Our Team
A Vontade Tours is dedicated to personalization, quality, warmth, follow through and profound love of Cabo Verde. a team of professional and passionate individuals and identifying the top quality businesses and services throughout the archipelago.
We design trips that are exclusive and Just. For. You. VIP concierge treatment all the way. Your job is hopping on that plane. Our job is handling all the details so that you can focus on having the time of your life.
We have been around since 2013 and plan travel to all 9 inhabited islands of Cabo Verde as well as to:
SENEGAL, GUINEA-BISSAU, MOROCCO, EAST AFRICA, PORTUGAL, SAO TOME AND PRINCIPE.We leverage our team’s joint expertise and the relationships we have cultivated to offer our clients top-tier, personalized services throughout Cape Verde and beyond.
Cape Verde | Cabo Verde
Cabo Verde is a nation of ten main volcanic islands sprinkled in the Atlantic Ocean approximately 400 miles off the coast of Senegal, West Africa. In 1462 the archipelago became the first European settlement in the tropics and eventually became a major port in the trans-Atlantic slave trade, then a commercial center and stopover for shipping routes. Cabo Verde achieved independence from Portugal in 1975.
Cabo Verde is a stable representative democracy and is lauded as one of the most developed and democratic countries in Africa. Its population of around 550,000 is mostly of mixed African, Moorish, Arab and European heritage, and predominantly Roman Catholic. Its diaspora is spread throughout the world, especially the United States and Europe, and slightly outnumber inhabitants on the islands. The country’s official language is Portuguese but virtually everyone speaks Caboverdean Kriolu. The country’s currency is the Caboverdean escudo, though the euro is also accepted on a few islands. The capital city of Praia is located on the southern island of Santiago. Cabo Verde has nine ports and seven airports, four of which are international. It has a dry tropical climate and boasts average temperatures between 70 and 82 °F (21 and 27 °C), little rainfall, and no extreme weather such as earthquakes or hurricanes.
Our Founder
JOLI MONIZ founded A Vontade Services out of profound love for and belief in Cabo Verde, and a desire to meet the ever-evolving needs of her tourism clients.
Joli left her cushy job and New York home in 2012 and followed her lifelong dream of moving to the country of her ancestry and settled in its capital city, Praia. Several months later after hosting countless friends and family members, she realized showing off the beauty and authentic culture of Cabo Verde was not only fulfilling, it tied together all she had ever done career-wise and all she loved, and so she founded the boutique travel company, A Vontade Tours. The goal of A Vontade, which means “feel at home,” is to encourage people to visit Cabo Verde and several other countries of the African diaspora, and to experience them in a culturally authentic way, while contributing to their local economies and providing service opportunities. Joli eventually created sister company A Vontade Services to handle all of A Vontade clients’ Cabo Verde business, relocation, real estate, citizenship process needs... and more.
Want to learn more?
Schedule a complimentary consultation with a member of our team. In this quick chat you will share what you are looking for, we will share how A Vontade Tours works, and we will determine whether we are a match. Hopefully we will plan to move forward and can discuss your next step!