Not to miss

Sal

This flat desert island, home to the international airport, is a package-tour destination for Europeans with large wallets and a yen for the tropics without local involvement. The village of Santa Maria caters to the packagers; it's 18km (11mi) from the main village of Espargos.

Independent travellers should head for Espargos, where you'll have no difficulty finding a pensão (pension) or a restaurant. There are daily flights between Sal and Praia; there are also boats running between the islands that pick up passengers at Sal about twice a week.

São Vicente

São Vicente is Cape Verde's second most important island and home to its liveliest city, Mindelo. Ships passing through Mindelo's port, the deepest in the area, attribute plenty to the high energy. Certainly the bars and nightclubs are more numerous and the restaurants a cut above those in Praia.

Mt Fogo

Cape Verde's highest peak (2829m/9382ft), the conical, cinder-clad Mt Fogo, rises dramatically out of the floor of an ancient crater known as Chã das Caldeiras. A scenic, cobbled road, punctuated by hamlets with lava block houses, encircles the island.

It's still an active volcano and last erupted in 1995, yet intrepid farmers raise coffee and wine grapes on its black slopes. The volcano's cone remains intact and can still be climbed. However, you'll need a good pair of boots and a guide as the slopes are covered in slippery cinders. The taxing ascent takes three to four hours, but the view from the top is magnificent. Afterwards, it's a gentle trot to get back down.

Cidade Velha

Dramatically situated on the sea, Cidade Velha (literally 'Old City') has won Unesco World Heritage status as the first European settlement in the tropics. Founded in 1462, the city became wealthy as a clearing-house and key victualling station for the transatlantic slave trade.

Raids by pirates - including a particularly destructive visit from Sir Francis Drake in 1585 - eventually forced the Portuguese to move shop to Praia. Remains from its heyday include the ruins of the cathedral, constructed in 1693, and the pillory on the old town square where enslaved captives were chained up and displayed. Perhaps more impressive is the town's position between the sea and the mouth of a canyon that, thanks to irrigation, remains green even in the driest months. For sweeping views, take the trail up to the dramatic, cliffside fort, Fortaleza Real de São Filipe.

Mindelo

Set around a moon-shaped port and ringed by barren mountains, Mindelo is Cape Verde's answer to the Riviera, complete with cobblestone streets, candy-coloured colonial buildings and yachts bobbing in a peaceful harbour.

Safely around a bend is the country's deepest industrial port, which in the late 19th century was a key coaling station for British ships and remains the source of the city's relative prosperity. Today, its prominence in Cape Verdean culture remains: it produces more than its fair share of the islands' poets, musicians and stylish bars.