Cape Verde - anyone been ? Any tips and advice

[PanBanisha]

Am looking at Cape Verde for a holiday in January .
Does anyone have tips as to where to stay ? Prefer apartment type holiday rather than AI but don’t know the place at all
Thanks

We stayed in Sal, adults only AI, so not sure I can help much. It's very much a developing country and developing tourist industry, but we loved it as it's so different from our usual holidays.

Thanks I will look at it. Did you go out of the resort at all ?

Yes, the nearest town was Santa Maria...plenty of bars and restaurants and a few shops. I believe there is some SC accommodation in the town.
No problems at all at night, but some of the locals are persistant trying to get you to go to the market during the day. A firm no, I'm not interested is needed!
We also did an island tour, which was great.

The island is barren with no agriculture, so practically all food (except fish!) has to be imported. It's a love it or hate it kind of place!
Weather is great, but apparently it can be pretty windy during the winter.

It was windy when I went

It's a developing tourist place ( not established like Costs del Sol)

Went on the desert buggy ride, horse riding, sailing

Nothing else to do except relax & take something to read

Stayed in AI

I've been to nicer places, but it's ok to try it

I’d never go back there.
I’ve extensively travelled and didn’t feel safe there, found the landscape quite ugly and barren, locals not friendly, the sea really hard to swim in as such huge waves and rip tide, cold due to winds and hotel very poor.

This was around 9 years ago and whilst I’ve heard there’s better AI now and it has obviously developed I’ve chatted to a fair amount of people that would also never go back.

I stayed at the Riu Touareg in Boa Vista - the hotel was lovely, staff was lovely.

BUT I ended up with horrendous food poisoning, ruined the second half of my holiday, wasn't sure if I'd be well enough to fly home. I did get home and had to take a week off work and then return office-bound only.

My GP warned me that I was suffering IBS symptoms and only time would tell whether I'd have it permanently (luckily I don't!)

I was so disappointed because the first few days were great but I wouldn't dare return now. I think there's lots of stories online like mine if you ha be a google (I couldn't be certain if it was only that hotel or others too).

We went to Sal in September to the Meliá Tortuga
Bit of a last minute break and didn’t know what to expect.
Really enjoyed it but there isn’t a lot to do outside the hotel. We did do 1 excursion that basically covered everything in one day.
Kids really loved it, we would go again But maybe one of the other islands as we did most of Sal in 1 week
We had a blonde teenager with us and while she did get a bit of attention we never felt threatened or unsafe. People were friendly but didn’t hassle you.
There are no creepy crawlies really and the mozzies weren’t too bad. I was ill one night, probably something I ate but DH and the DC were fine. We did speak to one lady who had been really ill and had to go to hospital, which she said was pretty awful

Stayed in Riu Karamboa 7 years ago. Absolutely loved it.

As for SC there are Villas at the hotel where we stayed but as everything has to be imported there aren’t many supermarkets to get provisions to cook for yourself and food is expensive. A bag of crisps was around 4E
We usually do SC as I prefer it but I wouldn’t even consider it on Cape Verde