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Fogo, Cape Verdes`live volcano and winery

Fogo Cape Verdes the volcano island

Small and remote, with only three flights a week from Santiago and two overnight ferries, it has a live volcano, which is its main attraction.

The Fogo wine, produced with the help of Italians is very good value if bought on site, in red, rose or white vatiants. But avoid the brown potion which is unsieved, unfermented grape juice and quite undrinkable.

Sao Filipe

This is a fine town, with grand colonial Sobrado houses neat plazas set on a cliff hundred of metres above a black sandy beach. The Cemiterio Velho, was the cemetery for the Portuguese population only.It is a pretty town with a long black volcanic beach below the main town of Sao Felipe. The town itself has much more charm than Praia but lacks amenities beyond a few local bars.

Pico do Vulcao

On the way to Cha das Caldeiras, you pass through the natural park of Monte Velho with large trees and vinyards. The Fogo volcano, is the major tourist attraction, 2829m high. Cha das Caldeiras. A village inside the crater has goats, cows and donkeys and a small restaurant with rotten service. It takes about two hours over cobbled roads to drive up to the volcano where the Pedro Brabo hotel and restaurant are situated along with a few round huts and lean-tos. The trip will cost £35 by taxi or rather more with one of the guided tours, It is a hair-raising drive by hire car and you are likely to get lost as there are no signposts and few maps.

You can walk up to the top of a crater a 4 hour slog, which must be done with a guide. They will ask about £20 but will accept £5. The crater and lava flows make for fascinating climbing and you can boot-ski down the rubble in a mere 45 minutes.

The crater like the rest of the island are fertile and well-populated with wine, coffee and apple cultivation. It is not easy to reach but worth the effort. Most visitors are Germans passing through for a couple of days on escorted tours and intent on making it to the top in record time.

C from Birmingham went up.

"A walk up the volcano is worth the effort, start early in the morning. Patrick a Frenchman lives in Cha de Caldera, up there on the volcano. He is a first class chef and his restaurant food is superb."

Dr F from Hamburg feels many day trippers miss the best of the island

The Germans arrive in the morning and wander around the pretty town of Sao Felipe. The next day they rise early and climb the volcano, and the day after they take the early flight out. This is too bad as the island has much more too offer."

Salinas De Sao Jorge

North of Sao Filipe is the island’s best beach, of volcanic black sand. It has a disused café some fishing boats and several grottos and reefs, ideal for snorkelling and diving. But it is usually deserted and has a somewhat lonely feel. It is a long climb back to the highway and a long wait at the top to get the occasional passing aluguer back to town.

Hotels with magnificent views

Mountain Hotels

Hotels on Fogo Island

Day Trip to Fogo Island