Trip Planning
The TakeYourBackpack guidebooks are your all-in-one travel companion, featuring the best cities, national parks, hikes, beaches, and unique sites, along with essential tips on when to go, how to get around, exchanging money, and even local phrases to get you started — everything you need for a smooth, unforgettable backpacking adventure.
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Planning a backpacking route through Cabo Verde can be tricky — you need to balance must-see places, travel times, budget, and how long to stay in each destination. Our free personalized Cabo Verde itinerary planner creates a route based on your travel style, trip duration, and interests, so you can spend less time researching and more time exploring.
Personal tip: I normally search on good rating for atmosphere (for meeting people) and location (for easy exploring). Cleanliness as a bonus.
Travel Essentials
Cabo Verde has no compulsory vaccinations for most travelers. The exception is a yellow fever certificate, which is required if you arrive from a country with yellow fever risk. You should be up to date on routine vaccines, and hepatitis A and typhoid are recommended, with hepatitis B advised for longer stays. The WHO certified the country malaria-free in 2024, so you do not need antimalarials. Dengue does occur during the rainy season from August to October, so bring mosquito repellent.
vaccination requirementsWhen I first started traveling, I often spent part of my first day in a new country hunting for a local SIM card. While this can still be slightly cheaper, it also takes time and planning.
These days, it's much simpler to install an eSIM before leaving home. Once you arrive in Cabo Verde, you can activate it immediately and have mobile data from the moment you land — which is especially useful for ordering transport or navigating away from busy airports.
There are many providers nowadays, and price differences are usually small. I personally go with
Holafly, as it offers excellent network coverage throughout the country and strong global coverage, so you can manage multiple countries from a single app.
HolaFly eSimCulture & Customs
Cabo Verdean culture is built around “morabeza,” a relaxed warmth toward guests, and things run on a slow clock, so do expect patience at shops, ferries and restaurants and don’t show irritation at delays. In towns and villages, keep beachwear for the beach and dress modestly when entering churches. Always ask before photographing people, particularly older villagers and market vendors. If you are offered food or a glass of grogue at someone’s home, accept at least a small taste. Avoid going topless on beaches, since it is frowned upon outside a few resort areas. Women dressed conservatively will attract less attention in Praia and rural Santiago. Public displays of affection between same-sex couples draw more stares in villages than in Mindelo.
Trying traditional food is always a great way to experience the culture. Here are some must-try dishes for Cabo Verde.
- Cachupa: The national dish, a slow-cooked stew of hominy corn and beans with vegetables plus pork, sausage, chicken or fish. The meat-heavy version, “cachupa rica,” appears at celebrations, while “cachupa pobre” is the everyday kind. Most families make it in a big pot.
- Cachupa refogada: Yesterday’s cachupa fried crisp in a pan and topped with a fried egg and sausage. It is the classic Cabo Verdean breakfast and the cheapest filling meal you will find in local cafés.
- Pastel com diabo dentro: Fried pastries made with sweet potato and corn dough and stuffed with spicy tuna. The name means “pastry with the devil inside,” and they are a favorite snack in Mindelo.
- Caldo de peixe: A fish soup cooked with potato, cassava, tomato and onion, often served with rice. It shows how much island cooking relies on the day’s catch.
- Búzio: Conch stewed in a tomato and onion sauce. It is a coastal specialty that turns up on menus in fishing towns.
- Queijo de cabra: Fresh goat cheese, best eaten with papaya jam. The cheese from Fogo is the most prized.
- Grogue: A potent sugarcane spirit distilled in traditional presses, especially on Santo Antão. Its sweeter cousin “ponche” is grogue mixed with molasses or honey and lime.
Tap water in Cabo Verde is mostly desalinated seawater and is technically treated, but its quality varies by island and pipes. Many locals themselves buy bottled water for drinking. Tourists are advised to drink bottled or filtered water, and 5-liter jugs from grocery stores are the cheapest option. A bottle with a built-in filter cuts down on plastic waste on the outer islands.
The main language in Cabo Verde is
Cape Verdean Creole. Backpacking is way more rewarding if you know a bit of the local language, so I'd suggest brushing up on the basics just in case your Cape Verdean Creole skills have become a bit rusty.
Want to understand locals better?The complete Travel Guide for Cabo Verde includes 52 essential words and phrases — greetings, thank-yous, ordering food, transport, numbers, and common local expressions you'll actually hear.
Get your local basic phrases 👉
Get the Travel Guide - in Cabo Verde is patchy. It works well around the resorts and kitesurf schools of Sal and Boa Vista, while in Praia and Mindelo you will find it mostly among younger people, guesthouse owners and tour operators. In rural Santo Antão, Fogo or the interior of Santiago, expect little beyond a few words. Portuguese is the official language and gets you furthest, though everyday life runs in Kriolu, and many locals also speak some French. A downloaded Portuguese pack in Google Translate plus a handful of phrases like “obrigado/obrigada” and “quanto custa” cover most situations.
Money & Payments
The local currency of Cabo Verde is CVE (Escudo).
Getting cash in Cabo Verde is easy in towns, where Vinti4 ATMs at banks dispense escudos (CVE, pegged to the euro at about 110 CVE per euro), usually up to 20,000 CVE per withdrawal. Most have no local fee, though your home bank may charge its own. Visa works most reliably at these machines, while Mastercard and Maestro are sometimes declined. Bring a backup card and stock up before heading to rural Santo Antão, Fogo or Brava. Cards are accepted at hotels, larger restaurants and supermarkets, but aluguers, small guesthouses, market stalls and local cafés take cash only. Euros are far more useful than US dollars and are often accepted in tourist areas, but usually at a poor rate of 100 CVE per euro, so change money at banks or official exchange counters rather than with street changers. Escudos are hard to exchange outside the country, so spend them before you leave.
Tipping in Cabo Verde is appreciated but not expected. Locals often just round up the bill. In tourist restaurants on Sal, Boa Vista and in Mindelo, leaving about 10 percent is normal if service was not already added. For taxi drivers, rounding up the fare is enough, and guides on hikes such as Pico do Fogo appreciate around 500 to 1,000 CVE (US$5 to 10) per person.
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Over the years, I've learned the importance of packing minimally. It's so much easier to jump on the back of a truck or squeeze yourself into the last spot of a minibus without that supersized backpack. If you're headed to a warm destination, leave your winter jacket at home; for colder regions, opt for thin thermal underlayers. Instead of packing your entire wardrobe, bring just three sets of clothes, as laundry facilities are available everywhere.
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Hi, I’m Johan (Netherlands 🇳🇱), the creator of TakeYourBackpack. Over the past 3 decades, I’ve backpacked through 90+ countries across six continents, gaining extensive experience with independent travel, long-term trips, and overland routes.