Explore Maio Island

Welcome to Maio Island!

Just 25 km east of Santiago, Maio is one of the quietest and most unspoilt islands of Cabo Verde. Long white sand beaches stretch for kilometres with hardly anyone on them, turquoise water, small fishing villages and a slow, friendly way of life make it the perfect place to escape and relax.

The island’s history is written in salt. For centuries, salt from the great salt pans of Porto Inglês was loaded onto ships and exported as far as Brazil, which is why the capital, Vila do Maio, is still also known as Porto Inglês, the “English Port”. Today you can walk through the salt pans, watch local people harvest the salt and see the wading birds that live there.

In Vila do Maio you will find colourful houses, the white Igreja Matriz church and the 18th-century Fort of São José, built to protect the island from pirates. In the north, the white dunes of Morrinho are made of sand blown over from the Sahara, and inland Maio has large acacia forests, a landscape you won’t see on the other islands.

From summer to autumn, loggerhead sea turtles come ashore on Maio’s beaches to lay their eggs, and from the top of Monte Penoso, the island’s highest point at 436 metres, you can see almost the whole island. Visit the fishing village of Calheta, the handicrafts of Morro and the beach at Santana Bay with our local guides.