Mozambique

Mozambique is what beach dreams looked like before beaches got busy. Two thousand kilometres of Indian Ocean coastline, and along it, archipelagos that still feel found rather than developed. In the Quirimbas and Bazaruto islands, you will sail on wooden dhows, snorkel over reefs crowded with colour, and eat crayfish grilled on sand that nobody else has walked on that day. Lodges here are small, barefoot and quietly luxurious, the kind of places where shoes become a memory by day two. There is history too: Ilha de Moçambique, a tiny island of faded colonial squares and swahili trade routes, is one of the coast's great secrets. Pair Mozambique with a safari next door, or keep it pure: a week of salt, sun and dhow sails.