Three days is not enough to island-hop Cape Verde on a budget, so this plan does not try. It stays on one island, Sal, and spends every euro on the free beach, a salt-pan float, and cheap local transport instead of a domestic flight or ferry that would eat half the trip and most of the daily budget. The escudo (CVE) is pegged at roughly 110 to the euro, euros spend fine on Sal, and the one real fixed cost before you even land is Cape Verde’s EASE pre-registration fee.

Cape Verde is ten volcanic islands scattered across open Atlantic water, not one landmass you can circuit in four days, so the budget move is picking two islands that are cheap and easy to link, not chasing all of them. This plan pairs Sao Vicente’s Mindelo with Santo Antao’s hiking trails via the one-hour Mindelo to Porto Novo ferry, the cheapest and most reliable inter-island connection in the country. Expect guesthouse rooms for EUR 15-25 a night, cachupa dinners for EUR 4-7, and aluguer minibus rides for a few hundred escudos.

Cape Verde is ten volcanic islands scattered across open Atlantic water, not one landmass you can circuit in a week, so a full seven days on a budget buys three islands and exactly one domestic flight, not five islands and constant transfers. This plan starts with the Mindelo and Santo Antao pairing this whole site’s shorter itineraries build around, then adds a third island, Santiago, using a single Cabo Verde Airlines flight through the Sal hub.