Santiago Island Tour: Meet with a Local Family & Tarrafal Beach
Description
Discover Santiago's highlights on this full-day tour. Experience a workshop with a local family and learn to make Cape Verde's famous cuscus. Visit the colorful Assomada Market and cross the Serra Malagueta Natural Park to take a dip at Tarrafal beach, the most beautiful on the island. Meet the community that preserves Cape Verde's oldest customs and learn about the local culture.
Tour Options
Itinerary
Get picked up at your accommodation, then depart toward the interior of the island.
Make your first stop at Mrs. Luisa's house. There, learn to cook and savor cuscuz (a traditional cake made from corn flour) and fidjós (fried banana mixed with wheat), the typical breakfast for Cape Verdean families.
After the workshop, head to the city of Assomada and visit its famous market (Wednesdays and Saturdays only), meet locals and admire the vibrant colors of the local fruits and vegetables.
Move on to the Serra Malagueta natural park and marvel at the incredible views from 1000 meters (3,280 feet) above sea level.
Next, swim at Santiago's most beautiful beach, Tarrafal, surrounded by white sand, hills and palm trees. Next, take a break for a delicious lunch at your own expense at a local restaurant and enjoy the local cuisine.
After lunch, drive back along the beautiful east coast, take in breathtaking photo stops at the awe-inspiring volcanic landscapes of Calheta.
Drive between the country's verdant agricultural fields before heading to Praia.
The tour concludes with a drive back to Praia, the capital of the country.
After discovering Santiago's highlights on this full-day tour, be dropped off at the inicial pickup point.
Highlights
What's included
Pickup Locations & Times
If your accommodation is not listed, please send us an email with your pick-up address in Praia.
Traveller Ratings
Important Information
- Specialized infant seats are available
- Suitable for all physical fitness levels
- Please note that the fair in Assomada Market takes place on Wednesdays and Saturdays.
Reviews(136)
Super well organized tour and with incredible vibe. I recommend 200%. Thank our guide Cátia for the excellent performance and the driver for the excellent and safe driving
The tour started promptly, the guide Alecandra is quite knowledgeable and polite,his narrations with historical facts, life and times of Cape Verde was very informative and educative. The introduction to the local family, traditional breakfast, dance with music was the most beautiful experience. We stopped at the scenic viewpoints and could capture enchanting moments, the visit to concentration camp set up by colonial portugese regime is an eye opener to the brutalities and heroic struggles of people, the time given at Tarrafal Beach was quite sufficient, all together it's a great day trip.
The experience was beautiful and the guides were super pro and kind. From start to finish, everything was done to make the experience perfect
Nice way to discover the island in 1 day. You visit the market with a lot of Mood. The cooking class is a bonus. The 2h break in Tarrafal was a bit disappointing because we had to wait more than 1 hour for food. Because of that not being able to enjoy the beach. The coastline back was beautiful and the nature reserve was top notch. The guides were very friendly. Nice stop for a coconut drink.
The tour was fantastic. The guide Elton and the driver were both amazing. Elton was knowledgeable and he kept us informed
We had a mixed bag of experiences with Bu Country Tours, having taken both the round island trip of Santiago as well as the half day Praia/Cidade Velha tour. Our originally assigned guide for the full day tour, Ivana and her Cape Verdean colleagues were highly professional, kind and knowledgeable. Our Cabo Verdean guide for the more historical tour, however, was lacking historical knowledge and couldn't really reply to questions in English or Portuguese. It was clear he didn't care about guests and just wanted to get the job done as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, both days, the team was joined by a guide in training who was one of the most unpleasant people I have met in travelling over 90 countries. He insisted speaking German to entire groups of people, clearly keen to practice his German, which was unfortunately barely intelligible or telling us random stories from his private life which were simply inappropriate. He ended up shouting German at people who didn't even speak the language, leaving them rightfully confused. He also kept repeating everything, the most basic and obvious things, 10 times throughout the day in both English and German, after other guides had already explained it. We talked to other guests who all had the same exhausting experience with this particular person.
Excellent tour of this beautiful island. Ricardo was an excellent guide and made us want to see more of this friendly country🇨🇻🇨🇻🇨🇻
Exceptional day faithful to the description... and the good surprise was bamba our football guide from ivory side that brightened our day.. Not to be missed David
We had a very nice tour of Santiago. Our guide told us a lot about the places and the island. We would book this tour again anytime.
Good contact information before the visit. Pick up on time at my hotel. Nice visit consistent with the description. I recommend.
