Small for a capital but unquestionably the big daddy of the Cape Verde archipelago, Praia clings to the southern edges of Santiago Island on the cusp of the great Atlantic blue. Nestled between shimmering white beaches and clusters of Cape Verde’s famous resort hotels, it’s no secret that most people touching down at the Nelson Mandela airport are making for the sands. However, those who linger in town will discover a chocolate box old town of Portuguese mansions and palaces, all plateaued above an energetic urban sprawl of ports and seaside promenades. The main stomping ground of Praia tourist guides is unquestionably this historic bluff in the city’s centre; an inner sanctum of sleepy colonial plazas like Albuquerque Square and photogenic facades like the Presidential Palace. This is also where the town’s interesting ethnography and archaeology museums can be found, along with the crumbling remnants of Portuguese fortresses and the cannon-dotted bulwarks of the Quartel Jaime Mota, not to mention the restaurants and nightlife thrumming out of the Achada de Santo António quarter.