Market in Praia
Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Praia-March%C3%A9.jpg
Author: Ji-Elle
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Praia is the capital and largest city in Cape Verde. The city of 128,000 people (2012 estimate) is located on the southern coast of Santiago Island, and serves as the commercial center and main port of the country. It also has one of the four international airports of Cape Verde.

Praia traces its roots to 1615. It developed as a port, albeit with much of the cargo based on smuggling, as ships used it to avoid paying customs fee at the official harbor at then capital, Ribeira Grande. Praia grew at Ribeira Grande's expanse, and when an increase in pirate attack forced a decline on the trade at Ribeira Grande, most of its inhabitants moved to Praia. In 1779, Praia was made capital in place of Ribeira Grande.

Today Praia is a medium-size city. It is decidedly more cosmopolitan compared to the rest of Cape Verde, which is more conservative and traditional.

Visiting Praia

Praia International Airport (RAI) receives flights from Dakar, Fogo, Las Palmas, Lisbon, Luanda, Maio, Nice, Sal, São Tomé, and São Vicente.

Aloe growing along the coast in Praia, Cape Verde
Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Praia-Aloe_vera.jpg
Author: Ji-Elle
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Places of Interest in Praia

  1. Ethnographic Museum

  2. National Historical Archive

  3. Palace of Culture

  4. Palace of Justice

  5. Praia Cathedral

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Dear visitor, thank you so much for reading this page. My name is Timothy Tye and my hobby is to find out about places, write about them and share the information with you on this website. I have been writing this site since 5 January 2003. Originally (from 2003 until 2009, the site was called AsiaExplorers. I changed the name to Penang Travel Tips in 2009, even though I describe more than just Penang but everywhere I go (I often need to tell people that "Penang Travel Tips" is not just information about Penang, but information written in Penang), especially places in Malaysia and Singapore, and in all the years since 2003, I have described over 20,000 places.

While I try my best to provide you information as accurate as I can get it to be, I do apologize for any errors and for outdated information which I am unaware. Nevertheless, I hope that what I have described here will be useful to you.

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