Journalist Mark Blackman is one of a growing number of people who choose to escape the bleakness of the British winter in search of sun. Paradise for him is Boa Vista, an island in Cape Verde, off the coast of West Africa. The island is known for its sand dunes and moonlike volcanic landscapes, while turtles are known to nest on its shores and the coastal waters are a route for migrating humpback whales. Mark writes:

To understand the growing British love affair with winter sun holidays, you don’t need to go far – a trip to your kitchen window around about now will suffice. The days are short, the rain and cold seemingly never far away and while Christmas brings some brief cheer for most of us, we’re then into the annual endurance test posed by January and February.

If you’re craving warm sunshine on your face and a cocktail in your hand, you are not alone. Statistics show that the number of winter holiday bookings by Brits has almost doubled since 2000, with some 8.6 million taken up in the pre-pandemic year of 2019.

One destination that has crept on to those ‘best winter sun getaway’ Google searches in the last decade is the enchanting African archipelago of Cape Verde.  Made up of 10 volcanic islands and situated some 350 miles west of Senegal, Cape Verde gained independence from Portugal only in 1975. Since then, tourism has become a major driver of the nation’s economy, with the islands of Sal and Boa Vista the most popular destinations for European sun-seekers.

Flight times from London Gatwick to Boa Vista come in at a very manageable six hours, with TUI flying twice a week from multiple UK airports. What await are almost guaranteed warm weather and blue skies – average monthly temperatures are around 25 or 26 degrees between December and March, and you might typically see a spot of rain on one or two days a month. If a sun-soaked fly-and-flop break is what you’re looking for this winter, this could be just the place for you.

On a recommendation, my wife and I took a punt on Boa Vista as our first experimental winter getaway in November 2022. It changed things for us forever. The day after we returned from those 11 magical days, we booked to return in November 2023, something we had never done anywhere before. Our deposit is already down for 2024 – as it is, too, for the friends who came with us on our own recommendation this time.

Boa Vista’s international airport is the first sign that you’re somewhere a little bit different. There’s a frustrating queue to get your passport checked, but you are semi-outdoors in what resembles a cute wooden lodge, a bit like joining the line for a Disneyland log flume.

It’s also where you’ll first see and hear the phrase that is never far from the lips of the wonderful Cape Verdeans: “No stress”. They live by it, they mean it and your R&R is in safe hands from start to finish.

RIU owns Boa Vista’s three biggest hotels and two of them – the five-star Palace and the vast, impressive-looking adults-only Karamboa – sit side by side on the simply stunning Praia das Dunas beach.

They are a four-minute (!) transfer from the airport, but a top tip here is to swerve the TUI transfer coaches in favour of the taxis that are always outside the airport. Most of the time it’s the quickest way to transfer, and for 10 euros (the currency used throughout the islands), you beat the crowd for hotel check-in.

It’s an even bigger ‘must’ when returning home. Book a taxi 20 minutes before the transfer coach leaves and enjoy a farewell cocktail and pizza at the airport bar instead of feeling glum in a slow-moving line.

Whichever of the two hotels you choose to stay in (Karamboa is a little cheaper), prepare to be knocked out by your first impressions. Both have sparkling, spacious reception lobbies, especially the Karamboa with its botanical overload, huge wicker seating areas and touches of Africa everywhere you look.

All the RIU resorts (the third on Boa Vista, Touareg, is on the other side of the island and involves a longer transfer) are all-inclusive, and without the T&Cs that can often take the edge off that package in other hotels.

On both our visits, we have stayed on both our visits at the Palace, which is a little over half the size of the Karamboa, at around 550 rooms.

Everything about this fine resort ‘over-caters’ for its guests. If you were the last person to emerge from breakfast to settle in for the day around the three spacious pools, you would have a choice of sunbeds. If a beach day is more your thing, the hotel has sunbeds galore on the sand and parasols to keep you cool.

There are always tables available in the beach bars and the swim-up pool bars are continuously serviced by more than enough super-friendly staff to keep the refreshments flowing – whether that be working your way through the extensive list of cocktails (our ratings saw the mojito secure top spot ahead of the caipirinha and the strawberry daquiri) or staring out over turquoise seas with a sundowner in hand. It is always 5 o’clock somewhere, and 5 o’clock at the Palace pool bars is a good time and place to make new friends. They are lively spots, and all in a truly wonderful and convivial way.

Where to start with the food? The main buffet restaurant, Africa, serves breakfast, lunch and dinner, and once again you will be spoilt for choice where to take your table. The options at the multiple food stations are dazzling, with flavoursome offerings both beautifully presented and wonderfully prepared. As you might expect of a small island nation, the fish dishes often steal the show, but whatever your preference, you cannot be disappointed.

In addition, there is a scaled-down version of the main buffet restaurant (called Sal Rei) that opens for lunch, and three a la carte restaurants that can be booked – a fine-dining kitchen, a Japanese restaurant and a steak house. The first two are highly recommended.

For the more energetic, a range of activities are available every day. Late-morning aqua-fit in one of the main pools was an addictive mix of water aerobics and boot camp, overseen by the effervescent and slightly terrifying Anna. Show the slightest sign of fatigue and you can expect to be called out as the day’s “lazy boy”, and possibly receive an encouraging slap with a pool noodle.

Don’t let that put you off – it’s a fun-filled half hour and it burns off a few calories. Anna soon cottoned on to us sloping off to the pool bar for some isotonic local beers (Strela, very drinkable) the moment the class was over, and would cast us a playful glare. The whole animation crew around the pool for the late-morning festivities (crazy game and pool dance) were bursting with energy, comedy and fun, and after an hour or so, it was back to normality and time to get back to a book.

Other activities include beach volleyball, darts, fitness classes and pilates. There is also a small water park between the two hotels for the use of both sets of guests – six rides in all, and higher-octane than they look at first glance. The Palace also boasts a fantastic indoor spa, with free jacuzzi, sauna and steam room, and treatments and massages that can be paid for. For fitness freaks, there is also a reasonably stocked gym.

But what about the rest of the island? Not everyone wants a purely resort-based holiday, so what else does Boa Vista have to offer? Despite its barren appearance from the skies as you make your final descent, the answer is: plenty.

TUI offers a number of excursion options, but there are local, independent operators who put on excellent guided tours and events, and they are worth supporting. We went with Giggling Gecko’s Ultimate Full-Day Island Tour, run by the wonderful Jen, an ex-pat Scot who knows the island and its people, and takes her ethical responsibility towards them very seriously.

We were picked up from the Palace at 8am, and jumped on to the back of a pick-up truck for a windswept ride around the island. The day started with a visit to two untouched beaches, where the sight of thousands of ghost crabs scurrying in and out of the water’s edge was mesmerising, before a visit to some coastal caves.

Then it was on to the oldest settlement on the island, a tiny but colourful village where we sampled shots of strong local ‘grogue’ and browsed the merch on offer in the tiny shops. Compared to many places we have visited, the selling of souvenirs came with a relatively light touch and a comfortable degree of bartering.

Next up was a thrilling ride over the desert dunes that occupy large parts of the island’s centre and a stop to try out sandboarding down one of the steeper slopes. After a fabulous three-course lunch and cocktails at a beach bar (which happens to be a 15-minute walk along golden sands from the Palace), it was back on the pick-up for a ride out to see the vast, rusting shipwreck of a cargo ship that ran aground in the 1960s.

From there, we were taken to the island’s capital Sal Rei, where locals sell clothing and, remarkably, whole pigs’ heads from their doorsteps, before the day ended at another idyllic beach bar, where sundowners and late afternoon swims in the sea were the order of the day. It was a fantastic whistlestop tour of the island’s highlights, which even a pair of tyres punctured on the rocky off-road section of the trip could not spoil – these guys have seen it all, and both times we were on our way again within minutes.

If an all-day tour sounds too much, there are half-day versions available, while quad biking, horse-riding on the beach and kite-surfing are also available withing walking distance of the hotel. Jen had just started to trial a tour of Sal Rei’s earthier bars, which will be on our list for 2024.

Giggling Gecko also facilitate evening dinners at the stunning and quirky Morabeza Beach Bar, which is roughly 35 minutes’ walk along the beach from the Palace. You can take your pick of lobster, fish, chicken or steak, but before that we were beguiled by a traditional performance from a troupe of local dancers and a fire-eater, before joining them to dance with the sand between our toes – an experience that will live long in the memory.

Pérola d’Chaves Vila Cristina is another pretty beach bar where you can just kick back, or take a dip in the calmer, protected seas.

After dinner, we were treated to live music by a pair of local performers, covering familiar tunes that once again had us up on our feet and dancing the night away. As with everywhere on this island, it is the locals who make Morabeza what it is – a seductive hideaway that you will want to visit again and again at sundown. Walking back along the beach to the hotel under the light of the moon was another memory stored away.

On a holiday packed with highlights, one more is a must-mention. Every Friday evening, the Karamboa threw its famous RIU Party, alternating weekly between a white party and a neon party. Palace residents walked to the sister hotel, while those staying at the Touareg were bussed in for four hours of mayhem. The packed dancefloor was a blizzard of balloons, dry ice, glow sticks and podium dancers, a human tide heaving to the beats of tunes old and new.

If that doesn’t sound like your cup of tea, I would say: surrender to the bonkers of it all and boogie the night away, as we did with our new island besties we met on the ultimate tour. I won’t spoil the surprises that every party throws your way, but they came thick and fast.

With heavy hearts, we flew home on the Saturday, and the party was just the perfect way to bring the curtain down on another mesmerising trip to an island that really gets you in the feels. Six hours later, we touched down in Blighty, disembarked, and the reality dawned: yep, it was still winter.

So, we raised a glass to TUI’s Black Friday weekend and dived back in for 2024. That’s what you find as you speak to your fellow guests around the Palace – they just keep coming back for more and more.

Typical all-inclusive prices from London Gatwick (Nov 2024):

Travelling with TUI, 11 nights (including return flights, transfers and all-inclusive accommodation in a double room with balcony or terrace) are cheapest if flying on Fridays:

• RIU Palace – from £1,692pp
• RIU Karamboa – from £1,438pp
• RIU Touareg – from £1,334pp

A double room with private pool adds £752 (£34pppn).

Pictures: @markfromcroydon @alex_gatland @holdomanoeuvre