Aristides Pereira International Airport transfer

The airport lies on the west side of the island, beside the old village of Rabil and a short distance from Sal Rei, the island's main town. It is a compact terminal handling mainly holiday flights from Europe and connections within Cape Verde.

After passport control and baggage reclaim, your driver waits in the arrivals area with a name sign. The local provider agrees the exact meeting point with you by phone or WhatsApp. Entry rules for Cape Verde can change, so check what applies to your nationality before you fly.

Give your flight number when booking. The driver then adjusts to your real arrival time, and the price does not change if the flight is late.

Boa Vista is the third-largest island of Cape Verde, but only a small number of people live here. Much of the interior is desert: stony plains, dry riverbeds and dune fields such as the Viana desert, whose pale sand looks as if it had blown over from the Sahara.

The coast is lined with long, open beaches. Praia de Chaves near Rabil is where most of the large all-inclusive resorts stand, while Santa Mónica on the south coast stretches for kilometres with almost no buildings.

Paved roads connect the airport, Sal Rei, Rabil and the main resort areas. Elsewhere, cobbled roads and sandy tracks take over, so journeys to more remote places can take longer than the map suggests.

The main season runs from October to May, with dry, sunny weather and steady trade winds. Christmas, New Year and the February and spring school holidays are the busiest arrival periods.

Between roughly March and May, humpback whales are often seen offshore, and whale-watching trips leave from Sal Rei. In summer, outside the main season, loggerhead turtles nest on the beaches. Jeep and quad excursions to the dunes, the shipwreck on the north coast and Santa Mónica beach are booked from the resorts.

A standard car carries one to three passengers with their suitcases. For families and groups up to about seven people, a minivan is the usual choice, and larger vehicles can be requested.

If you travel with kite or windsurf gear, diving equipment or golf bags, declare it when booking so that a vehicle with enough space is sent. Child seats can be requested in the same step.