Cape Verde Bus Independent transit guide
Choose language: English
Bus guide

Overlooked island

São Nicolau

No scheduled road service is published. Aluguers connect Tarrafal de São Nicolau, Ribeira Brava and the villages along the mountain road, leaving when full. The island sits on the circular Redonda line — 3 hours 40 minutes from São Vicente, 4 hours from Santo Antão — which calls only about twice a week.

By bus

Getting to São Nicolau

No scheduled road service is published. Aluguers connect Tarrafal de São Nicolau, Ribeira Brava and the villages along the mountain road, leaving when full. The island sits on the circular Redonda line — 3 hours 40 minutes from São Vicente, 4 hours from Santo Antão — which calls only about twice a week.

  • São Vicente–São Nicolau: 3 hours 40 minutes published crossing.
  • Santo Antão–São Nicolau: 4 hours published crossing.
  • Aluguers cross the island between Tarrafal and Ribeira Brava with no published timetable.

Source: CV InterIlhas: Routes, schedules and island-to-island crossing times · Governo de Cabo Verde: National transport services portal

Check the Redonda line

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 Check the Redonda line
Colourful houses of Ribeira Brava filling its valley below the Monte Gordo massif, São Nicolau
Photo: Herbert wie, CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)

Worth your time

What São Nicolau does best

São Nicolau gets skipped, which is exactly why people who know Cape Verde well recommend it. Ribeira Brava sits in a ravine that once held the archipelago’s seminary and produced much of its intellectual class; the Monte Gordo massif behind it holds cloud forest and dragon trees; and Tarrafal de São Nicolau on the coast is a working fishing town. Getting here means the Redonda line, which runs about twice a week.

Ribeira Brava

A town folded into a ravine, with the old seminary church at its centre and a quiet, bookish feel that is unusual in the islands.

Monte Gordo

A natural park where the trade-wind cloud catches on the peak and grows forest above a desert island. The walk up is the reason to come.

The dragon trees

Ancient dracaena at Fajã and Cachaço, survivors of a Macaronesian flora that Europe lost long ago.

Good to know

  • With the ferry calling roughly twice a week, arrival and departure dates are effectively chosen for you.
  • Flights to Preguiça exist but capacity is small; do not assume a seat at short notice.
  • The mountain road between the two main towns is spectacular and slow — allow far more time than the distance suggests.

Keep exploring

Evening light over Mindelo and Porto Grande bay with the Monte Cara ridge behind, São Vicente Music island São Vicente Mindelo: the country’s cultural capital, its liveliest port, and its least documented bus network. Plan the ride Cloud spilling over the jagged peaks and farming terraces of the Paúl valley, Santo Antão Hiking island Santo Antão No airport, no bus network — a ferry, a mountain road, and the best walking in the Atlantic. Plan the ride Turquoise shallows at Santa Maria beach on Sal with a catamaran and yachts at anchor Gateway island Sal The main international arrival point, with the flattest landscape and the thinnest public transport in the country. Plan the ride