Sal Island Sea Turtle Watching Eco-Tour with Native Guide
Description
Join a responsible Sea Turtle Watching Eco-Tour led by a native certified guide and experience one of Cape Verde's most remarkable wildlife encounters. Travel in a small group and observe wild loggerhead sea turtles in their natural nesting habitat while following strict conservation guidelines designed to protect these endangered animals. Throughout the experience, your guide will share fascinating insights into their life cycle, nesting behaviour, conservation and the important role Cape Verde plays as one of the world's largest nesting sites for loggerhead turtles. By choosing Sal Experiences, you support a sustainable local company committed to sea turtle conservation, beach clean-up initiatives and responsible tourism, helping preserve this extraordinary natural heritage for future generations.
Tour Options
Highlights
What's included
Pickup Locations & Times
Complimentary pickup is available from your hotel, accommodation, Amílcar Cabral International Airport (SID), or another pre-arranged location. If your accommodation is not listed during booking, simply send us the name or address after your reservation, and we'll arrange your pickup accordingly. Your native certified guide will be easy to identify, wearing an official Sal Experiences uniform and ID badge, and holding a clearly visible yellow Sal Experiences sign.
Traveller Ratings
Important Information
- Public transportation options are available nearby
- Specialized infant seats are available
- Suitable for all physical fitness levels
- Wear dark-coloured clothing and comfortable closed-toe shoes. Dark colours help minimise disturbance to nesting sea turtles and their hatchlings during this nighttime experience.
- The nesting activity of wild sea turtles depends on natural environmental conditions and cannot be guaranteed. However, our success rate has been 100% over the past five nesting seasons.
- To protect the turtles, flash photography, white lights and mobile phone torches are strictly prohibited. Your guide will use infrared lighting, allowing you to observe the turtles safely and take photos or videos without disturbing them.
- Travelers under the influence of alcohol or drugs will not be permitted to participate.
- To comply with the latest conservation guidelines from Cape Verde's Ministry of Environment, this tour has two possible departure times: 7:30 PM or 9:00 PM. Your exact pickup time will be confirmed on the morning of the activity.
- The Sea Turtle Watching Experience is not recommended for travelers with reduced mobility or children under 3 years old.
- This is a nighttime activity and is not recommended for travelers with nyctophobia (fear of the dark).
- Participants must be physically able to walk on sand and uneven terrain.
Reviews(151)
+ good communication with tour provider (informative) + you could tell they care about the turtle by ensuring that we do not disturb / affect their nesting + tour guide was very knowledgeable + learn a lot through this tour
Pick up was a little way from our apartment, but fine. We didn't spot that black clothes were a requirement before booking and would have added in more to the cases if we'd realised so put them in! A once in a life time experience that the teenagers and I enjoyed very much. A highlight was spotting another turtle arriving at the beach as we watched the first one laying her eggs. I recommend!
Excellent experience watching the turtles. Very helpful guide who provided lots of information about the turtles and the egg laying on the beach
This was amazing! Our guides were so knowledgable about the turtles and very respectful of the conservation efforts. We saw a turtle laying her eggs then returning to the sea. Such a beautiful experience! Only negative was that the mosquitoes were evil and bit us through our clothes.
SCAM would be the word that defines them. My partner and I booked the excursion and when we went to get on the bus the guy told us that we could not get on because we were not wearing black clothing. The description said that you could go in dark clothing, whether brown, black, but dark, which we were wearing. We could not do it and had to spend our money booking it with another company and to our surprise there were people doing the activity even in white t-shirts. I feel cheated, not to mention the bad manners of the guide who told us that we could not do the activity.
It is very interesting, but in my opinion it should be regulated, there are too many tourists at once. But the excursion is totally recommended.
It was a very special experience, the guide spoke very good English and could tell good and fun about the turtles. We also saw 1 turtle that laid eggs and then went back into the sea, which was very impressive. With ecotours, part of the payment goes to ecological investments for the turtles, while the tour was no more expensive than with other organizations. Highly recommended!
This review concerns this provider but not this trip, rather the evening turtle one, for which I was unable to finish the review. There is a way and a way to tell a person to lower themselves; don't snap your fingers at me as if I were a dog. At that moment, there were two people who got up and started walking, and nothing was said to them. When some girls got up, they were told to sit down in a much more polite way. Obviously, men are treated badly. Then they can get up whenever they want; I don't think the turtles know how to distinguish between the human beings who can get up and those who cannot.
This is a once in a lifetime opportunity that you have to seize when in Sal. I went the first day of the season and it wasn’t necessarily guaranteed that we’d see any turtles, so I didn’t have high hopes. Lo and behold after 2 hours we saw the first 2 of the season! The entire experience is magical. The guides are super knowledgeable and informative and such lovely people! Definitely want to come back and see the babies hatch soon!
Stayed at Hotel Melia Lhana Beach Resort and Spa. Arrival to the airport the transfer punctual and correct. The very good hotel with excellent location, very professional staff and excellent treatment. Varied food with only limited fruit that for conservation reasons was limited only to less demanding fruits of duration. In relation to very good quality accommodation and always arranged at hours. A.Small bump in the first busy night due to the presence of mosquitoes in the room solved on the second day. The animation was also satisfactory, as were the pools. But I repeat that what marked me most was the excellence of the performance and treatment of the staff.
