Sal Island holidays

Relatively unknown to the package holiday mass market, Sal holidays offer a taste of the exotic without the jet lag – in under six hours, you can be flopped on the type of beach that wouldn’t look out of place in the Caribbean.

Part of Cape Verde, Sal is the most popular and developed of a ten-island archipelago. Mostly, travellers head here for one of two things: its seemingly endless, sugar-white sandy beaches, or its world-class kite surfing conditions.

Its barren interior, meanwhile, is a windswept desert of rust-red dunes; while most tourists don’t stray too far from the shore, this Martian expanse is ideal for a bit of adventure – usually in the form of quad biking.

Due to its Atlantic location between Africa and South America, the Cape Verdean culture is a heady mix of Brazilian, Portuguese and West African culture. You’ll find it in Sal’s people, melancholic music (Cesária Évora is a must-listen before you go) and food – most notably cachupa, a hearty stew of fish, beans and cassava.

Most visitors stay in Santa Maria, a colourful coastal town at the southern tip of the island. Besides having some of the best beaches, it’s got a decent nightlife, a handful of good restaurants and enough small craft shops to keep you busy in between beach days. Esparagos, the largest town on the island, doesn’t usually draw too many tourists but it offers a glimpse of everyday life on Sal.

While hotel development has gone into overdrive in recent years, Sal is still one of the best islands – along with nearby Boa Vista – for a no-nonsense beach holiday.

Sal is hot year-round; temperatures here don’t tend to drop much below 20C.

The island has a warm, tropical climate, with milder evenings over the winter period. Many travellers head here between November and February to escape the cold back home. Early summer – May and June – when the island is consistently hot and dry, is another popular time to visit.

If you’re after non-stop sunshine, it’s best to avoid September and October, when the island is at its wettest and hottest. However, this is generally a good time to find cheap holidays to Sal. Bigger winds hit the island between November and March, which is ideal for windsurfers.

Sal is home to a large number of endangered loggerhead turtles, which you can see between July and September. Meanwhile, February to May is the best time to visit for humpback whale watching.

Though first and foremost a beach destination, Sal has more to offer than just sand and sunbathing. As well as a world-class destination for wildlife spotting and kite surfing, the island’s otherworldly interior is the perfect playground for quad biking, cycling and horseback trekking.

Shark’s Bay

Ever taken a stroll with a shark? Well, in Sal you can. Thrashing about in the shallow waters off the coast of nearby Feijoal, lemon sharks routinely flock to the aptly named Shark’s Bay to breed – and you can walk out close enough for a look.

They might look scary – they can grow up to eight feet in length – but the sharks aren’t a threat to humans, only eating small fish. Wade out among them for one of the island’s more unusual wildlife experiences.

Santa Maria

A classic beach town in every sense, Santa Maria backs straight onto sand where sugar white melts into shimmering turquoise and colourful wooden boats bob around an old jetty.

Its streets of pastel-painted houses are packed with surf shops, live music bars, and no-frills restaurants serving the freshest seafood hauled in that day. Grab a potent Cape Verdean caipirinha and find a space on the sand – you’ll soon see what “no stress” is all about.

Kite surfing

Powerful Atlantic winds and shallow waters have made Sal a mecca for kite surfers; along the coast, multi-coloured kites slicing through the sky are a common sight.

A handful of schools operate on the island’s south-eastern shore, where you can take lessons. For calmer conditions, beginners should head to Santa Maria Bay. Be warned, you’ll need at least a week to get anywhere near actual surf – kite surfing is not as easy as it looks.

Pedro de Lume salt mine

It might be hard to believe, but tiny Sal once produced enough salt to keep large parts of Brazil and West Africa suitably seasoned. The clue’s in the name really – Sal means “salt” in Portuguese.

Though those days are long gone, the remnants of this once mighty condiment empire are still visible at the Pedro de Lume salt mine in the north of the island. Set in a vast crater, amid Sal’s rusty barren interior, the mine is a sight in itself, but it’s the salt pools – saltier than the Dead Sea – that are the real draw. Hit the all-inclusive buffet all you want – it’s impossible to sink.

Turtle watching

Home to the third largest population of nesting loggerheads in the world, Cape Verde is prime turtle watching territory. On Sal, there are a handful of conservation projects and hatcheries, which you can visit during your holiday.

It’s possible to take a night tour of nesting sites, and observe rangers recording the turtles’ behaviour and health. For the best chance of seeing hatchlings, visit in August.