Island of Sal - Cape Verde
General Information About Island of Sal Cabo Verde

Sal is one of the closest islands to the African mainland and some 200km from the capital Island of Santiago.

The easiest way to get to Cape Verde is via Lisbon airport in Portugal and then directly to Sal or Santiago. There are many airlines now doing daily flights to Lisbon not only via the major airports but also through many of the smaller “local” airports.

From Portugal there are daily flights available to the Island of Sal which has an international airport, as well as to Santiago Island where the new international airport has recently opened.

Travel to other islands can then be via daily flights or ferry.

November 2006 will see direct flights from UK airports initially starting from Birmingham. In addition, there will be an 'Open Skies' policy allowing other airlines to fly to Cape Verde and forcing lower air fares through competition.

With the opening of the new international airport in the Capital Praia, on the largest island of Santiago, Cape Verde is experiencing the dawn of a bright future in tourism for the Islands. 

Island of Sale Cape Verde From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sal (Portuguese for "salt" -- from the mines at Pedra de Lume) is an island in the archipelago of Cape Verde, and the municipality of the same name. The island is 30 km long by 12 km wide. It belongs to the northern group of islands, called Barlavento and is one of the three sandy eastern islands (Sal, Boavista and Maio) of the archipelago, with beautiful white sandy beaches and fairly flat, with the highest elevation of 406 m at Monte Grande. Serra Negra has a height of 92 m.

The island was discovered on December 3, 1460 and named Llana until salt deposits were found. Sal is the oldest island in Cape Verde, formed 50 million years ago during the eruption of a volcano which is now inactive.

Sal's main town, Vila dos Espargos, is home to one of the nation's international airports and has around 8,000 inhabitants. Its population grew around salt collection and later shifted to fishing, but is now based on tourism (amounting to 50% of the archipelago's tourism) at the beach resort of Santa Maria.

Its airport was used as a refuelling base by South African Airways on its Johannesburg to London routes. Later, flights to and from New York and Atlanta also refuelled there, and the island was a crew-change station. SAA established the long runways needed by the fully-fueled Boeing 707s on their take-offs in the high temperatures. On July 1, 2006, SAA operated its final flight to Sal due to the ending of its flights to Atlanta.

Saline marshes can be found in the Pedra Lume crater and north of Santa Maria.