Maputo 3-Day Itinerary: Railway Domes, Prawns and Islands

Three days in Maputo gives you time to explore the wrought-iron and art-deco heritage of the port, feast slowly on Indian Ocean seafood and spend a full day out on the turquoise sandbars of Inhaca Island or among the coastal elephants of Maputo National Park. Carry your passport (or certified copy) and Metical cash each day; see our practical briefing.

Day 1: CFM Railway Station, Maputo Fortress, Casa de Ferro & Tunduru Gardens

• Morning: start at Praça dos Trabalhadores in the lower Baixa to admire the mint-green 1910 CFM Central Railway Station, stepping inside to see the wrought-iron platforms, Kulungwana gallery and vintage steam locomotives in the railway museum.
• Late morning: walk east to the reddish stone ramparts of the Fortaleza de Maputo overlooking the bay, then browse roasted cashews and spices inside the 1901 Mercado Central.
• Lunch: pause at a historic Baixa or Polana café for frango à Zambeziana or shrimp rissóis and an espresso.
• Afternoon: stroll beneath the cycads and palms of the 1885 Tunduru Botanical Gardens, inspect Gustave Eiffel's prefabricated 1892 Casa de Ferro (Iron House) next door, and visit the white art-deco Cathedral on Praça da Independência.
• Sunset: cross the Maputo-KaTembe Bridge (or bay ferry) for a sundowner on KaTembe beach looking back at the Maputo skyline.

Day 2: Polana Modernism, FEIMA Craft Market & Mercado do Peixe Prawns

• Morning: walk the flame-tree avenues of Polana Cimento to see the neo-Manueline Natural History Museum and Pancho Guedes's sculptural modernist apartment blocks (including O Leão Que Ri), then drop into the artists' studios at Núcleo de Arte.
• Late morning: spend an hour under the shade trees of FEIMA Craft Market in Sommerschield shopping for Makonde ebony carvings, woven baskets and colourful capulana textiles.
• Long lunch and afternoon: ride a txopela down to Mercado do Peixe on Avenida Marginal to choose fresh tiger prawns, calamari and rock lobster from the ice slabs and have them grilled over charcoal with lemon, garlic and piri-piri, followed by a coastal stroll toward Costa do Sol.

Day 3: Choose Between Inhaca Island Snorkelling OR Maputo National Park

• Option A (Inhaca & Portuguese Islands by boat): catch a morning speedboat from the Marginal across Maputo Bay to Inhaca Island and Ilha dos Portugueses for coral snorkelling, the 1894 lighthouse and a sandbar beach lunch.
• Option B (Maputo National Park by 4x4): drive south across the KaTembe Bridge into Maputo National Park to track elephants, giraffe and zebra between freshwater lagoons and wild Indian Ocean dunes.