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Cape Verde (Cabo Verde in Portuguese) has ten islands. I would like to visit at least three of them.

How can I travel between the islands?

If there are several ways to travel between them (boat vs plane), what are the pros and cons?

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Boats are "only" a good option if:

  • travelling between islands that are close to each other (circa 1h journey)
  • boats used are modern, on-time and in a good state

For instance, to travel between the island of Sao Vicente & Santo Antao, the boats are on-time, in a good state and indeed pretty recent. So you can definitely feel safe and plan your trip without too much surprises (schedule-wise).

However, when travelling between distant islands (5h+ journeys), many of the boats (at the time of writting) are cargo boats. Hence they are very unsafe, old, and very often delayed by hours or days. There has often been accidents, and yes, deaths. Hence you'd rather spend a bit more and make your trip quick and easy by taking the plane unless taking the boat for a journey known as "safe and on-time".

TACV is the airline currently operating in Cape Verde (at the time of writting, in 2015). Flights are usually between 60€ and 100€ (one way), depending how long in advance you book your ticket. The planes are relatively small (carrying 100 people maybe), safe and usually on time. You can book your tickets directly through a TACV agency but also through other agencies (try TAP Portugal website too).

Please find below a map of routes for the plane, (regular fast) boats, & cargo boats. Note that it might be missing some routes (especially cargo routes) & quickly become out-of-date (things can change from one year to another I have been told).

routes for planes, (regular fast) boats & (slow unreliable) cargo boats

Resources:

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