Flights to Cape Verde
Traveling to Cape Verde is relatively easy, but requires planning. Flights to and from Cape Verde arrive daily, but from different cities and on different days of the week. Cape Verde has four international airports: Amilcar Cabral on Sal Island (SID), Nelson Mandela in Praia (RAI), Aristides Pereira on Boa Vista Island (BVC), and Cesaria Evora in Sao Vicente (VXE). Transportes Aereos de Cabe Verde (TACV), the official airline of Cape Verde, and Transportes Aereos de Portugal (TAP) have flights to and from Cape Verde from many points throughout the world.
Flights to Maio
Transportes Aereos de Cabe Verde (TACV) has flights between Praia, Santiago and Maio twice per week and it is about a 20 minute journey. There is also a weekly flight from Boa Vista. Aeroporto do Maio (MMO) is about 3 km north of Porto Inglês. We can arrange a taxi for you if you let us know in advance.
The fleet consists of 48-seat ATR 42–500 and 68-seat ATR 72-500 twin-turboprop airplanes. Binter Canarias will start service to Maio soon, and also has a fleet of ATR airplanes. They will be a competitor for TACV for both international inter-island flights, which should start to give more options.
For more information, please see Transport in Cape Verde – Wikipedia.
Ferry to Maio
The Sotavento passenger/cargo ferry runs between Praia, Santiago and Porto Inglês, Maio three times per week.
The distance from Porto da Praia to Porto Inglês is about 50 kilometres. The Sotavento sails with a speed of about 20 kilometres per hour and the journey takes about 3 hours depending on the weather. It seats about 100 passengers and can be crowded with limited ticket availability at some times of the year or when there is a festival. The journey can be uncomfortable if it is very windy or there are high swells.
The ferry departs from Porto da Praia, which is about 4 kilometres from Nelson Mandela Airport and about 3 kilometres from the centre of Praia. You should arrive at the port one hour before sailing time. The ferry arrives at the jetty on Maio, which is 1.5 kilometres by taxi to Kaza Tropikal or about a 10 minute walk down the beach from Bar Tropikal. We can arrange a taxi for you if you let us know in advance.
Maio’s passenger and little cargo vessel is “Sotavento”, owned and operated by Polaris CIA SA. Enquire and purchase tickets at the Polar Lda agency office in the centre of Praia on the Platô and with the agent on Maio. If you do not have the time to buy your tickets in Praia we can arrange a taxi driver to buy the tickets for you and meet you at the airport with them for a small fee.
At the time of this post, the Sotavento has the following schedule:
- Departure from Praia: Wednesday 06:00, Friday 16:00 and Sunday 15:00
- Departure from Maio: Wednesday 16:00, Friday 20:00 and Sunday 19:00