Capital island

Santiago

Sol Atlântico runs Praia’s urban network — numbered lines from 2 to 18, nearly all converging on Plateau, with Sucupira and Palmarejo as the other interchange areas. A single ticket is 43 CVE and a prepaid card is topped up through the vinti4 network. Line 15 is currently posted as provisionally suspended. Beyond the city limits nothing is timetabled.

By bus

Getting to Santiago

Guide checked 6 August 2026

Single ticket 43 CVE; prepaid bundles of 5, 10 and 15 trips at 215, 430 and 645 CVE.
Monthly passes run 2,900 CVE general, 2,300 student, 2,100 senior; the first card costs 300 CVE.
For Assomada, Tarrafal and Cidade Velha, use the aluguers from the Sucupira area — no published times or fares exist.

Source: Sol Atlântico: Praia bus lines and stops · Sol Atlântico: Tariffs, cards and passes · Sol Atlântico: Provisional suspension of line 15

Open Sol Atlântico lines and stops

Before you go

Times change. Take them with you.

Published departures shift with the season. Cape Verde Bus keeps the current timetable in your pocket.

Cape Verde Bus — app coming soon

Get notified at launch Open Sol Atlântico lines and stops

White sand and turquoise water of Tarrafal bay beneath a green volcanic headland, northern Santiago — Photo: Iwoelbern, Public domain

Worth your time

What Santiago does best

Santiago is where Cape Verde is most itself: the capital on its plateau, the first city Europeans built in the tropics down the coast at Cidade Velha, and a green interior spine climbing to Serra Malagueta before dropping to the beach at Tarrafal. It is also the one island where public transport is written down — Sol Atlântico’s numbered lines around Praia. Step outside the city and you are in aluguer country like everywhere else.

Cidade Velha

The UNESCO-listed first colonial city in the tropics, a short aluguer ride down the coast from Praia. The pillory in the square and the fortress above it tell an Atlantic story most visitors are not ready for.

Sucupira market

Praia’s enormous open market below Plateau, and the informal terminus for half the island’s aluguers. If you want to understand how Cape Verde moves, stand here at seven in the morning.

Tarrafal

The north-coast bay everybody heads for at the weekend — calm water, a crescent of sand, and the sobering former colonial prison camp a short walk inland.

Good to know

Aluguers to the north fill fastest in the early morning and reverse in the early afternoon; late departures are a gamble.
The interior road through Assomada and the coast road through Pedra Badejo are different journeys to the same place — ask which one your vehicle takes.
City bus cards are collected in person at a Sol Atlântico desk, so a short visit is better served by single tickets.

Optional experiences