The best things to do in Maputo are the Central Railway Station and Mercado Central in the Baixa, the Fortaleza, a walking tour of Mafalala, lunch at the Mercado do Peixe and the view from the KaTembe bridge. Two or three days covers the city; add one for Inhaca or Maputo National Park. May to September is the dry, mild window.
Maputo is a low colonial grid on a cliff above its bay, Portuguese in its avenues and revolutionary in their names: Mao Tse Tung, Kim Il Sung, Ho Chi Min. It rewards walking the Baixa by day, eating prawns by the kilo, and staying out late for the music.
The Beaux-Arts station opened in 1910 and was finished in 1916, its green dome and ironwork the grandest front in the city. Gustave Eiffel had nothing to do with it, whatever the story says. Walk the platforms, then the gallery inside.
The municipal market carries 1901 over its gate and opened in 1903: a long hall of produce, dried fish, spices and household goods under one roof. Go in the morning, when it is fullest, and carry small notes.
The fort began in 1782 as earth and branches, was rebuilt in 1791 and restored in the 1940s. Inside stand the toppled statue of Mouzinho de Albuquerque and the carved coffin of Ngungunhane, the last Gaza emperor.
The reed-and-zinc bairro north of the centre raised Eusébio, the poets José Craveirinha and Noémia de Sousa, and the presidents Samora Machel and Joaquim Chissano. The community group IVERCA walks it with residents and runs the Mafalala Museum.
Buy fish, prawns or crab at the stalls, have it cleaned, and a kitchen alongside grills or fries it for a fee by the kilo. It is the most direct seafood lunch in Maputo, and the livelier for being a market.
Three chapters of the city share one square: the white concrete cathedral consecrated in 1944, the neoclassical City Hall of 1947, and the bronze Samora Machel unveiled in 2011 where a colonial statue once stood.
A Neo-Manueline building from 1933, reopened on 29 September 2025 after two years of Italian-funded restoration. Its most famous holding is a series of elephant foetuses spanning the 22-month gestation.
Laid out in 1885 by the English gardener Thomas Honney on what had been swamp, Tunduru is the shade the Baixa lacks. The Casa de Ferro, a prefabricated Belgian iron house of 1892, stands beside it.
Opened in November 2018, the bridge runs 3,041 metres over the bay, and its 680-metre main span is the longest suspension span in Africa. Drive it for the view back over the Baixa, or take the ferry and watch it from the water.
The oldest artists' association in Mozambique, where Malangatana and Alberto Chissano worked. Studios and exhibitions fill the house by day, and on Sunday nights it fills again for live bands.
Open since 1938 and still run by the Petrakakis family. Order the LM prawns and take the sea-facing balcony.
Half a century of the chicken the city is known for, cheap and cheerful. The one everyone has an opinion on.
The Baixa's live-music room: jazz, marrabenta and Afro-soul, with Tuesday given to new artists.
A beachfront club with DJs and an open-air dance floor under the palms. Busiest Friday and Saturday.
A retro bar-bistro set between two platforms of the Central Station, with live music late in the week.
The national collection from the 1950s on: Malangatana, Bertina Lopes, Chichorro, Naguib and Reinata Sadimba.
The municipal craft fair: carvings, capulana cloth, baskets and flowers, with food stalls serving matapa.
One of the oldest markets in the city and a centre of traditional medicine. Go with a local guide.
A prefabricated iron house from Belgium, assembled in 1892 for a governor who found it too hot to live in. Not by Eiffel either.
Pancho Guedes's Smiling Lion apartments of 1956 to 1958, named for the small concrete lion on the corner.
Guedes's first apartment block, designed 1951 to 1953. Private housing, so view it from the street.
Dated 1860 and often called the oldest masonry building in the city, facing the Fortaleza.
Clifftop avenues, embassies and hotels, with most of the good restaurants a walk apart.
The historic reed-house bairro of footballers, poets and presidents. See it on the IVERCA tour.
The seafront north along the Marginal, with the 1938 prawn house and the fish market.
About two hours by ferry across the bay, and now inside the Maputo National Park World Heritage site.
The surf and diving town on the South African border, under two hours via the KaTembe bridge.
The music of Maputo's suburbs, opening in Marracuene beside Gwaza Muthini.
A public holiday for Eduardo Mondlane and the independence struggle.
A public holiday, marked across the city.
The country's biggest music festival, two days of stages. Confirm the venue each year.
The anniversary of 1975, and the day Maputo fills its squares.
The Maputo International Trade Fair, held at Ricatla in Marracuene.
A biennial arts and ideas festival in even years. 2026 runs 23 October to 1 November.
The anniversary of city status in 1887, with events on Praça da Independência.
A few kilometres from the centre, about fifteen minutes by car, and the hub for LAM Mozambique Airlines. Take a registered taxi or a Yango.
CFM runs passenger trains from the Central Station toward the Ressano Garcia and Goba borders. For Johannesburg, Intercape coaches take about nine to ten hours.
Chapas are the shared minibuses everyone uses, cheap and crowded. Txopelas are tuk-tuks, and Yango, the ride-hailing app, has run here since 2022.
The tolled bridge carries cars over the bay. Passenger ferries still cross to KaTembe, and Inhaca boats take about two hours.
Big prawns grilled with piri-piri and garlic, named for Lourenço Marques.
Cassava leaves stewed with ground peanut and coconut, often with prawn or crab.
Chicken marinated in coconut, lime, garlic and piri-piri, then chargrilled.
Grilled chicken basted in chilli, the city's everyday feast.
Stiff maize porridge, the plate under a stew or a curry.
Crab curry, rich with coconut, eaten with rice.
Crumbed half-moon pastries of creamy prawn, a snack-bar staple.
Spiced bean fritters from the Indian side of the kitchen, sold hot in paper.
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