Situated in the Mozambican province of Inhambane, Vilanculos is a laidback town featuring some lovely beaches lapped by crystal-clear turquoise waters. It is stocked with all the amenities needed for a fantastic seaside holiday. This bustling coastal town has its own international airport and serves as a great base for exploring the idyllic islands of the Bazaruto Archipelago. The town itself offers good diving, a wide range of accommodation choices and lively nightlife. Visitors can jump on a traditional dhow boat and venture to the pristine Bazaruto Archipelago, browse for fresh produce and locally-made souvenirs in the bustling market in the centre of town, and spend the day soaking up the sun on an array of idyllic beaches. Other popular activities include: horse riding, game fishing, kitesurfing, scuba diving, snorkelling and sailing.
Tofo, Mozambique, is one of the best places in the world to see both manta species and whale sharks in the same spot. It is one of the few places in the world where reef mantas (the renamed Manta alfredi) and giant mantas (that has taken over the Manta birostris name) are seen together - in the same frame even! Recent research carried out by the Tofo-based Foundation for the Protection of Marine Megafauna calculating the local whale shark population has shown it to now be the largest in the world. Both species are visible year-round too.
Tofo’s reefs are also home to other large members of the shark and ray family: the odd-but-stunning bowmouth guitarshark, zebra sharks, blotched fantail rays, and, if you’re lucky, you’ll see the small-eyed stingray, the largest of the ray species, the only place in the world where it has been seen alive.
There are reef mantas and giant mantas on a number of dive sites, whale sharks on the surface interval, potato groupers, beautiful schools of snapper and soldierfish, curtains of goldies and other fish waiting to clean the mantas, frogfish, schools of trevally, turtles, honeycomb moray eels, and one of the biggest giant moray eels you will ever see. There are also cool smaller creatures like the sea moth, coral whip gobies, dragon moray eels, ribbon eels, purple and yellow sea cucumbers, peacock mantis shrimp, and the usual Indian Ocean reef dwellers. In season, from June to November, Humpback whales cruise past the coast and have been encountered underwater during dives.
in our two main seasons, (Winter and Summer) there is a main event, in winter we have Humpback Whales passing through for mating and calving season, between Madagascar and North Mozambique. You get to see them on ocean safaris and on boat trips to the dive spots, and sometimes we do see them on dives, and we encounter with them descending and ascending on dives, when they are showing off by jumping and diving to impress the females. Winter visibility is lower, with an average of 10 to 20m. In summer, we have a good time swimming with the famous Whale sharks on ocean safaris, the visibility increases significantly, the marine life also changes.
