Cape Verde Currency and Money Guide

The short version

The currency is the Cape Verdean escudo. Cards work reliably on Sal and Boa Vista and in the larger hotels elsewhere. Away from those, plan on cash.

Why we do not quote a rate

We publish figures we can attribute to a source that is still saying them, and for Cape Verde money there is no such source in the material behind this cluster. So this guide tells you how the money behaves rather than what it is worth on a given morning. Check the rate the week you travel, from your own bank, and treat any number you find in a travel article as out of date.

The two-economy problem

This is the thing worth understanding before you go. Cape Verde has a substantial package-holiday economy on Sal and Boa Vista, and a much more ordinary local economy everywhere else. In the first, card terminals are normal, prices are often quoted in euros as well as escudos, and you can travel for a week barely touching cash. In the second, a card is a fallback rather than a plan.

Travelers who spend a week on Sal and then take a ferry to Santo Antão are the ones who get caught, because the habits that worked perfectly for seven days stop working on the eighth. Draw cash before you leave the resort island, not after you arrive on the mountain one.

Practical habits

• Tell your bank you are traveling. A card frozen for unusual activity is a bad afternoon in a place where the card was your backup.
• Carry small notes. Aluguer transport, market stalls and small cafes will struggle with a large note, and the struggle lands on them rather than on you.
• Use ATMs in towns, in daylight. The FCDO names snatching and muggings particularly in Praia and on Sal and Boa Vista, and a cash machine at night on a quiet street is the scenario that advice is about.
• Keep the day's money and the trip's money apart. An everyday amount in a front pocket, the rest in the hotel safe with a copy of the passport.

Tipping and bargaining

Tipping is welcomed and not obligatory, and rounding up is normal rather than a calculation. Bargaining is not the culture here in the way it is in parts of the mainland: market prices are mostly prices. Souvenir stalls have a little room in them and pushing hard is not well received.

One fee you will meet

There is an airport security fee, and it is paid with the online pre-registration before you fly rather than at the counter. Anyone who skips the pre-registration pays double at border control. The detail is on the visa and entry requirements page, which is where we keep anything that changes.

Sources

• UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office: Cape Verde travel advice: the FCDO restricts no part of the country, and Global Health Insurance Cards are not accepted. Accessed 14 September 2026.
• UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office: Cape Verde safety and security: snatching, burglary and muggings, named for Praia and for Sal and Boa Vista. Accessed 14 September 2026.
• UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office: Cape Verde entry requirements: 30 days without a visa, the online pre-registration and airport security fee, and the doubled fee from 1 July 2026. Accessed 14 September 2026.