Salty sights and Caesar salads in Cape Verde, the up-and-coming jetlag-free fly-and-flop destination. Travel editor Nigel Thompson went to check then out and for a bob in the water
We entered the 100-yard long rock tunnel at a windswept car park on an island in the Atlantic Ocean. We exited at the edge of a vast crater, mesmerised by an otherworldly view like a scene from a sci-fi film.
Before us lay a volcanic (dormant thankfully!) landscape of ochre, pinks and whites. You feel it could be life on Mars were it not for the fact there is water in a lake below. But this is no “ordinary” water at the Pedra de Lume salt flats at Sal island in Cape Verde.
The lake is more than 20 times saltier than the sea – double the levels in the Dead Sea in Israel and Jordan – and, just like its Middle Eastern cousin, it’s popular with tourists for the novelty of bobbing around on the surface unable to sink.
Locals swear blind by a dip, saying the life of brine restores the skin’s health and people look 10 years younger after leaving the water. Benjamin Button I was not, but floating is fun and it gets your attention as any tiny scratch (e.g. a paper cut or shaving nick) stings noticeably!
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Entry is €6 and a freshwater shower afterwards (you will need it) is €1. There’s also a small cafe and souvenir shop with cash preferred.
Cape Verde, 350 miles off the western coast of Senegal, is taking off for Brits as a (mostly) fly-and-flop destination, with one of the main appeals – apart from pretty reliable tropical weather all-year round – being that it’s a jet lag-free destination and only six hours away heading due south all the way.
For context, that 2,700-mile journey is as far as going across the pond to Newfoundland in eastern Canada. Our base for the trip was the five-star beachfront Hilton Cabo Verde Sal Resort on the outskirts of Santa Maria, the main tourist town.
It’s an excellent, easily likeable upscale property with all you need – good service, spacious rooms, a lovely central pool area, a lush spa and watersports options in the breezy ocean.
It’s walkable to the centre of Santa Maria and its shops, bars and restaurants via a promenade alongside the vast beach, and is one of the packages on offer with easyJet holidays.
The hotel’s showstopper for me was the airy Bounty Beach Restaurant and Bar. It’s a smart but chilled venue with great sea views and served the chicken Caesar salad of my dreams (around £12.50), plus the local Strela lager (slightly sweet, but decent) and the surprisingly good Cape Verdean wines. Leave me here.
When I was eventually crowbarred out of my seat at the Bounty, another aquatic excursion beckoned. This time, an enjoyable and relaxing catamaran ride in the Atlantic with the friendly folk at Cape Verde Sailing – “marineros” Daisy and Daniel and skipper Delvi.
Much as we were enjoying just pootling around in the ocean – there is also an opportunity to snorkel at an underwater statue of Jesus – a few skipjack tunas leaped out of the water in front of us. Daisy explained that they were fleeing a dolphin hunting for breakfast (half day from €59 per person, cvsailing.com).
So, it was not without a little irony that one of my group of travelling companions ordered the skipjack tuna steak for lunch when we were back on dry land (and the land in barren Sal is very dry indeed).
Our tuna may have escaped a breakfasting marine mammal, but not all manage to elude a Cape Verde fisherman (apparently it was delicious).
That lunch en route back to the airport was at the elegant and traditional Hotel Morabeza, the oldest on the island with its origins dating back to the 1960s and also available with easyJet holidays.
Like the Hilton, it has a terrific beach club and, yes, another decent chicken Caesar salad for lunch (around £8.50). Again, leave me here (I tried hiding in the toilets but the bus driver found me and took me to the airport).
I was only there for a couple of days but it was oh so easy to develop a taste for Cape Verde. With an extra sprinkling of salt, of course.
Book the holiday
easyJet holidays offers seven nights on B&B at the Hilton Cabo Verde Sal Resort in Santa Maria, Cape Verde, from £882pp with flights from Gatwick on April 27, 2026, 23kg baggage and transfers. easyjet.com/en/holidays
More info at caboverde.com