Why Mozambique and Vilankulo:
I was looking to go to Africa over the holidays and the cheapest flight weirdly enough was to Mozambique on TAP Portugal. While late December is the start of the rainy season, it is considered high season because this is when South Africans have the time to drive to visit their second homes.
I originally wanted to visit the north which travel blogs say is the best part of the country, but much of the north is currently in the midst of a war with ISIS. So, I opted for the south. The main two beach towns in the south are Vilankulo and Tofo. These towns plus Maputo comprise the classic Mozambique backpacking route.
Mozambique is a tricky country to visit because of the logistics. Most international flights go to Maputo, the capital. However, the famed beaches are far from Maputo requiring either a 12-14 hour crowded miserable van ride or a $200-400 one-way famously unreliable domestic flight.
Three weeks before the trip, TAP Portugal shortened my trip by two days (but gave me five nights in Lisbon as compensation). Due to the shortened timeline, I opted to go by air. It was going to be an expensive trip, but I would get to see everything.
December 22, 2025: A Rainy Welcome
After 21 hours of flying plus a miserable seven-hour layover in the Lisbon airport, I landed in Maputo. Immigration was a bit of a mess. Mozambique’s visa policy is ever-fluid. I have heard of travelers getting turned away both at the airport and at land borders due to unpublished changes to the visa regime. But lucky for me, it was “visa free” which involved filling out an online form and paying $10 at a counter. It took about 45 minutes but I was eventually stamped in to my 99th country!
After a three-hour layover, I took the domestic flight to Vilankulo. Government-owned LAM Mozambique is the only domestic airline and is considered one of the most unreliable airlines in the world. Today, all the flights appeared to be on-time. The flight to Vilankulo was almost exclusively white people while there were no white people flying to any of the other destinations (the Pemba and Beira flights had their fair share of Chinese businessmen).
Due to issues stemming with the LAM Mozambique’s debt burden, my flight was actually operated by the South African airline CEM Air. The entire crew was white South Africans. The 90-minute domestic flight was actually quite pleasant and soon enough we reached Vilankulo, which must be the smallest international airport I have ever seen!
Unlike Maputo, it was rainy here. I ended up walking 30 minutes through town to reach my hotel, the Baobab Lodge. My pants were soaked!
The hotel/hostel has great vibes. I was staying in the dorm for $15/night. No air conditioning but there was a fan. Annoyingly, there was only one key for the room and I was going to be sharing with another guest who would be arriving later today. So, we would have to coordinate. Wild, but This Is Africa.
For lunch, I got piri piri squid. Piri piri (or peri peri) is a hot sauce made from a bird’s eye chili. The sauce is Mozambique’s most famous cultural export mostly thanks to the global chicken chain, Nando’s. Nando’s is South African but the concept is based on the founders’ trip to Mozambique.
To drink, I got a caipirinha – because Mozambique is Portuguese speaking. Paired all together, this was an incredible meal.
It turns out that the beach in Vilankulo itself is not great for swimming due to the massive tides and shallow water. So, I spent the majority of the day chatting with the other guests. Since Mozambique is such an off-the-beaten-path destination, I met some fascinating people including a retired teacher from Chicago who’d been traveling for 3.5 years straight, a Swiss lady who shipped a 4×4 jeep here, became a licensed safari guide and has been road tripping for six months and a German retired kindergarten teacher who comes to this hotel for a month every year then 4 months in Corsica every summer. Also, I met a lot of South Africans. Vilankulo is a 16-hour drive from Johannesburg so most people do it in two days.
I did do a quick walk around the town. Most of the town is very quiet except for the market which is loud and lively! Despite the heavy tourist population, Vilankulo is still very much “real Africa”.
Along the coast, there are vacation homes of rich South Africans and run-down hotels. There’s really nothing to do, but that’s why people are here: vibes and peace.
For dinner, I ate matapa, a cassava, pumpkin and spinach coconut curry. Mine was served with fresh crabs.
It was 21:00 and I was forcing myself to stay awake to get over the jet lag. Finally, two Israeli travelers arrived: a guy and a girl. The guy would be my roommate. We chatted briefly before I crashed hard.
December 23, 2025: Bazaruto
While Vilankulo itself doesn’t have much to offer, a world-class attraction lies just off the coast: the Bazaruto archipelago.
To reach there, a number of companies run day tours all in the $100 USD range. I was able to organize my tour through the hotel.
I walked down to the beach at 8:30 to board the boat. There, I met the crew: the full-time American traveler from my hotel, a Canadian teacher who works at the American school in Zambia, a Portuguese lady who works at a school in Maputo along with her two kids who live in Portugal, and a 10-person White Afrikaans family from Botswana. One of the kids is married to a woman who went to Duke and is a huge Duke basketball fan. She is probably the biggest Duke sports fan in all of Botswana. This family has a house here in Mozambique that belongs to their larger extended family – they visit every other Christmas.
After a 45-minute boat ride, we reached Bazaruto Island, the largest island in the archipelago. We climbed large sand dunes which had stunning views of both the ocean and the jungle in the northern part of the island.
We also swam at the beach, which admittedly didn’t have great sand. But the water was 30C/85F so it was hard to complain.
At around 11, we got back into the boat to head to the famous Two Mile Reef for snorkeling. The coral looked a little bleached but the fish were the most colorful I have ever seen. I even saw an octopus.
Then we headed back to beach where lunch was served. It was a seafood feast of giant prawns, calamari, fish as well as fruits. This was my favorite meal on the entire trip.
The skies were starting to darken but we still were able to make our final stop of the day at Benguerra Island, the second-largest island on the archipelago. Benguerra has a few VERY fancy $2-8,000/night resorts.
From our mooring, I walked through the sand dunes and the fast yet shallow freshwater rivers eventually finding some small plants growing out of the sand. The rain started to fall. I felt like I was on another planet. After 30 minutes of wandering, I reached the boat just as the rain started to gain intensity. We jetted back and were back right at 17:00.
For dinner, I went with the Israeli girl to a local restaurant across the street. Restaurant is a loose term there was just a lady who was the chef/server and three tables. The Zambezian-style chicken was delicious.
Today was really wonderful.
December 24, 2025: Wandering
I slept horribly because my roommate moved the one fan away from my bed and towards his. The weather did not get colder at night, so the hut was steamy.
Since I did not go on another island trip, I had to figure out how to spend my final day in Vilankulo. I met up with the Israeli girl again and together we walked around the market. She speaks fluent Portuguese which was a huge plus because I now was able to understand what was going on. For her, having a man accompany her meant that she wasn’t constantly hit on by every local man. So, it was a win-win.
We chatted with lots of friendly people and even got lunch from a liquor store at the market. Despite Israel’s religious significance and recent newsworthiness, most people here in Vilankulo had no idea where it was located. Some people asked if Israel was a Portuguese-speaking country. How funny!
In the afternoon, I took a long walk on the beach. First, I went south from the hotel to see the crazy tides and the boats stranded by said tides.
I then headed north to see the women helping to bring in the day’s catch from the returning fishing boats.
Back at the hotel, I got dinner but it took forever to get my food. I wanted to go out for a drink but by the time I got my food, I was ready for bed to get ready for my early morning trip to Tofo Beach.
Final Thoughts:
Vilankulo is a slow tourism destination and you have to be willing to accept that fact. If you can, then you’ll have a great time here.
The big attraction here is the Bazaruto Archipelago which deserves all the hype. It is the real deal. The town itself is the “real” Africa but doesn’t have much to keep you for more than a couple hours.
Because there was nothing to do, I spent a LOT of time chatting with the other tourists who were all so interesting. So for me, the other tourists are the highlight.
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