Fourteen days is the right amount of time to see Mozambique well. Less and you're either rushing or covering only one stretch of coast. More and you have room for Niassa or Gurúè — different post.
Here's the classic 14-day shape we put in front of most first-time clients, plus three variants for different priorities.
The classic shape
- Day 1–2
- Maputo. Arrival, settle, fish market, old downtown walk, art galleries, an evening of Marrabenta.
- Day 3
- Inhaca. Boat across the bay. Beach lunch. Back to Maputo at sunset.
- Day 4–6
- Maputo National Park & Pontas. Drive south. Two nights in the park (elephants at the beach), then one or two in Ponta do Ouro or Ponta Mamoli.
- Day 7–8
- Drive north along the coast or short hop by plane to Inhambane.
- Day 9–11
- Tofo & Barra. Three days of diving, mantas, beach time. Maybe whale sharks if it's the right season.
- Day 12–14
- Bazaruto. Fly into Vilankulos, three days on Benguerra or Bazaruto Island. Fly home from Vilankulos or back via Johannesburg.
This shape gives you the country's three best chapters — the southern wild coast, the dive culture, the picture-postcard archipelago — without rushing.
Variant 1 — Safari-heavy
Drop Bazaruto. Add Kruger and an interior Mozambican park. Start and end Maputo; do five days Kruger from Maputo (we run the cross-border), then either Gorongosa or Limpopo for two-three days, then back via the coast for a few beach days.
Variant 2 — Family with two-week school break
Less driving, more activity. Two nights Maputo, two in Maputo National Park (the elephants are a genuine kid magnet), five at a single beach lodge on the Inhambane coast (we'd suggest Barra or Bazaruto for the lagoon), three Bazaruto. End at Maputo. Keep transfers under three hours each.
Variant 3 — North-leaning, for second-time visitors
Skip the south you already saw. Fly straight to Pemba or Nampula, then three days on Ilha de Moçambique. Five days in Gurúè with a Mount Namuli climb if you're walking-fit. Fly to Lichinga for a four-day Niassa Reserve segment. Out via Pemba.
What we wouldn't try to fit in 14 days
- Niassa + Bazaruto. Different ends of the country, too much flying between.
- Gorongosa + Bazaruto + Maputo + Tofo. Pick three of those four, not all four.
- Self-drive the whole loop. Possible but you'll spend more time at petrol stops than at lodges.
- Kruger + Bazaruto without flying. Doable, but expect two days of pure transit.
Two weeks is plenty if you stop trying to see everything. Write to us with your dates and a sentence about what you're after — we'll send back a shape we'd actually book.