Maputo & the South Coast Explorer Safari

Overview

Maputo is one of Africa's most captivating capitals — a sun-warmed, tree-lined city where Portuguese colonial grandeur, Afro-Latin rhythm and Indian Ocean breezes mingle in intoxicating fashion. Wide avenues named after revolutionaries are lined with jacaranda and flame trees, faded Art Deco and Modernist buildings, buzzing markets and pavement cafés serving strong coffee, fresh pastries and the famous peri-peri prawns. Music spills from bars at night; the food — a fusion of African, Portuguese, Indian and Arab influences — is among the finest on the continent.

South of the city, the coastline unfurls into a wilder Mozambique: the dune-backed beaches of Ponta do Ouro and Ponta Mamoli, where warm currents draw whale sharks, humpback whales, dolphins and turtles, and where world-class diving and ocean safaris await. Inland lies the newly expanded Maputo National Park, where elephant, hippo and antelope roam a mosaic of grassland, wetland and coastal forest right down to pristine, protected beaches. Whether you come for the city's soul, the seafood, the diving or the untamed shores, Mozambique's south is a feast for the senses.