Serra de Malagueta
Serra de Malagueta
4.3
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Most Recent: Reviews ordered by most recent publish date in descending order.
Detailed Reviews: Reviews ordered by recency and descriptiveness of user-identified themes such as waiting time, length of visit, general tips, and location information.
4.3
71 reviews
Excellent
34
Very good
31
Average
4
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0
Terrible
2
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Jozin
Krakow, Poland4,993 contributions
Feb 2023
We did the full hike - both the easy part to the antennae and then the spectacular descent to Hortelao. It is easy but a bit confusing because of poor marking and some conflicting information.
Anyway, we followed the advice given to us at the national park HQ to take the Xaxa trail, not the Gongon trail, as it has been apparently damaged by rains. The Xaxa trail is lovely - first you descend to a lone house where it branches off from the Gongon trail (there is a signpost there), then down almost to the bottom of the valley and over a low side ridge with another lone farm to the neighbouring valley.
At the end of the train in Hortelao there is a nice bar with cold beer and a perfectly timed aluguer to Tarrafal arrived just as we finished our beers.
The whole hike took us 5.5 hrs and it we quite felt it in our legs on the next day - total descent is more than 1100 meters.
Take a small map from the park office when you buy your tickets, as the Xaxa trail is not yet shown on any of the map apps, neither mapy.cz nor maps.me.
Anyway, we followed the advice given to us at the national park HQ to take the Xaxa trail, not the Gongon trail, as it has been apparently damaged by rains. The Xaxa trail is lovely - first you descend to a lone house where it branches off from the Gongon trail (there is a signpost there), then down almost to the bottom of the valley and over a low side ridge with another lone farm to the neighbouring valley.
At the end of the train in Hortelao there is a nice bar with cold beer and a perfectly timed aluguer to Tarrafal arrived just as we finished our beers.
The whole hike took us 5.5 hrs and it we quite felt it in our legs on the next day - total descent is more than 1100 meters.
Take a small map from the park office when you buy your tickets, as the Xaxa trail is not yet shown on any of the map apps, neither mapy.cz nor maps.me.
Written 6 March 2023
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
estheropstap
Amsterdam, The Netherlands95 contributions
Oct 2021 • Couples
This place is beautiful. We decided to go without a guidr because they ask 6000 to 8000 escudos which in my opinion is way too much. When you get to the entrance there is a map with all the trails and a guy explained a bit to us. We payed 200 escudos per person for entrance and 100 escudos for a map. We decided to do a 4 km walk to the phone tower which takes you i think to the highest point within the park. We took it easy and it took us 1 hour 45 min. From there you can do the Gongon track which is another 6,4 km OUTSIDE the park. We decided at 15.00 to do this track too. It was a close one because there are little signs and a lot of splitting of the paths but we made it just in time before dark! We asked a lot of local people where to go along the way. Everyone was very lovely! The hike is amazingly beautiful. I would advice if you do this hike to do it a bit earlier so you don't need to stress about the time when it gets dark. This trail ends in a small town from where you would need to get a aluguer back to tarrafal (about 130 escudos pp) but it doesn't leave from this village so you will have to walk quite a long bit. A driver offered to bring us there so this saved us another hour or so.
Long story short: amazing place for hiking. No guide needed. Make sure you leave on time if you want to do the gongon hike!
Long story short: amazing place for hiking. No guide needed. Make sure you leave on time if you want to do the gongon hike!
Written 24 October 2021
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
michamong
Berlin, Germany200 contributions
Nov 2021
We start hiking at 9 am, we got the tour guide from our accomation in Villa Alegria in Tarrafal. We paid around 6000 escudos for 2 persons. It was included the transport go to the national park and back from there. the view is outstanding you can find a lot of banana trees, corn field and another plant. The tour guide his name is Silvio, he was really friendly, he explained about the culture, tradition and everything about cape verde, i remember when we hike, he turned on the music, a typical cape verdean music, and he was dancing the whole time when we hike, i was like how can he dancing when he hiking the mountain, :D because i was havin difficult to go down step by step. but he was nice! so we finished at 3 pm! and go back to the villa with the transport! it was unforgettable moment!
Written 28 November 2021
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Maxime B
Haguenau, France42 contributions
Oct 2024 • Couples
Natural park with several hikes possible in the heights or in the valley. We went down the valley because the sky was not clear enough to enjoy the views. Passage through fields and hamlets of farmers to finish the hike along a river and a dam. The downhill hard 2:30 a minimum of physical condition and required as well as good shoe. Also plan something to hydrate yourself. 2€ to pay to enter the park. All explanations are given at the information desk
Automatically translated
Written 31 October 2024
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Go270771
2 contributions
Jan 2019 • Friends
Two of us (2 girls) decided to do a trek in Serra de Malagueta. We took an aluger there and were dropped off at the entrance near the main road. At the entrance a man took a fee from us and told that we need to take a guide to cross because it's not safe and we can be attacked. I heard this scam before so we ignored it and started the trek. We soon met 2 men (25/30mins onward). They already knew where we are going and were on the phone.They started to tell us in portugese that we need security that it's not safe. We pretended that we don't understand and carried on. Soon we understood that they use phone system to inform each other about us and our progress. First one to tell about us was the 'guard' at the entrance. These two men told that they will follow us. But we increased the pace and lost them. Afterwards we came across the little house and 4 people we already waiting for us: 2 girls and 2 men. The two girls straight away told us that they will go with us because it's on their way. The other two men stayed near the house. There one girl went in front of us and one kept staying behind us. No matter how much we slowed down and let them overtake us they always came back to the same formation. Soon we understoon it's becoming not safe at all: girls started to pick up the stones and trow them, the other was getting very close to us. We briefly stopped to let them pass and straight after turned back as we decided not to continue any further. On the way back we met one of the men from the house. We could see he was waiting for us and straight away took out the phone and started to shout smthing in portugese. we stopped to let him pass and he ordered us to go and not stop. Around the corner we saw all these 3 men that we met before waiting for us and talking with this 4th man on the phone. They formed this big group and started to speak with us in portugese saying that we need to go, it's late and etc. One asked me money and told smthing about 7000 escudos. We just talked nonsences played dum which confused them and the men briefly stopped to discuss between themselves how to talk with us (either portugese, french or english as we pretended not to understand any). We used the moment to start running back to the main road. We heard they followed for some time, but kept on running and gained a fair amount of distance from them. Eventually we reached the road and the 'guard' was there. We know he knew everything about the incident as he was part of it from the beginning, but he did not even bother to talk with us or ask why we got back while initially we said we will cross to the other side of the valley. Luckily we got aluger very soon and got back home safe to Praia. The moral of the story: DONT GO ALONE OR JUST STAY AWAY UNTIL THEY SORT OUT THIS MESS. We did not encounter a single tourist there on the way to there or back, so you are really on your own. Nothing like that happened to us in any other island, even though we hiked alone or quite late sometimes. Such a shame to ruin the image of otherwise very friendly and beautiful country.
Written 10 January 2019
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
xero
Berlin, Germany24 contributions
Oct 2018 • Couples
We did the hike from Serra Malagueta to Achada Monte mid October, the trip was roughly 13km. Looking at some photos of other reviews it seemed we were quite lucky, because everything around us was very green. We got the GPX track from a german web page. The track starts about 300m south of the visitor center. To get there we took an aluguer for 100 CVE from Tarrafal, even though we had a rental car, because the track we chose is a one way track. The aluguers drive all around town to pick up people, some staring at the central plaza. Ask if they go to Serra Malagueta and pick an aluguer that is almost full, or else you will drive around the area for a while until the car is full. The fee to the park is 200 CVE per person. As we arrived a bit early around 7:30, the office was not really open yet (opens at 8am on weekdays as the sign says). Luckily the cleaning ladies helped us and gave us a receipt for the park entrance fee. Anyways the only person we met while we were in the park was a local obliviously returning from a party. First half of our hike was in the official map you can get for free at the visitors center and leading to a telephone tower. The second half was not part of the official maps, as I pointed out before, we found the whole track on a German webpage.
The main route in the park offers breathtaking views of the landscape you won't forget. If you are not lucky and it's just dry without any green I still believe it can be worth to do at least the main park route. The first part of the path is a few meters below the ridge. As we started early, the temperature was still nice. We arrived at the telephone tower around 11am after starting around 8am, but we did quite a few stops for photos etc.
Just before the telephone tower we took the path to the right. Which led us through a dense vegetation. After another ~30mins we left the park and went through farmed land. Soon we saw the first houses and people. At the very end we got accompanied by a bunch of kids returning from school. We went down to the main road at the East coast and caught an aluguer back to Tarrafal for 150 CVE per person.
The main route in the park offers breathtaking views of the landscape you won't forget. If you are not lucky and it's just dry without any green I still believe it can be worth to do at least the main park route. The first part of the path is a few meters below the ridge. As we started early, the temperature was still nice. We arrived at the telephone tower around 11am after starting around 8am, but we did quite a few stops for photos etc.
Just before the telephone tower we took the path to the right. Which led us through a dense vegetation. After another ~30mins we left the park and went through farmed land. Soon we saw the first houses and people. At the very end we got accompanied by a bunch of kids returning from school. We went down to the main road at the East coast and caught an aluguer back to Tarrafal for 150 CVE per person.
Written 12 October 2018
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Peter F
Essen, Germany23 contributions
Dec 2017 • Couples
Great scenery with beautiful mountains and great viewpoints. Take a guide and see some of the hidden places or visit the local mountainpeople.
Written 14 January 2018
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Fess S
Tucson, AZ402 contributions
Dec 2021
I took a collectivo from Mercado de Sucupira in Praia. I arrived at 6:40 in the morning which was a big mistake. The transport didn't fill until 9:30! I paid 500 for the transport to the entrance of the park and started the hike around 11am. There was nobody there to charge a fee. I use maps.me but even without a map- the path was really easy to follow. I hiked to the radio tower, had lunch and then began the hike to Hortelao. If you are thinking about going to the radio tower and back- highly recommend continuing down to Hortelao as that portion of the hike was way better in my opinion. When I got to Hortelao there was no transport available so I started walking. After 15 minutes a truck gave me a hitch- otherwise the road is about 5 kilometers until the main junction. Here transport was waiting for I think 150 to take you to Tarrafal where I arrived at 16:00 and I slept. I didn't bring a jacket, just shorts and t-shirt.
Written 8 December 2021
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Martin_boc
Madrid, Spain60 contributions
Nov 2019
This hike is a must while visiting the island of Santiago, at least the first part until the radio tower. This first segment is well marked and has some impressive views that make it definitely worth it. We barely saw anybody else in the trail but we felt safe and very connected to the trail.
Written 15 November 2019
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Cmannva
172 contributions
Jan 2019 • Couples
Just returned from an amazing hike down the XaXa and Gongon valleys. Highly recommend to walk down to Hortela (and onwards to Porto Formoso). Take an Aluguer to the Visitor center and follow the road to the radio tower. From there onwards you have several options (see photo). Prepare yourself beforehand and mark your route on Google maps. Otherwise changes are high you get lost on the various trails! There are no markings along the routes. To the recent reports of locals harassing tourists: the police was patrolling the road until the radio tower the day we hiked. I advice to tell the people at the visitor center and entrance gate that you only walk til the tower and then back. Doing so you avoid being forced to take a guide. In case you are on the island when vegatation is lush I even recommend to take a guide as the trails will be barely visible. Locals along the trail were super friendly. Take enough water (at least 2l per person) cause until Hortela (4-5h) there is no possibility to buy any food or water. Enjoy the awesome nature!
Written 21 January 2019
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Bonjour,
Nous partons mon conjoint et moi même au cap vert en décembre. Faut il forcément un guide pour randonner à Serra Malaguetta ou les parcours son t-ils bien fléchés?
Written 27 November 2020
Hello,
I and my husband are going to visit Santiago next week and we are looking forward to hiking there. But I have to say, there's very little information in the internet and I am looking for some answers to my questions:
1. Do we need a guide or can we do it alone? I read in some forums that having a guide is better for safety purposes?
2. If so, how can we get a guide? Is there an agent for tour guides and do we have to make advance arrangement with them? Is there a good recommendation for a guide?
3. From some of the description I read on the net, the hike starts from above and we will hike downwards. Is it possible to hike from below and then upwards?
Any advice would certainly be appreciated. Thank you!
Written 11 April 2018
You can visit Facebook page, discover Santiago Island, will find great guide
Written 3 February 2019
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