Quirimbas Archipelago Explorer Safari

Overview

The Quirimbas Archipelago is one of the Indian Ocean's last great secrets — a chain of 32 coral islands stretching more than 100 kilometres along Mozambique's remote northern coast in Cabo Delgado. Where the southern Bazaruto islands see a steady trickle of visitors, the Quirimbas remain gloriously untouched: powder-white sandbanks that appear and vanish with the tide, mangrove channels alive with birdlife, and coral reefs so pristine they rank among the finest dive sites on the continent. The archipelago's southern islands fall within the Quirimbas National Park, a marine and terrestrial reserve protecting dugong, humpback whales, five species of sea turtle and vast shoals of reef fish.

But the Quirimbas are as rich in history as in nature. Ibo Island, once a powerful Swahili trading port and later a Portuguese stronghold, is a hauntingly beautiful open-air museum of crumbling forts, coral-stone mansions and silversmiths still working by hand. A handful of exclusive lodges — many on private islands — offer barefoot luxury with a conscience, blending world-class diving, dhow safaris and castaway seclusion with genuine community partnership.