📋 Table of Contents

🏢 1. The Capital’s Airport, Not a Beach-Resort Gateway

RAI (ICAO GVNP) serves Praia, the political and administrative capital of Cape Verde, and it’s important to set the right expectation: the package-holiday beach islands are Sal (SID) and Boa Vista (BVC), with their resort strips and charter flights. Praia, on Santiago, is the working capital — bigger, more African, more everyday-Cape-Verde than the resorts. So RAI’s traffic is a mix of inter-island hops, diaspora travel (large Cape Verdean communities in Portugal, the US and the Netherlands) and business, plus links to Lisbon and West Africa.

The home airline is Cabo Verde Airlines (TACV), which is based here and operates the country’s flag service — including the only nonstop route to the United States (Providence, Rhode Island), reflecting the big New England Cape Verdean community. The terminal is functional and small by international-hub standards; don’t expect a sprawling retail concourse. It’s about 4 km from the city, so transfers are short.

🛂 2. EASE, the TSA & the 2026 Visa Shake-Up

Cape Verde’s entry system is distinct, and the European acronyms don’t apply — there is no EES and no ETIAS, because Cape Verde is neither in the EU nor Schengen. What it has instead is the EASE pre-registration system, and this is mandatory for everyone.

The EASE / TSA step (universal). Every foreign visitor must pre-register online at the official EASE platform, ease.gov.cv, at least five days before departure, and pay the Airport Security Tax (TSA): 3,400 CVE (about €31 / $35) on international flights (150 CVE on domestic). You can pay at the airport in cash or by card if you haven’t pre-registered, but with a surcharge — and a 2026 proposal to double the fee to ~€62 for those who arrive unregistered was floated for March before being suspended, so pre-register to be safe. Use only the official ease.gov.cv site; agency sites add markups.

The visa picture (verify yours). This is where it changed. EU/EEA citizens do not need a visa (visa-free since 2019) — the EASE registration is all they file. But as of January 2026, Cape Verde suspended visa-on-arrival for citizens of 96 countries, and the rules for non-EU travellers — including the US, UK, Canada and Australia — have shifted. Depending on nationality, you may now need to obtain a visa from a Cape Verdean embassy/consulate before travel rather than relying on arrival or EASE alone. Check your specific nationality’s current requirement on the official EASE/consular portal before booking — do not assume visa-free entry if you’re outside the EU.

Who needs what — Cape Verde entry, 2026

The one certainty for everyone: EASE pre-registration plus the TSA payment is required, visa or no visa. Sort it at least five days out and keep the confirmation.

🚕 3. Taxis, Aluguers & Getting into Praia

Praia is close — about 4 km — and there’s no rail, so it’s road transfers only.

• Taxi: the official taxis are beige; expect roughly 1,000–1,500 CVE (about €10–15) for the short run into the city, 10–15 minutes. Agree the fare before you set off or insist the meter is on — overcharging of arriving tourists is the standard risk to guard against.
• Aluguer: the local shared-ride minibuses (Hiace vans) that are Cape Verde’s everyday transport are much cheaper, but they run set routes on their own schedule and aren’t geared to airport luggage runs — fine if you’re travelling light and patient.
• City buses (autocarros): Praia has municipal buses, cheap but slow and not tourist-oriented.

For most arriving visitors the taxi is the practical choice. Pay in escudos or euros (both circulate, given the fixed peg), and as ever, skip the airport exchange desk for anything beyond pocket money — the peg means euro-holders lose little, but the airport rate still isn’t generous.

🛋️ 4. Lounges & Facilities — What’s Actually at RAI

Be realistic about RAI: it’s a small capital-city airport, and there is no confirmed Priority Pass lounge here. Cape Verde’s Priority Pass lounge (the Safeport lounge) is at Sal’s Amílcar Cabral airport (SID), the resort-island hub — not at Praia. RAI has the basic facilities of a regional international terminal: a café or two, duty-free, and seating, but don’t plan a long, comfortable lounge layover around it. Cabo Verde Airlines may offer arrangements for its own premium passengers, but independent card-access lounging isn’t something to count on. Free Wi-Fi and a coffee are what you can rely on.

🍲 5. Cape Verdean Food: Cachupa, Tuna & Grogue

Cape Verdean cooking is Creole — Portuguese and West African roots, built on what an Atlantic island chain can grow and catch. The national dish is cachupa, a slow-cooked stew of hominy corn, beans and whatever else is to hand — sausage and pork in the rich version (cachupa rica), or fish; the fried leftovers with an egg the next morning (cachupa guisada) are a beloved breakfast. The seas here are superb for fresh tuna, wahoo and lobster, often simply grilled, and pastéis (fried pastries with tuna) are the everyday snack.

To drink: grogue, the fierce sugarcane spirit distilled across the islands (Santo Antão’s is the most prized), and ponche, grogue softened with sugarcane molasses and lime. The cultural anchor is music — morna, the melancholic national song form carried to the world by Cesária Évora, the “barefoot diva” from Mindelo, whose music you’ll still hear everywhere. The airport food is basic; eat in Praia’s Plateau if you have the time.

🏛️ 6. Insider: Cidade Velha (UNESCO), the Plateau & Morna

Praia isn’t a beach-resort town, but Santiago island carries real history, and one of it is genuinely world-class.

• Cidade Velha — the headline. About 12 km / 30 minutes from Praia, this was founded in 1462 as Ribeira Grande, the first European colonial town built in the tropics, and a hinge of the transatlantic slave trade. It’s a UNESCO World Heritage Site (inscribed 2009), with the hilltop Royal Fort of São Filipe, the pelourinho (marble pillory) in the old square, and the ruins of what’s considered the oldest colonial church in the world. Sobering and significant.
• The Plateau (Platô) — Praia’s historic centre, set on a flat-topped hill: the walking street, the Portuguese-colonial squares, and the everyday African-Atlantic life of the capital.
• The markets — the Sucupira market is the city’s big, chaotic trading hub; lively, but keep an eye on your valuables.
• Quebra Canela — Praia’s main city beach, fine for a short stop.

The layover math. Praia’s Plateau is doable on a short layover — 4 km / 10–15 minutes by taxi, an hour to walk the centre. Cidade Velha needs a 4–5-hour-plus gap: 30 minutes each way plus time at the fort and old town, ideally by pre-arranged taxi or a rental car (aluguers serve it but on local rhythms). It’s the one stop genuinely worth leaving the airport for. A sober safety note: Cape Verde is stable and democratic, and Santiago is straightforward to visit, but Praia has normal urban petty-crime caution — watch valuables around Sucupira and on beaches after dark, and use registered taxis at night.

A direct trap to name: don’t skip the EASE pre-registration (an unregistered arrival is the avoidable hassle here), and agree taxi fares before you ride.

❓ Frequently Asked Questions

📊 2026 Summary Data Table