The Platô is Praia's historic core — a flat-topped plateau rising abruptly from the surrounding terrain, its flanks dropping sharply to the lower city on all sides. The plateau has been the seat of government and commerce since Portuguese colonial times, and it retains the most coherent colonial streetscape in the city: wide avenues, low whitewashed buildings, and the grand Praça Alexandre Albuquerque at its centre.
Walk the main avenues in the evening when the heat drops and the city comes alive — the Platô is compact enough to cover on foot in an hour, but the atmosphere makes it worth lingering. The views from the plateau's edges down to the lower city and the harbour are among the best in Praia.