Destination guide

Sal Island, Cape Verde

A low, sun-bleached Atlantic island where the trade winds run all winter and the swell that made Ponta Preta famous arrives with them.

About Sal Island

Sal is the flattest and driest of the Cape Verde islands — salt pans, volcanic rubble, a long pale beach on the southern shore and very little between them. That bareness is the point: nothing interrupts the north-east trades, which blow across the island from October through June and are at their most dependable between December and April.

Santa Maria, on the southern tip, is where everything happens. Kite Beach runs some three kilometres just outside town, side-onshore from the left, with a shallow sandy bottom near the shore and chop building further out — a straightforward place to learn and a generous one to progress on. Winds average 15 to 25 knots. Ten minutes up the west coast, Ponta Preta is a different proposition entirely: Atlantic swell peeling into three- to six-metre faces close to a rocky shore, cross-offshore wind, and no realistic rescue. It is a spectator's spot unless you are genuinely expert.

The season is winter in the northern hemisphere, which is much of the appeal — 22 to 25°C by day, water at 21 to 23°C, and a four-to-six-hour flight from most of Europe. Beyond the water there is diving, the salt pans at Pedra de Lume, and a short, easy island to explore.

When to go

Best months: January, February, March, April, May, June, October, November, December.

Kite areas

2 distinct riding areas documented within this destination.