach Beach in Sal Island, Cape Verde
- Ponta Preta Point in the southern part of the island of Sal
- Monte Grande (Sal), Cape Verde Mountain in Cape Verde
- Praia de Cabral Beach in Cape Verde
- Rabo de Junco Mountain
Tours and tickets in Cape Verde
Each site opens on its own search: choose your dates there. A few open on their home page, where you type the place too. Links marked Ad pay us a commission if you book, at no extra cost to you; most pay nothing, and what a site pays never decides whether it is listed or where. How we rank
Sights and their lines from Wikivoyage, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0, and Wikidata; in order of how often each one's Wikipedia article was read on phones in the last 12 months.
Month by month
No fare history for this route yet, so this ranking is climate and crowds only — the price column will fill in as the scanner collects.
| Month | Max °C | Rain days | Humidity | Sun h/day | Verdict | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 25° | 0d | 67% | 9.9h | goodbusy | busier than usual |
| Feb | 25° | 0d | 69% | 10.4h | good | 25C max, 0 rainy days |
| Mar | 25° | 0d | 69% | 10.8h | sweet spot | 25C max, 0 rainy days |
| Apr | 26° | 0d | 71% | 11.3h | sweet spot | 26C max, 0 rainy days |
| May | 26° | 0d | 72% | 11.6h | sweet spot | 26C max, 0 rainy days |
| Jun | 27° | 0d | 75% | 11.5h | sweet spot | 27C max, 0 rainy days |
| Jul | 28° | 0d | 74% | 10.6h | sweet spot | 28C max, 0 rainy days |
| Aug | 30° | 2d | 75% | 10.4h | sweet spot | 30C max, 2 rainy days |
| Sep | 30° | 1d | 75% | 10.3h | good | 30C max, 1 rainy day |
| Oct | 30° | 0d | 73% | 10.6h | sweet spot | 30C max, 0 rainy days |
| Nov | 29° | 0d | 71% | 10.2h | good | 29C max, 0 rainy days |
| Dec | 26° | 0d | 68% | 10.0h | good | 26C max, 0 rainy days |
Rain days are the days with at least 1 mm of rain, as a weather station counts them.
Weather read at Santa Maria, on Sal, 17 km from the airport (SID): ten years of ERA5 and ERA5-Land reanalysis, through Open-Meteo's open data.
A busy month is a crowded one, not a bad one — usually it is crowded because the weather is good. It is flagged rather than scored down, and crowds alone never make a month “avoid”: that is reserved for weather worth skipping.
How busy it gets
Then and now
Cape Verde's October days now average 30.2°C, 4.5°C warmer than in 1981–1990. 12 of 12 months are clearly warmer.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1981–90 | 21.4° | 21.0° | 21.4° | 21.6° | 21.9° | 22.9° | 24.2° | 25.5° | 26.1° | 25.7° | 24.6° | 23.1° |
| 2017–26 | 25.4° | 25.0° | 25.0° | 25.8° | 26.3° | 27.2° | 28.2° | 29.6° | 30.1° | 30.2° | 28.6° | 26.4° |
| Change | +3.9° | +3.9° | +3.6° | +4.2° | +4.4° | +4.3° | +4.0° | +4.1° | +4.0° | +4.5° | +4.0° | +3.3° |
The average daily high, month by month, for the nearest ERA5 grid cell. Bold is a clear change; grey is within the ordinary spread between years. Every destination, ranked.
Getting there
How far Cape Verde is, and what it costs, depends on where you set off from — the months above do not.
- from Casablanca
- from Lisbon
- from Lagos
- from Madrid
- from Barcelona
- from Paris
- from Dublin
- from London
Open in Rome2rio for every way from to Cape Verde, flying or not.
Before you go
| Cost of living | cheap — prices run about 48% of the United States' (World Bank, 2025) |
|---|---|
| Currency | Cape verdean escudo |
| Languages | Portuguese, Cape Verdean Creole |
| Plugs | Type C and F, 220 V |
| Driving | On the right |
| Calling code | +238 |
| Travel advice | No advice against travel — UK Foreign Office, updated 2026-07-28 Exercise a high degree of caution — Global Affairs Canada, updated 2026-09-24 Level 1: Exercise Normal Precautions — US State Department, updated 2025-12-18 |
| Health | UK Foreign Office health advice |
Facts from Wikidata (CC0), the UK Foreign Office (Open Government Licence) and the World Bank, refreshed 2026-10-07. The advisory is written for British travellers; entry rules depend on your passport.Travel advice for American readers is the US State Department's (public domain), and for Canadian readers Global Affairs Canada's (Open Government Licence - Canada), each in its own words and written for its own citizens; entry rules depend on your passport.
Being there
On arrival
- Paying — High-end hotels take cards, but most other places expect cash in escudos; on Sal, euros are commonly accepted, though change may come in escudos. ATMs in the larger towns take Visa, Mastercard and Maestro.
- UPI, for visitors from India — Not accepted for paying here; bring a card that works abroad.
Getting around Cape Verde
- Apps — Maps: Google Maps.
Most road and sidewalk surfaces in Cabo Verde are made of large, rough, irregular, uneven and sharp cobblestones, which are often spaced wide apart and may protrude several centimetres from the ground. More on Wikivoyage
From the Wikivoyage article on Cape Verde, written by travellers and licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Help
- Emergency — police 132 · ambulance 130 · fire 131.
TravelCharika is not an emergency service: we cannot call for help or send anyone. Numbers can change; if one fails, ask someone local or your hotel.
Your embassy — : how to reach your embassy or consulate abroad. A guess from your city, : a city is not a passport.
Put together by hand from the sources listed, checked 7 October 2026. Apps, cards and rules change, so check before you rely on one.
Sources (6)
- gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/cape-verde/getting-help
- travel.gc.ca/destinations/cabo-verde
- en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Cape_Verde
- developers.google.com/maps/coverage
- pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2286608
- rbidocs.rbi.org.in/rdocs/AnnualReport/PDFs/09PAYMENT290526C6588B796E664822A2BD0DEB6452CAD4.PDF
Cape Verde in pictures
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Cayambe, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
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Cayambe, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
What Cape Verde is like
Cape Verde or CV, officially Cabo Verde (Portuguese: Cabo Verde, Kriolu: Kabu Verdi) is a country off the coast of West Africa. It is in a cluster of islands of the Atlantic Ocean, 570 km (350 mi) off the western coast of Senegal. More on Wikivoyage
- Worth seeing
- Cape Verde is a breathtaking, 10-island volcanic archipelago, 500 km off the west coast of Africa, blending African, Brazilian and Portuguese influences. More on Wikivoyage
- Worth doing
- Some activities available on particular islands include: Game fishing Kite surfing & wind surfing Diving Jetskiing and other water sports Canyoning in Santo Antao More on Wikivoyage
- Getting in
- Citizens of Angola, Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Hong Kong, Liberia, Macau, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Singapore… More on Wikivoyage
- Staying safe
- Pickpocketing and purse snatching are quite common in Cape Verde, especially in the main cities (Praia, Mindelo) and on the islands popular with tourists (Boa Vista, Sal). More on Wikivoyage
- Staying healthy
- In the resorts, the tap water is usually desalinated and safe to drink. In other areas, bottled water is cheap and commonly available. More on Wikivoyage
From the Wikivoyage article on Cape Verde, written by travellers and licensed CC BY-SA 4.0; the full article has far more. The numbers above are measured; this is experience.
Around Cape Verde
Nearby
- Marrakech Morocco · 2,245 km
- The Azores Portugal · 2,367 km
- Casablanca Morocco · 2,431 km
- Lisbon Portugal · 2,800 km
Kind of place
Cape Verde is in Cape Verde, Africa. Distances are great-circle, so a short one can still be a long way round.
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