3 guides, each rated 1 to 5 with the reason — and two lists per place, where you are comfortable and where to pay attention. Nowhere is called dangerous; the specific thing is what helps.
A relaxed village where the crime that reaches visitors is theft from the beach and from rooms left open. Police checkpoints are common on the roads to and from Inhambane: carry your passport itself, because the police will not accept copies or photos, and a driver needs a licence, the vehicle papers, two warning triangles and a reflective vest. Do not drive between towns after dark. The surf is real, so swim where others do and not alone. Malaria is present all year.
Comfortable: Praia do Tofo · Tofinho · Inhambane
Praia do Tofo — the beach late at night, for bags and phones, and anything left on the sand while you swim
The surf, which has rips along the open beach; swim where others are and not alone
Police checkpoints on the roads, where the passport itself is expected, not a copy
The EN1 and every road between towns after dark, which the UK advice says to avoid
Vilanculos is a calm small town and the islands are lodges with nobody else on them. The things to plan around are the sea and the road. Day boats vary a lot: look for life jackets and two engines before you board, and turn back with the weather. Police checkpoints on the EN1 expect the passport itself, not a copy. Do not drive between towns after dark. Malaria is present all year.
Comfortable: Vilanculos · Benguerra Island · Bazaruto Island · Magaruque Island
Day boats without life jackets or a second engine, and crossings in a rising wind
Vilanculos — the beach late at night, for bags and phones
The tide at Vilanculos, which goes out a long way and leaves a walk across the flats; check when the boat is due back
Police checkpoints on the EN1, where the passport itself is expected, not a copy
Roads between towns after dark, which the UK advice says to avoid
The island itself is calm, and its people have long been used to visitors. The UK advises against all travel to the districts of Memba and Eráti in Nampula Province, and to most of Cabo Delgado further north, because of attacks by groups linked to Islamist extremism. The island is not in those districts and is not on any road to them: Memba, the closer, is around a hundred kilometres north beyond Nacala, and Eráti further inland. Read the current advice before travelling north of Nacala. Carry the passport itself at the checkpoints between Nampula and the coast, drive only by day, and expect the cyclone season to close the road and the bridge for a day or two at a time.
Comfortable: Stone Town · Fortaleza de São Sebastião · Cabaceira Pequena
The districts of Memba and Eráti, north of Nacala, and Cabo Delgado beyond them, where the UK advises against all travel
The road from Nampula after dark, and the police checkpoints on it, where the passport itself is expected
Swimming off the island's own beaches, which are working foreshore; swim on the mainland side
The cyclone season, when storms reach this coast and can close the bridge and the road
Malaria, which is present all year
The ratings are this site's own, from the guides' authors and the corrections readers send in; they are not an index. Read the general advice in travel safety tips.
