Boa Vista is the closest island to Africa and feels like a piece of the Sahara that drifted out to sea. White dunes roll inland from beaches so long they vanish into heat haze, and the pace of life in Sal Rei is set firmly to slow.
The Viana Desert is the island's signature landscape: fine pale sand blown across the ocean from the Sahara, pooled between dark volcanic ridges. At dawn the dunes hold perfect ripples, and walking them barefoot is a rite of passage for every visitor.
Boa Vista hosts one of the largest loggerhead turtle nesting populations on Earth. On summer nights, females haul themselves up beaches such as Ervatão to lay their eggs, and conservation teams patrol the sand to protect them. Guided night watches, run carefully and without white light, are among the most moving wildlife experiences in the Atlantic.
The coast keeps its drama: the rusting bow of the Cabo Santa Maria, wrecked in 1968, rises from the sand at Costa de Boa Esperança, and Santa Monica beach stretches for eighteen unbroken kilometres of white sand along the south, often with nobody on it.
Known for
- Viana Desert
- Loggerhead turtle nesting
- Santa Monica beach
- Shipwreck coast
Good to know
Loggerhead nesting season runs roughly June to October.
Humpback whales calve in the island's bays between February and May.
Sal Rei's offshore islet holds the ruins of an old fort that once guarded the salt trade.