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Hotel Tarrafal, Tarrafal, Santiago Island

The only beach front hotel on Santiago

This is at a small fishing village on the Northern tip of Santiago. It is worlds away from Praia and a long slog over mainly cobbled roads once you leave the dual carriageway out of the capital.

There are only two hotels the Tarrafal, which has closed its restaurant and maybe only temporarily its swimming pool. This costs from £155 per person for a week.

The Baia Verde next door seems to have closed all its bungalows and live off trippers escaping from the horrors of Praia for the day and coming up by bus for lunch and a swim on a clean beach. So the two co-exist peacefully.

This is where people from Praia come at weekends and there are rows of holiday villas being built. But they do not seem to support the restaurants or bars.
Apart from the Baia Verde which is expensive, there is one open air spot which does good cachupa and a French place, which always seems to be closed. This was at peak season, too.

The Tarrafal is basic and the staff do not seem to care too much about clients, but the beach and the fishing boats landing each morning make up for that. The hotel is good value but the transfer is long and the road rough. Once there, you can find a couple of small restaurants that serve simple food in the open air at less than half the prices in Praia. The bars are simple kiosks with a few chairs set under trees. This is tourism Cape Verde style where the Praia profesional classes go for holidays.

Hotel and Flight Quotation

Flights to Praia

 

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