Mozambique is a melting pot of different cultures and traditions and is one of the most exciting heritage destinations of the continent.

Ravaged by civil war for more than ten years, all the villages run down and burnt, all the people fled to neighbouring countries like Malawi, Tanzania and Zambia. Peace has returned to this land and with it the people, it is amazing to see people picking up their lives once again and making it work. Investments have come back to Mozambique and with it progress which you can simply see wherever you go. All the new settlements are an indication of the native Mozambicans coming back home.

Pemba Town is situated on the tip of a peninsula on the southern side of the Bay of Pemba, a semi enclosed natural harbour which, depending on whom you believe, is the second or third largest in the world. There is hardly a bay to compare with Pemba on the entire Mozambique coast. The beaches are wide, sandy and clean, and lined with palm trees. A coral reef protects the beach and guarantees safe swimming as well as good snorkelling.Needless to say, Pemba has enormous potential as a tourist resort.

Pemba's modern town centre is a rather bland place, but it is worth walking down to the old town centre near the port, where a small grid of roads lined with run-down colonial buildings is fringed by a very attractive and remarkably neat reed-hut village called Paquitequete. Built on sandy ground that sometimes flood at high tide, this was Pemba's first settlement and its inhabitants are largely Muslim.

The Town of Ilha de Mozambique is a small coral island. It is not only the oldest European settlement in East Africa, but also, arguably, the most bizarre. Declared a UNESCO Cultural Heritage Site in 1972, Ilha de Mozambique, known to locals simply as Ilha (pronounced ilia), must surely rank as Northern Mozambique's most alluring travel destination both for its singular atmosphere and for its wealth of beautiful buildings.

Linked to the main land by a 1.5km long single lane causeway, the crescent shaped island measures a mere 2.5km from North to South, and is at no point more than 600m wide. despite its small size, the Island supports a population of about 7,000 and as the most Portuguese settlement on the East African coast for the best part of four centuries, it boasts of several oldest extant colonial buildings in the southern hemisphere.

Mocimboa da Praia is the springboard for travellers heading through to Tanzania, and one of the few laces in Mozambique where educated people tend to speak English as well as, or instead of Portuguese.

Ibo Island is a beautiful island and part of the idyllic Quirimbas Archipelago. In historic times, it was an important Portuguese trade post. Historic buildings, three forts, and a beautiful Catholic Church still remain. Ibo provides a chance to interact with the amazing rural people and exchange cultural differences. Traditional silversmiths still operate from the main fort, and you can wander about this beautiful island and explore.

Nampula is the commercial heart of northern Mozambique, a relatively lively and prosperous city with good shops and reasonable facilities for visitors. An important transport hub, Nampula is likely to be visited at some point by most people who travel through northern Mozambique.

Nampula boasts of few other tourist attractions. The rocky outcrops that dominate the landscape reputedly offer some of the best free-face rock climbing in southern Africa, but pending further tourist development, this is of academic interest to anybody but experienced and fully equipped rock climbers.

Cuamba is an important route focus, lying at the junction of railway line between Malawi and the coast of Mozambique, and the main roads North through Niassa and South via Gurue to Quelimane.

Considering that it is currently many peoples introduction to Mozambique, Cuamba is a pretty humdrum sort of place: a dully uniform grid of flame-tree lined avenidas salvaged from complete anonymity by the granite hills that surround it. In its favour, Cuamba is a relatively young and hip town due to the presence of some 150 students who come and study at the agricultural college based there, and as a result there are more bars than you would expect in a town of such a size. Another notable feature of the town is that it has its own electricity supply, delivered from a hydro-electric scheme established in 1988 with Norwegian aid.