This new seventh edition of Bradt's Mozambique remains the most established and only standalone guide to this alluring country. Complete with in-depth coverage of transport, wildlife, history, culture and accommodation, plus invaluable practical advice and maps, this honest handbook will help you plan the perfect visit. Particularly useful is the selection of reputable local tour operators. Mozambique is a country of two halves. The tourism-savvy south offers palm-lined tropical beaches, luxury lodges and diving to rank with the best in the world, plus the capital Maputo, a city oozing with Afro-Mediterranean flair. The undeveloped northern mainland, by contrast, is one of Africa's last frontiers, with thrillingly vast game reserves and stunning coastal panoramas that draw intrepid travelers to those hankering after barefoot luxury. With economy-boosting oil and natural gas potential on the horizon, Mozambique is on its way to reclaiming its standing as one of Africa's top destinations. However, despite being one of Africa's fastest developing tourist countries, it still offers the opportunity to experience the 'quintessential Africa'. Having once stood in the ranks with South Africa, over twenty years of post-civil war development and one of Africa's highest growth rates are drawing tourists back to its 2,500km of palm-fringed coastline. Best visited between May and October, Mozambique is dotted north to south with natural, historical, cultural, and architectural wonders remnant of its varied history of exploration, trade, and cultural fusion. Highlights include the UNESCO world heritage site, Ilha de Moçambique, a 16th-century Arab and Portuguese trading post, ancient rock art at Chinhamapere Hill, tea plantations and an exploration of Mount Namuli, itself the subject of a documented expedition by American climber and filmmaker Majka Burhardt. Meanwhile the coast, home to more than 2,000 species of marine fish and five of seven endangered sea turtle species, boasts a plethora of delights, from windsurfing to diving and snorkelling, not to mention some of the richest coral reefs in the world, home to over 1,200 species and five of seven endangered sea turtles.With in-depth coverage and practical advice for all budgets, Bradt's Mozambique is the essential companion for a successful visit.
About the Author: Philip Briggs has been exploring the highways, byways and backwaters of Africa since 1986, when he spent several months backpacking on a shoestring from Nairobi to Cape Town. In 1991, he wrote the Bradt Guide to South Africa, the first such guidebook to be published internationally after the release of Nelson Mandela. Over the rest of the 1990s, Philip wrote a series of pioneering Bradt travel guides to destinations that were then - and in some cases still are - otherwise practically uncharted by the travel publishing industry. These included the first dedicated guidebooks to Tanzania, Uganda, Ethiopia, Malawi, Mozambique, Ghana and Rwanda, all now in their fifth to seventh editions. More recently, he authored the first dedicated English-language guidebooks to Somaliland and Suriname, as well as a new guide to The Gambia, all published by Bradt. Also a prolific writer for magazines, he spends at least four months on the road every year, usually accompanied by his wife, the travel photographer Ariadne Van Zandbergen, and spends his rest of the time battering away at a keyboard in the sleepy South African coastal village of Wilderness. This edition has been updated by Sandra Turay, a graduate of Ethnic Studies and Journalism whose curiosity for the world's peoples and places has led her to study, work, teach, volunteer (Peace Corps Ethiopia) and travel throughout Africa and hideaways across the globe.