When winter begins to bite and you’re dreaming of a dose of warm subtropical sun, there’s no need to look to Mauritius or Zanzibar. Simply hop in the car (if you have the time) or book a flight to Maputo, and you’ll soon be kicking back on the pristine shores of one of Africa’s newest UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
In July 2025, 26 new cultural and natural properties around the globe were added to UNESCO's prestigious World Heritage List, including four new destinations in Africa. That included Malawi’s striking Mount Mulanje Cultural Landscape and the Bijagós Archipelago in West Africa. But for a short break, you don’t need to travel further than southern Mozambique, where the Maputo National Park was recently inscribed as the country’s first natural World Heritage Site.
“This moment marks a compelling milestone not only for Mozambique, but for the entire region,” said Werner Myburgh, CEO of Peace Parks Foundation, which has an agreement with the Mozambique government to co-manage the park until 2033. “What once was a protected area on paper only is now a thriving, productive landscape of global significance.”
Originally declared a “special reserve” to protect the region’s coastal elephant population, the area was decimated by decades of civil war and poaching. The Peace Parks Foundation became involved in 2006 and began working to restore a reserve that at the time existed in name only. Today, the enlarged Maputo National Park has emerged as one of Southern Africa’s most inspiring conservation success stories, with thousands of animals reintroduced into the reserve’s grasslands, including 11 species that were once locally extinct.
The transformation is profound, and today the park protects a remarkably diverse landscape of lakes and wetlands, swamp forests, grasslands and mangrove forests. On guided safaris or self-drive adventures, visitors can see herds of zebra, reedbuck, elephants and buffaloes across the coastal plains, while offshore, the marine sanctuary teems with life. About 80% of all nesting turtles along Mozambique’s 2,800km coastline occur within just an 80km stretch of this protected coast, and the seas here host the world’s largest congregation of Giant Trevally. In 2021, land and sea were combined into Maputo National Park, protecting 1,794km² of restored coastal and inland ecosystems that form a transfrontier extension to SA’s iSimangaliso Wetland Park, itself a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
But, as is common across much of Africa, conservation at scale only succeeds when communities that have long called the land their home have some skin in the game. In the north of Kruger National Park, Pafuri Camp has witnessed the Makuleke community return to their ancestral lands. In the Wild Coast’s Mkambati Nature Reserve, GweGwe Beach Lodge is transforming the effect of tourism in and around the region. And in Maputo National Park, tourism operations seem poised to do the same, with coastal retreats offering stunning beachfront bolt-holes for travellers and providing opportunities for economic upliftment for local communities.
Perhaps the best place to lay your head is Anvil Bay, an eco-luxury escape where barefoot sophistication meets untouched coastal wilderness. Accessible only by 4x4 or helicopter — a fine way to arrive from Maputo International Airport — this intimate beach camp blends seamlessly into the coastal dune forest, with just a handful of canvas-and-thatch Crusoe-chic casinhas gazing out over the Indian Ocean. Days here unfold at a lazy pace dictated by time and tides: snorkelling pristine reefs, tracking elephants in the surrounding plains or simply soaking up the solitude. Visit between November and March, and you may just witness endangered leatherback turtles hauling ashore to lay eggs, or young turtles flapping their way out to the open sea.
What’s more, Anvil Bay is pioneering community-owned tourism in the region. The lodge was created through a unique partnership between the Chemucane community and the Bell Foundation, with funding from the World Bank and other philanthropic partners. Operated by the Chemucane Tourism Company, the lodge offers job creation and skills development to the local community, with guest revenue supporting both local community development and conservation efforts in the park. You’ll certainly love the barefoot charms of Anvil Bay, but you can also raise a glass to a lodge that is a model of responsible tourism, where wilderness protection and community upliftment go hand in hand.
For something more low-key, the eco-friendly Membene Lodge is your go-to. Opened in 2024 with a $5m investment from Peace Parks Foundation, Membene’s 24 self-catering chalets (and some campsites, if you prefer roughing it) offer more affordable coastal seclusion on the shores of Ponta Membene. There’s a choice of chalets hidden among the dunes or indigenous forests, but for the best views, book well in advance for one of the charming Hilltop Chalets.
Short break or longer seaside escape? It’s your call. But get your bookings in soon. With the new cachet of a UNESCO listing, this corner of coastline is set to become hot property in Southern Africa.
