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About this spot
Praia Carlota — also called the Sal Rei or Estoril beach — is the long sandy bay directly south of Sal Rei town, screened from the open Atlantic swell by the small islet of Ilhéu de Sal Rei. The result is a large area of flat to lightly chopped water, 1–2 m deep depending on the tide, over sand with no shore break, and the resident school notes it is deep enough to foil from the entry. That combination is rare in Cape Verde and is exactly why this is the island's teaching and freestyle beach.
The catch is the angle. The trade arrives side-offshore to offshore at Sal Rei — both the independent spot guides and the school say so plainly, and the school keeps a rescue boat standing by for precisely that reason, expecting riders to be able to hold upwind. Their own picture of the year: winter north-easterlies shifting northeasterly from around 2pm at 12–16 kn, and a consistent 18–24 kn south-westerly through the summer months. Rideable-day estimates run at about 31 days a month in January, March and May, falling to roughly 22 in August.
So the danger flag on the compass here is not a note that nobody rides it — the school teaches on this sand through the whole trade season — it is a note that an independent rider in a north-easterly is being blown off the beach, with nothing between them and the open Atlantic. If you are not comfortable self-rescuing off a town beach, rig next to the school and arrange boat cover before you go out.
3-day forecast
Speed / gusts in knots. Colour = rideability for this spot. Bottom row = recommended kite size for your weight — not recommended outside this spot's 12–28 kn range.
Conditions
- Water
- flat, choppy
- Depth
- 1–2 m over sand depending on the tide, with no shore break — reported deep enough to foil straight from the entry.
- Seabed
- sand
- Skill
- beginner, intermediate, expert
- Beginners
- Beginner friendly
- Wind range
- 12 kn – 28 kn
Access & parking
About a 10-minute walk south of Sal Rei town centre, on the bay in front of the capital. KiteInsider's destination note puts the airport 5–6 km away with a flat taxi fare of €10–12 a car, while Boa Vista guides describe Aristides Pereira Airport (BVC) as about 10–12 km toward Rabil — confirm the transfer when you land.
Parking: Town-side parking near the school frontage. No beach fee or permit is documented, which still needs checking on the day.
Amenities
- Duotone Pro Center Boa Vista on the sand — IKO-qualified instructors, current Duotone and ION gear, and a standby rescue boat for the offshore angle.
- KiteKriol is reported by trip reports as running storage and 4x4 downwind trips out of Sal Rei — a trip-report claim rather than the operator's own page.
Needs local verification: Compiled in October 2026 from the KiteInsider spot and destination records for Kite Beach (Sal), Sal Rei and Praia de Chaves, the schools' own pages for Kite-Verde, Duotone Pro Center Boa Vista and the São Vicente operator, independent spot logs (kiteforum, lets-kite, spots4kite, foil.guide), satellite sea-surface averages for Boa Vista and OpenStreetMap geocodes. The exact launch pins on the long beaches of Costa da Fragata and Praia de Chaves — and the Sal Rei coordinate, which geocodes to the town centre rather than a launch — the beach fees, permits and kite zones, the mangrove-lagoon access behind Chaves, any seasonal turtle-nesting access rules inside the Morro de Areia reserve, the seabed and depth at São Pedro, and the direction and reliability of the summer southerly wind all still need confirming on site.
Local hazards
- Side-offshore to offshore north-easterly trade — the headline hazard, and the reason the school runs a rescue boat as standard.
- You have to be able to ride upwind in the trade; a board-off here puts you downwind of the beach with open ocean beyond.
- Shallow toward low tide — the flat area is only 1–2 m and drops with the water.
- The islet and its rocks at the northern end of the bay.
- Little shade on the sand, and the sheltered flat water makes it easy to stay out far longer than you planned.