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Cape verde


jcs

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Can anybody give me any ideas for decent hotels (we were looking at the SAL area) me n the mrs fancy getting away from the usual Spanish costas n going somewhere a bit more peaceful any help would be much appreciated 

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Spent our 2 week summer holiday last year in Sal. Me, the wife and our 4 (almost 5) year old son, We stayed at the Melia Dunas which was a cracking big resort type hotel a 5 min taxi ride away from Santa Maria, the main town on Sal. 

The hotel was pretty good, as I say it's more of a resort than a hotel such is the size. There are wee golf-cart type buses to drive you about the place. I'm led to believe it has since split into two hotels though, so no idea how it all works now. Loads of stuff going on - sports, entertainment, games, kids clubs all through the day and evening. Very good for kids.

Food was decent in the buffet restaurant, loads of choice but it was a pain in the ass trying to book the a la carte restaurants. You need to queue up at 10am to book two days in advance. This may have changed since the split. Cracking beach bar and their own wee private beach however as its a new resort there was building works going on at the beach. No really relaxing hearing JCBs working all day.

Loads of problems with flies in July. Literally thousands, all landing on the food etc and there appeared to be a bug going round the resort when we were there. We weren't affected but we met people who were. Dunno if it was related to the flies or not, but that was the rumours.

Every year there is a sports competition based in Sal. It's a youth competition for predominantly English speaking African countries. On our last few days football and volleyball teams arrived from Sao Tome and Principe, East Timor, Angola among others. There were all based at the Melia Dunas so there were crowds of youths everywhere in there team colours. It didnt really bother me but loads complained about them taking over the resort, turning it into a youth camp rather than a family holiday resort.

Sal itself is pretty wee. Very desert like with no redeeming features. We did the usual island tour to see the salt flats, mirage, botanical gardens, Lemon sharks but other than that there's no much. Quad biking, horse riding, catamaran tour - usual stuff.

Santa Maria was pretty cool though. A proper wee African fishing village. Very colourful and we spent a lot of time there. The white sandy beach and torquoise water was fantastic and it was cracking watching the fishing boats come in and watch them doing the deals with the restauranteers there and then. Santa Maria definitely feels like Africa so you'll get that 'being away from the Costas' vibe :ok:

2 weeks in the same place does my heid in though. I was bored by day 10/11. Hence why we're touring Italy this year!

Overall I'd give it 7/10.

Edited by McTeeko
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Thanks for the info this is the hotel/resort we were looking at, we were thinking 1 week towards the end of June. My work commitments only give me 1 week at any 1 time, to quote my mrs "just doesnt fancy having to be around  the lairy bulldog tattoo brigade " lol 

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