That’s a little city which has a lot of natural beauties. It can be accessed by the city of Pambara, because the bus doesn’t go until Vilankulo, so you need to use a chapa (a van), to go through 20km to downtown.

Our arrival was very peaceful, and it was easy to get to our Airbnb. In our first day, we soon went seeing the warm waters of Indian Ocean at the beach. The people are super friendly, they greet you in the streets all the time.

They are never in a hurry there, they even use the expression “a de vir”, which means (it’s ok, that happens), a lot, LOL.

Baobab Beach

We stayed at a hotel 200 meter from Baobab Beach, named like that because there are huge trees there. There’s also Baobab Backpackers, an awesome place in front of the beach that has lodges, a camping and a great restaurant that has very tasty food and reasonable place. In the first day, we had the opportunity to have dinner, and we were well served.

Markets

There are three options of little markets: Taurus, the market of the bombs and, right in downtown, China. We visited the three of them, which are small frameworks. Fruits and vegetables are usually bought at the greengroceries in the streets, once they have more options. We recommend the market China. We thought their prices are cheaper than the other ones. There is a beverage distributor next to the market of bombs, where we found water in a lower price than the other markets. We found 03 bakeries, a lot of points of bread sale, but no one had piped cakes.

Main Avenue

The city has a main avenue, which locates all the infrastructure, gas stations, banks, markets, pubs, restaurants diverse stores, taxis, tuk tuk, chapas and companies for tour around the islands. Here is the busiest point of the city, every day.

Village

We walked through the beach. As the tide was low, we were able to get to the end of Baobab Beach. We found a resort in the middle of the trees there, which is beside the airport of the city, and a small village of fishermen, where we got lost, once there are no streets, only paths among flooded grounds and woodlands, and the places helped us find the street again. We passed through a huge baobab right in the middle of the village, and that’s amazing to see all that caring about cleaning surrounding the houses. Everything well organized.

Tour around the islands

In different places of the beach, it’s possible to hire tours to the islands, or even there are agents selling that kind of tour at the beach. There are part-time or full-time tours, including a boat, lunch, beverages, snorkeling, a tour around the dunes of Bazaruto and, at last, a quick visit to the nearby island.
We took a full-time tour, and that experience was really cool, but the area wasn’t proper for snorkeling, besides the bunch of jellyfish in the sea then (that specie doesn’t burn the skin, as the guide showed us). We had a good visit to the dunes of Bazaruto, and a delicious lunch, with items of the local cuisine.
That kind of tour costs an average of $60 dollars per person, drinks not included.

Kitesurf

It’s a kind of aquatic sport much practiced there, by using a surfboard and a kite. You pull the kite around the sea under the speed of the wind. It’s possible to rent all the equipment, for part-time or full-time, and it costs an average of 40 euros per person.
In the end of the day, when the wind is stronger, it’s possible to see a lot of people practicing it, and we were in the sand of the beach, enjoying the landscape.

Lodge Hotels

The lodge hotels present in the city offer the service of using the place with no accommodation, for 200 meticals per person (about 12 reais), you can use all the environment for leisure, pools, beds, towels, decks, restaurants, restrooms, kayaks. We visited Vilankulo Beach Lodge, but we ended up enjoying our day at Vila do Paraíso Lodge. That was wonderful to celebrate my birthday too.

Means of Transportation

To get to Vilankulo, we got the bus from Maputo at Postbus, but no bus gets into the city, as the main intercity way passes through Pambara, around 25 Km from Vilankulo, where we had to get off. It was necessary to pay 100 meticals (6 reais) for a chapa, the both of us with a baggage in the city, after getting off the chapa. There are the options of tuk for whomever needs it.
To leave the city, we did the opposite: we got the chapa until Pambara very early, but the buses only started to work next to noon. We asked the agents of some companies that we found there: how to purchase the tickets? They called the bus driver, who was already on their way, to check the price and the space, so we got places by the company LTM. We used that means of transportation to get to Tete and after passing through the border to Dedza.

Safety of the city

We thought it’s very safe during the time we stayed there, we saw few cops in the city. If we had questions, we could ask the population. We walked a lot through all over the city and it was very peaceful, the people are super friendly and helpful. We greeted each other in the streets, we talked to the children where we passed through.

Kind of Currency

The local currency of Mozambique is Metical, and the exchange in dollar for February/2019 is $1.00 to MT63.00. We recommend to exchange the currency in a safe place such as an airport or at Exchange, a bank in the city. It’s always good to have the local currency, because they may accept dollar, but you lose in change or conversion. And it also assures that the coin is not counterfeit.

Expenses in Vilankulo

Our expenses in currency (REAIS) in Vilankulo during 7 days for the couple were the following:
Feeding: R$118.00 (market, snacks and drinks)
Tours: R$10.00 (Ferry Boat)
Transportation: R$210.00 (chapa, bus, tuk-tuk)
Lodging: R$186.00 (airbnb)

That beach has amazing natural beauties. Our days there were very nice. We could enjoy and rest at the same time. Everything there is very peaceful, the people are friendly, the weather is nice (although it’s hot), and always kind of windy. In the second day, we were already acclimated to the places, we walked through the villages and made friends. It was very amazing we hope to go back to Vilankulo again!