Island hopping in Cape Verde

After a warm welcome from your local tour guide, you will check into your comfortable room at the luxury hotel.

(FA) Place of overnight stay: Sal

Boa Vista offers the most beautiful beaches in the archipelago and stunning landscapes, both on the coast and inland. Relax on the beach or take part in an optional full-day excursion to discover the most authentic aspects of the island: its villages with colorful facades, its ceramic artisans, and its agriculture.

Lunch at a local restaurant before returning on board and cruising to Santiago Island.

(FMA) Accommodation: MY Harmony V

The optional full-day excursion takes you to the summit of the volcano, right to the crater rim. You hike through a lava landscape. Lunch is served in the crater village.

You will also visit the town of São Filipe with its characteristic colonial charm. Late in the evening, you will continue on to São Vicente.

(FMA) Accommodation: MY Harmony V

The optional full-day excursion takes you to the lush Valley Paul, where sugar cane is still grown and where you can taste "grogue," the archipelago's national drink. You will also visit the Ribeira das Patas valley and discover rock formations created from lava rock.

(FMA) Accommodation: MY Harmony V

Disembarkation at 9:00 a.m.

Enjoy a day off at your comfortable beach hotel in Santa Maria. Your room will be available until your departure. After dinner, you will drive to the airport and fly back to Germany shortly after midnight.

(FA) Place of overnight stay: on the plane

If you wish, you can extend your trip to the Cape Verde Islands. We would be happy to provide you with personalized offers for a relaxing beach vacation.

The easternmost and third-largest island of Cape Verde lives up to its name – Boa Vista: beautiful view. Life on this island is authentic and the landscape is characterized by sand and gravel deserts.

The excursion takes you to small villages where you have the opportunity to get to know the everyday life and special nature of the island.

First, you will stroll through the streets of Sal Rei and soak up the atmosphere of the capital. Then you will drive to Rabil to visit a local school for traditional pottery. See how local artisans make decorative items from their native clay, followed by a drive through the Viana Desert (short stop). Weather permitting, you will also have the opportunity to swim in the sea at the natural beach of Santa Monica, followed by a delicious local lunch.

The final highlight of the excursion will be the old shipwreck on Santa Maria beach before you return to the ship.

NOTE: The Boa Vista Tour must be booked before embarkation!

• Duration of the excursion: approx. 8 hours.
• Includes transfer with pickups, lunch, and guide
• Price per person: $78

The excursion begins with a short drive towards the plateau to visit the main attractions: The pedestrian shopping street with the Mercado Municipal di Praia building, Praia Alexandre de Albuquerque square, surrounded by old buildings that illustrate the old colonial architectural style, such as the Palacio da Justiça, the Nossa Senhora church from 1900, the city administration, and the Lido Lobo cultural palace.

Now we're off on a half-hour drive to Cidade Velha (formerly Ribeira Grande), which is on the UNESCO World Heritage List and was the first capital of Cape Verde. Here, we will first visit the Sao Filipe fortress and then stroll through the village to see the cathedral, Rua de Banana, Nossa Senhora do Rosario church, and the historic Pelourinho with its small craft market. After some free time, we will drive back to the port and your ship, passing the beaches of Praia.

• Duration of the excursion: approx. 3 hours.
• Includes transfer with pickups, guide, and entrance fee
• Price per person: $45

The tour begins at the Presidio, the city's central square, and continues to the "colorful market" with its wide variety of fruits and vegetables.

Continue past the town hall and many other old sobrados (colonial houses), some of which have already been restored. Then visit the town museum to learn more about the history of one of the most important islands of the past. A visit to the nature park is a must to admire Cape Verde's biggest attraction and one of the most impressive landscapes in the world.

Departure from São Filipe, first stop in Forno, visit to one of the areas where drip irrigation is used, a technique employed by farmers on the island to minimize water consumption. Then continue to Achada Furna, where you will learn about the communities where new houses were built for the population of Chã das Caldeiras after the eruptions of 1995 and 2014. Although many of them had returned to the Caldeira. Continue to Cabeça Fundão, where you will have a beautiful view of many ancient craters and a colorful landscape.

Finally, you will reach the Chã das Caldeiras Nature Park, from where you can enjoy a breathtaking view of the highest point in Cape Verde. This is your opportunity to hike to the 2014 crater, where you can find extremely hot spots in addition to sulfur. Time for a visit to one of the two villages that were destroyed in the 2014/2015 eruption. 98% of the houses, schools, restaurants, hotels, simply everything was gone. But the people were back, determined to rebuild everything.

Lunch at Marisa's house and time for a tasting of the traditional Chã das Caldeiras wine, better known as Manecon. Here you will have the opportunity to buy one of the best coffees in the world.

• Duration of the excursion: approx. 7 hours.
• Includes transfer with pickups, guide, and lunch
• Price per person: $72

Mindelo is known as the cultural capital of the country. You will go on a discovery tour of the lively markets and secret corners of the port city.

On this tour, you will walk towards the harbor along the famous Rua da Praia, Mindelo Bay with its traditional shops and monuments, and you will see the cultural center (former customs house) and the fish market. You will also visit the African market Praca Estrela, passing by a traditional neighborhood with the Town Hall and the vegetable market. Before returning to the pier, you will pass the historic main street Rua Lisboa and the very lively Praca Nova – free time for shopping.

• Duration of the excursion: approx. 4 hours.
• Includes local guide and all fees
• Price per person: $45

A full-day excursion to the island's most important sights, passing along the famous new coastal road to Cidadhe da Pombas and, of course, to Paul Valley —a green jewel nestled between the villages of Santo Antão. On the way, you will visit sugar cane plantations and taste"Grogue"– white rum made from sugar cane – at the in-house distillery, where you can buy a few bottles.

Continue along the coastal road to Ponta do Sol, the fishing port of Santo Antão. You will have lunch in the Ribeira Grande area before taking the old road over the mountains, past Ribeira de Torre.

Água das Caldeiras and Corda Caldera, from where you can return to Porto Novo. The tour to Santo Antão shows you the fabulous contrast between a dry southern region, a forest at altitude, and the lush vegetation of the north. A tour that no one should miss!

• Duration of the excursion: approx. 8 hours.
• Includes transfer, guide, and lunch
• Price per person: $78

Santo Antão (Day 9) – Santo Antão – Volcanic landscapes

Discover the southwestern part of the island—a safari through volcanic landscapes where you can see beautiful, remote villages with tropical agriculture and various types of plantations.

Leaving the northeast behind, you enter the southeast, a little gem. The landscape is unique not only because of its distinctive plant species, but also because of the color contrast created by the black volcanic rock.

• Duration of the excursion: approx. 4 hours.
• Includes transfer and guide
• Price per person: $54