Praia de Santa Monica in Pavoacao Velha, Cabo Verde

Santa Monica isn't just pretty, it's absurdly long — somewhere between 11 and 18 kilometers of white sand, depending who's doing the measuring. What makes it genuinely rare, though, is what's not there. One beach shack. One aborted hotel. That's it. The shack is real and it works, tucked at one end for a cold drink and some shade. The hotel is a different story. Back in 2015, developers broke ground on White Sands Hotel & Spa, the first of six planned resorts meant to turn this stretch into 835 rooms, six restaurants, a beach club branded as world-famous before a single guest had checked i

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