Location & Climate

Location

Cape Verde is a Republic comprising nine inhabited islands, plus an uninhabited island and eight islets, in the Atlantic Ocean. The islands are in the order of 500 km west of the coast of Senegal (West Africa) and 2,400 km north-east of the coast of Brasil (South America). The islands are dispersed over an area of approximately 300 km north to south by 400 km east to west.

Climate

The Cape Verde Islands are blessed with year-round sunshine - with as many as ten hours a day and, usually, seven hours as a minimum - and low rainfall. The temperature rarely drops below twenty-five degrees or rises above thirty-five degrees with the tropical climate tempered by warm winds from the Sahara Desert.

Swimming and water sports are a pleasure in the clear waters of the Atlantic and sea temperatures range from twenty-two degrees to twenty-seven degrees.

That's invariably warmer than the seas around the Canary Islands, and Southern Portugal and Spain further north. What's more, the location of the islands means they are not subject to tropical storms or hurricanes - an important consideration when making a lifestyle investment in property overseas.

The average temperatures on the Islands are more comparable to the Carribean Islands, however common views are that that the Cape Verde Islands are more laid back than the Caribbean and, thankfully, free of the razzmatazz that has plagued some other Atlantic islands. This is what visitors find so appealing.

Terrain

Cape Verde has a total land area of 4,033 km2, which by comparison is equivalent to 43% of the land area of Cyprus (the North and South combined).

The islands are volcanic in origin, most of the islands are rugged and mountainous, but three of the islands (Sal, Boa Vista and Maio) are flat, desert islands with long sandy beaches.