This former Portuguese colony, where the national language is still Portuguese, retains similarities to its former rulers. Not culturally, but in terms of tourism, hiding its glories under a bushel and being upstaged by its neighbours, South Africa, Zambia and Tanzania. Just as anyone who has explored the coast of Portugal and wondered why Spain gets all the brouhaha, Mozambique has some of the most stunning sandy beaches, surf and scuba diving, along its 2,300km of coastline, with the Lebombo Mountains separating sea from savannah. Two other great divides are the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, each creating meandering magnificence en route to the coast. One thing the Portuguese could neither emulate nor exploit, however, is Mozambique’s archipelagos. With an eclectic mix of posh privacy to camping cool, Bazaruto Archipelago in the south is simply to dive for, and Quirimbas in the north is for kayakers and sailors, a place to paddle and pootle in paradise. Read on in our Mozambique travel guide.

Mozambique is only slowly but surely making its way onto the tourist map, with tourism slow to take off after years of civil strife, which ended in 1992. With a coastline as long as the Great Barrier Reef, the opportunities for diving around the Bazaruto Archipelago, sailing a traditional dhow around the Quirimbas NP, fishing for marlin or windsurfing off Vilankulos, are still to be shared with most of the traveling population. Hopefully, it will be of the sharing and caring kind of tourism, done slowly and sustainably, with beach huts, fishing communities and sandy roads still the norm here. Inland rainforest and river canyons are open for more explorer types, but travel here with expert guides now to get in before it all gets hyped as ‘the’ place to go.