The Best Resorts in Cape Verde

Billed as an “adults-only paradise right on the beach,” it lives up to the promise with massive beds in sleek contemporary suites – the best have terraces on which you can savour the celebrated Cape Verde sunsets. Add a maze of turquoise water features lined with loungers, and attentive but discreet staff who take special requests with equanimity (another pillow? Gluten-free meal? Spa massage for two?), and you’re in heaven.

Coral pink and sunset orange, the flat-roofed buildings of this vibrantly African resort bloom like the tropical shrubs in the gardens. Spend your days swimming, cycling the island and aquabiking, and your nights at beach braais (barbecue-style grill) beneath the stars, dancing to DJs at the Senegalese disco bar or watching the Ballet Royal Horizon Boa Vista dancers.

When palm trees grow on islands in the middle of vast turquoise swimming pools, you know you are on what locals call the Island of Happiness. Other reasons to be happy at this resort: the kids club activities to occupy the wee ones while you unwind at the first-class spa, and the four-course tasting menus for both you and the kids at the literally named Gourmet Restaurant.

More island village than resort, Meliá Tortuga Beach has white-walled, orange-tiled villas set in vast gardens. It also has four pools and a magnificent beach studded with thatched umbrellas, where you can breakfast, lunch and dine, should you choose. And who wouldn’t? While at it, check out the different workshops, dance classes and health activities on offer. Or don’t. Just chill.

Meliá Dunas offers not just swimming pools and sea, but a water park and fountains, where you and the children can unwind before retreating to the calm of your villa. If you’re child-free, spring for the the Level Presidential Suite, with a king-size four-poster, walk-in closet and lounge, and a stunning sea view from the whirlpool bathtub on the terrace. It’s just the place to toast the day, before exploring Indian, island or Mediterranean fusion cuisine at the resort restaurants.

With a curved white facade, Sol Dunas looks more like a spaceship than a resort, taking you to an island escape with four shimmering pools above a postcard beach. There are many bars and three restaurants to choose from, but look no further than Spices, serving an international buffet with a piquant edge. It has a show cooking zone and outside terrace overlooking a pool, where you can linger under the stars and dream.

Riu Funana could be a lost African kingdom, with arches, carvings, a clay-coloured exterior and 550 rooms. Not that you’ll spend much time in the latter, with endless water and art activities on site, and nearby attractions such as the abandoned mining town of Pedra de Lume (shades of Indiana Jones) and the Blue Eye natural pool and caves of Buracona Bay, carved out of volcanic rock by the ocean.

This gleaming hotel rising from the lunar-like landscape of Boa Vista island has an Arabian charm, with tiled domes floating above the aquamarine water of swimming pools and the sea. Beaches here are among the best in Cape Verde, and at Ilhéu de Sal Rei (Salt Islet) you can visit the fortress of the Duke of Bragança, with cannons that once kept pirates at bay. This is snorkelling and scuba-diving heaven, with rich coral communities and a dream of pirate treasure.

The sands of this starkly lovely desert area join those of the pale beach, creating a striking setting for a five-star hotel named for the Tuareg people who once controlled the caravan trade routes of the Sahara, just across the ocean. They and their camels would be astonished at this oasis, with a freshwater pool, three saltwater ones, a jacuzzi, hammam and spa, and restaurants servicing delicacies of the region with international flavours.