🇲🇿 Mozambique
Maputo
Maputo is southern Africa's most elegant capital — a tree-lined city of Portuguese art-deco buildings, wrought-iron structures by Gustave Eiffel's workshop and a waterfront lined with acacia trees where sidewalk cafés serve espresso and piri-piri prawns at once. Mozambique's capital only emerged from a brutal civil war in 1992, and the creative energy of that post-war generation is still visible in the city's music — marrabenta rhythms from the seafront bars, jazz at the Hot Clube — its contemporary art scene and its extraordinary cuisine that fuses Portuguese, Indian and indigenous Bantu traditions. The natural harbour frames the city spectacularly; the Maputo Special Reserve across the bay protects elephants and hippos; and the offshore islands of the Machangulo Peninsula are an hour's dhow ride from the city. Mozambique produces some of the world's finest rubies, cashews and prawns, and Maputo's markets display all three. It is a city that rewards the curious and repays the effort of getting there.