Stig Nygaard via Wikimedia Commons · CC BY 2.0
Mozambique
A Portuguese-speaking Indian Ocean coast of island archipelagos, coral and stone towns — closer to India in trade history than almost anywhere else in Africa, and still barely visited from it.
The Indian Ocean coast
that faces home
Mozambique is the long Indian Ocean edge of southern Africa, and for an Indian traveller it is a stranger country than it should be. The monsoon trade that carried dhows between Gujarat, Oman and this coast ran for centuries; the Island of Mozambique was a node on it long before the Portuguese arrived and made it their capital. That shared ocean is written into the food, the trade names and the faces, and almost none of it reaches Indian travel itineraries.
What you actually get is a coastline of archipelagos. Bazaruto and the Quirimbas are strings of sand islands with reef between them, and the diving and snorkelling are the country’s real argument — manta rays and whale sharks off Tofo, dugongs in the Bazaruto seagrass, and reefs that see a fraction of the traffic of the Red Sea or the Maldives.
Inland is a different country and a harder one. Gorongosa, in the Rift Valley, is one of the more remarkable conservation stories anywhere: a park emptied by a long civil war and rebuilt over two decades. It is not the Serengeti and it does not pretend to be. It is a place where the interest is partly in what is coming back.
Dry and cool, or wet and cyclonic
Mozambique has a genuinely sharp wet and dry split, and the wet half carries real cyclone risk on this coast. The timing matters more here than in most places.
How long Mozambique actually needs
The country is long and the internal flights are the constraint. These shapes respect that rather than fighting it.
How to Explore Mozambique
6 ways into Mozambique — drawn from this guide, not from a list that could describe anywhere.
Gorongosa and the Rift · Maputo and the south — the parts of Mozambique this guide covers, each with its own reason to go and its own time of year.
Reef, rays and islands · The stone town and the trade coast — the shapes of trip Mozambique suits, and the one you pick changes where you go and when.
A stone town on a coral island · Reef without the crowds · A transboundary UNESCO park · Portuguese-African food — what this country does that its neighbours do not, and the reason to choose it over them.
May – Oct is the strongest window — the dry season, and the reason to come. The rest of the year splits into Nov – Dec · Jan – Mar · Apr, and they are not interchangeable.
Domestic flights · Chapa · Car and driver · Boat transfers — how people actually move around here, which decides how much of the map a trip can hold.
eVisa before travel. India sits in the eVisa group on Mozambique’s official portal, not the ETA group.
Mozambique entry — an eVisa before you fly
India sits in the eVisa group on Mozambique’s official portal, not the ETA group. Apply online before travel and carry the printed approval.
Mozambique’s National Immigration Service runs the official portal at evisa.gov.mz, relaunched in February 2026, and it separates nationalities into distinct groups. One group is the ETA programme, which the portal describes as allowing a stay of up to 30 days for all passport types, and which covers countries such as Belgium, Canada and China. India is not in that group. India appears in the eVisa group, so the route that applies to an ordinary Indian passport is the electronic visa rather than the travel authorisation. The tourist eVisa is for tourism, holiday or vacation for a duration of 90 days or less. The portal states that you enter the country according to the duration of the visa — 30, 60 or 90 days — and that the visa issued is of multiple-entry type, determined from your travel itinerary. The eVisa’s own validity is two months, beginning on the date of issue, which is the window inside which you must actually arrive.
Mozambique’s portal lists ETA countries separately — Belgium, Canada, China among them, at up to 30 days. India is not among them and uses the eVisa route instead. Do not plan on an ETA.
The eVisa is valid for two months from issue and that is your window to arrive. The 30, 60 or 90 days is how long you may then stay.
The portal asks for the printed PDF at boarding and on arrival, not just on a phone. Airlines on this route do ask.
Entry rules are set by Mozambique and can change without notice. Only the Serviço Nacional de Migração or a Mozambican mission can confirm what applies to your passport and your dates. We do not publish visa fees here.
For all Mozambique journeys we design, we prepare your complete visa documentation package — the forms, the supporting documents, the sequence of submission. Our visa specialists help travellers prepare complete applications with careful document guidance. Final visa decisions always remain with the relevant authorities.
Mozambique, practically
The things that change a Mozambican trip, most of which are about timing and distance.
Mozambique — common questions
The questions Indian travellers actually ask before booking.
Four ways to travel Mozambique
Mozambique is very long and its internal flights matter. Pick one stretch of coast or one inland idea and do it properly rather than trying to join the whole country up.
The strongest reason to come. Bazaruto and the Quirimbas are archipelago national parks with sand islands, seagrass and reef, and Tofo further south is the known base for big pelagic encounters.
Ilha de Moçambique is the historical heart of the country and a UNESCO inscription — a coral island that was the Portuguese capital for centuries and an Indian Ocean trading node long before that.
For travellers who want the conservation story rather than a big-five checklist. Gorongosa was emptied during the civil war and has been rebuilt over two decades, and the park is candid about that history.
The easiest entry to the country, and the strand that needs the least logistics. A capital with real architectural interest, and a transboundary UNESCO park within a drive of it.
The north and the south of Mozambique are effectively different trips with different flights. Tell us how long you have and we will pick the one that fits rather than making you fly the length of the country.