Anantara Bazaruto Island Resort and Spa: Guests enter the gated Anantara compound after a 45-minute boat ride from the mainland or an additional fee for a charter plane flight, making this place one of the extraordinary places to stay in Mozambique. Two swimming pools (one for family use, the other a premium beach-side infinity pool with an in-pool bar), a luxurious spa, gym, and golf course are among the amenities provided. Elegant marble, wood, glass, and indigenous materials like reeds and thatch are used throughout, organized in a contemporary manner with a plethora of colorful references to local traditional arts and crafts.
Azura Benguerra: Azura is a hand-built resort made by the people who live here using simply a cement mixer, a truck, and supplies either locally produced or transported via the island's tiny fleet of dhows. The lodge comprises 14 villas and ample communal space of stone, thatch, and wood.
Terraco Das Quitandas Guest House: Terraco das Quitandas is a 300-year-old townhouse with a communal courtyard and six sleeping rooms overlooking the city's main beach. A reading room, various entertainment rooms, two balconies, a bar, an enclosed yard, a roof terrace, and a garden are standard amenities.
The calm interiors of the guesthouse are reminiscent of the Moorish structures of Granada, as well as the types of residences one could find in a Brazilian city, with white walls, antique furnishings, arched doors, and polished stone flooring. In terms of ports of access and departure, as well as the comings and goings of its open stairways, the courtyard's arrangement is Escher-like. On the other hand, the roof patio is proudly contemporary in appearance, painted a blindingly dazzling white and populated with fashionably restrained sun loungers. The service, hospitality and arrangements make this place one of the best luxuries stays in Mozambique.
Guludo Beach Lodge: Carter developed Guludo in collaboration with Guludo village, eschewing the allure of an island retreat. The community, which has a population of 1,500 people and is less than a mile away, has been engaged in every lodge element, from the foundations to the design and maintenance.
The lodge itself is stretched along the beach in a typical village form, with lodging north and south of the leading public space, as described by its architects. The public buildings, shaded and organized around a courtyard, include a dining room and seating area, a workshop, a diving center, and a reception. The dining and seating area, which overlooks the ocean and consists of a fantastic bar, is made entirely of local materials, as are all of the buildings, and one of the best luxuries stays in Mozambique. The wattle and daub walls and the bamboo mainframe are both environmentally friendly and ideal for the beach climate.
Ibo Island Lodge: Despite a brief period of growth in the mid-1990s (after independence, the Portuguese-led programme collapsed), the island has altered little in over 300 years. The lodge's owners chose to convert three ex-colonial business properties rather than add to – and possibly detract from – the town's architecture. The biggest, set near the central sea's entrance to the port, was previously the Portuguese governor's mansion and administration complex. Each property, over 100 years old, has been lovingly repaired.
Ibo Island Lodge comprises the main house and nine sleeping rooms, two with a sea view and the rest facing a walled courtyard with a small plunge pool, one-meter-thick walls, high ceilings, and vast sweeping verandas.