Santa Maria, Cape Verde: Sal's beach town

Santa Maria Cape Verde: from salt port to beach town

Santa Maria was founded in 1830 by Manuel António Martins to export the salt from the pans behind the town, and for a few decades it shipped tens of thousands of tonnes a year, mostly to Brazil. Production ended in 1984. Tourism began in 1967 with the Hotel Morabeza, the first resort hotel in the country, and has since turned a fishing village into Sal's busiest town.

The centre is still small and easy to walk: a grid of low, pastel-coloured houses, a main square with a church, and streets of shops, cafés and restaurants a few minutes from the sand. The old salt pans on the northern edge of town are now a protected landscape. The Sal weather page explains what to expect in each month.

The pier and the fish landing

The pontão, the wooden pier in the middle of the beach, was built to load salt and is now the town's most popular sight. Mornings are the time to go: from around 10 am small, brightly painted boats come in, and fishermen clean and sell tuna, wahoo and grouper on the planks while restaurant owners and locals bargain for the best fish.

Watch from the side and keep out of the way of people working; ask before you photograph anyone. Later in the day local teenagers jump from the end of the pier, and in the evening it is a place to watch the sunset. Fishing trips and boat excursions also leave from here; compare them on our tours page.

The beachfront

Santa Maria beach runs for several kilometres along a south-facing bay of fine white sand. Because the island shelters it from the north-east trade winds, the water is usually calmer than elsewhere on Sal, which makes it the best place on the island for swimming and for families. Sunbeds and umbrellas belong to the hotels and beach bars.

The trade-off is that it is busy. In front of the town the beach is lined with hotels, bars and water-sports centres, and souvenir sellers walk the sand offering bracelets and carvings; a polite no is enough. Kitesurf and windsurf schools also work on the bay. For quieter sand, walk further east or west along the bay.

Ponta Preta and the west

West of the centre the beach continues to Ponta Preta, a black-rock point with one of the best-known waves in the Atlantic: a fast right-hand break that has hosted rounds of the GKA Kite-Surf World Cup. On a good swell, watching the riders from the beach is worth the walk; the water there is for experts only, so swim in the bay instead.

Beyond Ponta Preta the coast is lined with large all-inclusive resorts, including the three connected RIU hotels. Lessons and rentals for beginners are on the main bay and at Kite Beach on the east coast; see kitesurf, windsurf and surf.

Eating out and nightlife

Fresh fish is the thing to order: grilled tuna, wahoo or grouper, often bought that morning at the pier, with rice and salad. Try cachupa, the national stew of maize and beans, and grogue, the sugar-cane spirit made above all on Santo Antão and Santiago. Prices in the centre are closer to European resort prices than to local ones, and euros are widely accepted; see currency and prices.

Nights are lively but not wild. Many bars and restaurants have live music several nights a week, from morna and coladeira to funaná, and a few clubs stay open late at weekends. Muggings and pickpocketing do happen on Sal, so after dark stick to the lit streets, avoid empty stretches of beach and take a taxi back to an out-of-town hotel; safety and visa has more advice.

Staying in town or in a resort

Staying in town, in apartments, guesthouses or hotels such as the Morabeza or the Hilton Cabo Verde Sal Resort on the beach, puts restaurants, the pier and the calmest swimming within walking distance. It suits couples and independent travellers, and lets you choose where to eat each night, but it can be noisy near the bars.

All-inclusive resorts outside the centre, to the west towards Ponta Preta and to the east of the centre, are good value with children and in high season, and many have their own stretch of beach. They are a taxi ride or a long walk from town, so you may see little of Santa Maria. Our where to stay page compares the areas.

Day trips from Santa Maria

Everything on Sal is within an hour's drive. Half-day tours combine the salt crater of Pedra de Lume, the blue eye at Buracona and the port of Palmeira, and Shark Bay is a short ride up the east coast. From July to October, licensed guides run night walks to see loggerhead turtles nesting on the protected beaches nearby (turtle watching), and in town Projeto Biodiversidade runs a free sea turtle information centre and hatchery on the beach beside the RIU Funana hotel. For a change of scene, fly from Sal to Boa Vista or São Vicente; see ferries and flights between the islands.