Day or night, there’s always something going on in Tofo. It’s an unassuming village in Mozambique, yes, but offshore its waters hold a world of delights, and there are numerous activities to enjoy them under the African sun.

When the sun dips into the wetlands in the west, the town’s eating scene and surprising nightlife come to the fore.

The beach at Tofo is a place of peace and plenty: stroll shore or hit the waves © Julian Love / Getty Images

Diving & snorkelling: encounters with the ocean’s giants

Tofo is one of the few places on the globe where elegant mantas and gentle whale sharks are present all year long, which means diving in this area of Mozambique is always in the company of giants. Between October and March, it’s not uncommon to see 50-strong congregations. Excited stories shared in Tofo’s bars of encounters with these peaceful beasts has even lead the odd traveller or two to decide to get PADI certified on the spot – Liquid Dive Adventures and Peri-Peri Divers run various PADI-accredited courses.

‘Ocean safaris’ in Tofo allow you to snorkel within a respectful distance of whale sharks © James R.D. Scott / Getty Images

If scuba diving isn’t for you, you can still admire the celestial spot patterns scattered across the world’s largest fish – the whale shark – on an ‘ocean safari’ snorkelling trip. It might look like these gargantuan creatures are dawdling lethargically through the waves next to you, but that assumption will soon be belied by the burning lactic acid in your weary legs as you kick to keep up from a safe distance (at least 4m). In the winter season (June to October), high-spirited humpback whales will spurt, slap and splash the choppy water around your boat.

While all the town’s dive operators offer scuba diving and ocean safaris, Peri-Peri Divers are unique in that a researcher from the Marine Megafauna Foundation (MMF) charity accompanies every trip. This means you have an expert on your boat ready to answer all your questions about the creatures you see beneath the waves. The MMF also hosts informative talks about the ins and outs of marine conservation on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

The waves along Tofo’s shores offer a variety of rides for most levels of surfers © Chris van Lennep / Getty Images

Surfing: from beginners’ waves to an advanced point break

There’s nothing like the exhilaration of catching a wave with playful dolphins along for the ride. Admittedly, if you’re new to surfing, the reality might involve more face planting into the glittering water than admiring the frolicking cetaceans. Even so, this relatively unexplored beach destination attracts a handful of in-the-know surfers from all around the world. The town has uncrowded breaks suitable for all levels.

Protected from the elements, the sheltered area inside the bay has gentle waves safe for intermediate surfers and for those who have never surfed before. More advanced surfers who are up for a challenge can tackle the larger swells and the reef break that is a short walk along the beach from Tofo.

You can hire boards and book small group lessons (maximum of eight people) from The Surf Shack, and if you need a little more support, one-on-one lessons can also be organised on request. You’ll probably find the locals you meet on the beach will be happy to give you some pointers too.

Sailing by traditional dhow in the waters of Mozambique is pleasurably slow going © EcoPic / Getty Images

Sailing: take a traditional dhow to Pig Island

If you’re keen to explore slightly further afield, book a dhow tour to nearby Pig Island. You’ll glide serenely across the flat water on these traditional African sailing boats, some of which have old advertising posters for sails. Once on the island, which is home to fewer than a thousand people, you’ll meet the chief, wander around its confines and have a lunch of assorted seafood. On the voyage back to Tofo, the dhow will make a few stops for snorkelling. This tour or can be booked through Diversity Scuba or Liquid Dive Adventures.

Paddleboarding, kayaking and waveskiing: exploring the serene bay

The watersports on offer in Tofo don’t end with the surfing, diving and snorkelling. You can also hire kayaks from The Surf Shack or dive schools, and then paddle out to sea and try to spot marine life while you bob gently in the bay. Telltale signs that you’re not alone might include changes of colour or movement in the water, such as the fin of a whale shark breaking the surface, the flick of a manta ray’s wings or a turtle’s head punctuating the waves as it comes up for air. A word of warning: sea conditions can get rough at times, so it’s best only to paddle out when the ocean is calm with no big swell or whitecaps on the waves.

For something a bit different, you can also give waveski surfing a go. Akin to a sit-on-top kayak, these large surfboards with seats can be manoeuvred easily with a double-ended paddle to enable you to catch and surf waves or ‘Eskimo roll’ if you capsize. Or you could try stand up paddle boarding. When you try to stand on your board for the very first time, your legs may well turn to jelly, but stick with it and you’ll soon get used to the strange feeling of the waves rolling underneath you. It won’t be long before you gain confidence and are stand up paddle boarding like a pro – if you’re feeling adventurous enough, you might even brave catching a wave into shore

Quad bikes can be used to tour the roads between villages in the area of Tofo © nicolasdecorte / Getty Images

Quad biking: speed along dusty roads

While it’s easy to spend your days in the water, there’s more to Tofo than just the beach, the ocean and the marine giants under the waves. If you’d prefer some land-based adrenaline, ask Diversity Scuba about booking a quad bike tour. Hurtle along bumpy dirt roads with the wind in your face as your guide leads you around Tofo and neighbouring Barra. Some of the vehicles seem to have been around for a while, so it’s probably a good idea to give the brakes and steering a quick check before you get on the road.

Making matapa with a traditional mortar and pestle is hard work © Melissa Hobson / Lonely Planet

Cooking: a taste of local life

For an authentic glimpse into the daily life of Tofo’s population, visit a local community on the Tofo Life ecotour. Set up and run by 10 village women, the income from the project helps reduce their dependence on the ocean for their livelihood, which makes their fishing habits more sustainable. During the half-day tour, you’ll have the chance to help make matapa, a traditional dish made from cassava leaves, peanut and coconut milk. It’s pretty tiring work, especially in the heat – just a minute spent pummelling the cassava leaves with a huge wooden pestle will leave you thirsty for a break. It’s a good thing the recipe calls for coconut milk made from scratch, as you’ll soon be offered a welcome sip of the refreshing water inside the coconuts after the women have expertly split them with a machete. Sitting on woven straw mats on the dusty ground, you’ll then shell peanuts and help grate and soak the coconut flesh to make your milk. The best bit, of course, is sitting down to lunch and devouring plate after plate of matapa with eye-wateringly spicy peri peri sauce.

Celebrating: eating and nightlife

With a day of activities behind you, the evening is the time to refuel. At Branko’s Bar, enjoy heaped plates of rice with fish or beef, with the latter cooked over sizzling ‘hot rocks’ at your table. Guju’s Sunset Bar prepares hearty curries, which are indulgently served in an entire loaf of bread. Once your appetite is sated, follow the pounding drums to find live music performances at Tofo Tofo (Tuesdays) and Dathonga (Sundays) or party the night away at MozamBeat Motel (Fridays).

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Travel is all about getting out of your comfort zone and trying new things – including local delicacies. But before you embark on a tour of unusual edibles, how about some food for thought?

We asked Lonely Planet staff to spill the beans on their unforgettable encounters with weird food – from deep-fried bugs and fermented fish to igloo restaurants and death-defying sundowners.

Trick… or treat? Spooky snacks in Cambodia © Melie Nasr / Shutterstock

Crispy critters in Cambodia

Over my years of travel, I’ve seen plenty of local delicacies held up for sale outside my bus window. But I’ll never forget the trays on display in Skuon, Cambodia. Piled high were deep-fried tarantulas, their contorted legs a hue of deep purple. If I hadn’t known better, I may have assumed this stringy-looking display was just a darker version of jalebi, a sugary treat found in India. But sweet these were certainly not.

As I hesitantly bit into the crispy legs of my first spider, I gave some thought to how this dish became a local staple. It’s said that during the Khmer Rouge regime in the 1970s, when famine gripped the nation, this meal was born from necessity. And by the time life took a turn for the better, the population had acquired a taste for tarantulas. I ate two – they weren’t bad!

Matt Phillips, Destination Editor for Sub-Saharan Africa. Follow his tweets @Go2MattPhillips.

Ambitious eating for a young palate © Fabio Alfano PH / Shutterstock

A seafood fail in Portugal

Shortly before holidaying with my parents became a no-no, my 13-year-old self strolled into a restaurant in Tavira, Portugal, and ordered a plate of choquinhos à algarvia – that’s grilled cuttlefish to you – with the misplaced confidence of 1) someone who isn’t paying and 2) a teenager who considers his occasionally outré choices of food as proof of worldliness. Call it a just-watch-me-eat-this mindset. The trouble was, I couldn’t eat that: pale, tentacled, Lovecraftian horrors whose appearance brought to mind the rubber monster finger puppets I used to play with as a kid. Even in death, they resisted my fork with an appalling vigour; perhaps this is my imagination, but I also recall a faint squeak as I took my one and only bite.

James Kay, Editor for lonelyplanet.com. Follow his tweets @jameskay123.

Curious fruit or caterpillar? © Louise Bastock / Lonely Planet

A not-so-fruity affair in Zimbabwe

While on a game drive in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, our guide told me and my sister about a regional delicacy we had to try: mopane worms. This caterpillar of the emperor moth feeds on mopane trees (hence the name) and locals remove their innards and dry them out in the sun to enjoy as a crispy black snack.

That night we got our chance as the hotel buffet served up a feast of traditional fare, from fried crocodile tail to buffalo stew and, of course, mopane worms. We chucked one back to get it out of the way, but my sister went on to garnish her grub with many more. Assuming she’d enjoyed the first one, I didn’t question it, but her enthusiasm quickly waned… As it transpired, my sister hadn’t heard the guide’s explanation correctly and thought the ‘worms’ were actually a fruit, so had unintentionally laced her lovely dinner with a tonne of fried bugs. Multiple desserts were needed as a palate cleanser.

Louise Bastock, Assistant Editor of lonelyplanet.com. Follow her tweets @LouiseBastock.

In Thailand, the coconut cocktails can be lethal © iMoved Studio / Shutterstock

A knock-out cocktail experience in Thailand

After spending a lovely evening reclining on a beach in Ko Tao watching a picture-perfect sunset, I was disturbed by a loud thud. It was a coconut bigger than my head and I knew this for sure because it landed just an inch from it. Having effectively cheated death, I decided the coconut was mine to claim and cheerfully took it with me to dinner. When the chef found out why I was carting this monstrosity under my arm, she got a glint in her eye and began gleefully chopping it up with a vengeful zeal and an enormous knife. Turns out her ex-boyfriend had all his teeth knocked out in a similar, not-so-lucky incident. She got closure, while my friends and I got the best, freshest piña coladas we’re ever likely to have. AnneMarie 1 – coconut 0.

AnneMarie McCarthy, Social News Coordinator at Lonely Planet Travel News.

No meal is complete without a spot of bonfire jumping © Jack Palfrey / Lonely Planet

An unusual invitation in Azerbaijan

It was with some trepidation that I accepted an invite to spend Novruz, the traditional Persian festival of spring, having dinner in a shed in the last communist-style village in Azerbaijan. My enthusiasm waned further when I was told, upon sitting down to eat, that the grapes used to make that evening’s wine had been crushed by the bare feet of the stranger sitting opposite me. In fact, everything around the table – from the plump vegetables to the slabs of cheese – had been sourced from the village; or, more accurately, traded for by my host, John, an English expat who produced ‘the best Cumberland sausages in Azerbaijan’. Despite my apprehension, the food was exquisite and the atmosphere – aided by swigs of home-brewed vodka – convivial. After dinner, we all took turns jumping over a bonfire built in the garden, a traditional act said to cleanse sins. A symbolic ritual, perhaps, but I certainly finished the night feeling a lot less narrow-minded.

Jack Palfrey, Assistant Editor of lonelyplanet.com. Follow his tweets @JPalfers.

Hákarl hangs out to dry in Iceland © jedamus / Shutterstock

A controversial national dish in Iceland

I’m in a farmhouse in a valley between Iceland’s tranquil Eastfjords and desolate Highlands, and I’m eating fermented Greenland shark for breakfast.

Hákarl comes with a reputation as strong as its odour. Chef Anthony Bourdain described it as ‘the single worst, most disgusting and terrible-tasting thing’ he’d eaten. The Greenland shark can live for 500 years and grows as large as a great white, although it rarely moves faster than 3km/h. And this trundling, deep-diving cold-water giant’s flesh is toxic. To make edible hákarl, it must be pressed and hung for months.

I’d meant to try some the night before, but we were busy checking out rope bridges and reindeer. So instead it emerges on a plate after everyone’s finished their skyr and orange juice, accompanied by wooden toothpicks and a whiff of ammonia. I pop a chunk in and chew, my cheeks quivering slightly. It tastes better than it smells, like fizzy squid, with a hint of cheese. I take a couple more and wash them down with coffee. It’s not for everyone, and I’m not sure it’s nice, but I don’t think hákarl deserves its fearsome legend.

James Smart, Destination Editor for Japan, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam and Myanmar. Follow his tweets @smartbadger.

Couscous cravings will be satiated in Morocco © The Visual Explorer / Shutterstock

Couscous overload in Morocco

At 18 years old, three friends and I set off on our first proper adventure abroad. While everyone else went to rave it up in Magaluf post-exams, we chose to visit Morocco. Never in my life have I eaten so much couscous as I did in Morocco; it took me several years to even fathom eating it again after having it solidly for three weeks.

The most memorable couscous occasion happened when we visited the home of a Berber family in the Atlas Mountains. We watched as our smiling host sat on the mud floor of their kitchen, sieving and shaking couscous in what appeared to be the oldest, dustiest straw bowl ever. I still maintain it was the best couscous I’ve ever had, but my less optimistic friends feigned smiles through mouthfuls of grit. I learnt then that four people can have very different experiences of the exact same thing.

Ellie Simpson, Traveller Communications Analyst. Follow her tweets @gutsygrad.

Mind over unidentified matter is the attitude required for a Dashain feast © robertzwinchell / Shutterstock

Nose-to-tail eating for Dashain in Nepal

On one of many trips to Kathmandu in Nepal, a friend invited me to his home for the festival of Dashain, when Hindus honour the goddess Durga and celebrate the victory of good over evil with animal sacrifices and family feasts. It was a great honour to be invited, but my smile faltered slightly as a succession of elderly aunts and grandmothers piled my plate high with traditional festival delicacies – sautéed brains, boiled intestines, fried spinal cord, testicles, lungs filled with egg… As an honoured guest, I couldn’t really say no, so I had to have a bit of everything. To make it through, I tried hard not to think about anatomy and concentrated instead on textures: this one is squishy, this one chewy. In terms of flavour, some items weren’t bad, but the experience overall was, shall we say, visceral.

Joe Bindloss, Destination Editor for the Indian subcontinent. Follow his tweets @joe_planet.

Gemma experienced a different type of pop-up restaurant in Lapland © Gemma Graham / Lonely Planet

Ice, ice, gravy: a traditional Arctic feast in Finnish Lapland

When hunger strikes and it’s -30°C outside, most people would want to find the cosiest place to chow down and thaw out their fingertips. But when I was in Saariselkä in Finnish Lapland, I couldn’t pass up the chance to eat in an ice restaurant. When I stepped into the cavernous, blue-hued igloo I could still see my breath and I didn’t dare take off my gloves, or any of my five layers, for the entire meal – including my thermal overalls. Despite all the furniture and even some of the glassware being made of ice or snow, it actually felt quite snug inside, and the traditional Arctic feast of creamy fish soup followed by a hearty reindeer stew thoroughly defrosted me from the inside out – much like the restaurant itself, which melted entirely with the arrival of spring, ready to be rebuilt the following winter.

Gemma Graham, Destination Editor for Northern Europe. Follow her tweets @oh_gg.

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There’s no better way to experience the sheer grandeur of the North American continent than by rail. Considerably more relaxing than driving or flying, many trains in the United States offer a leisurely, nostalgic sightseeing experience, often passing through pristine landscapes inaccessible by other means.

The routes listed here are the cream of the crop. Spend a few days riding the rails from coast to coast, or, for a shorter journey, simply zero in on the most scenic section of each route, as described below.

The California Zephyr is one of the world’s most amazing train journeys © Amtrak

1. Denver to San Francisco

The California Zephyr from Denver to San Francisco is hands-down the United States’ most spectacular train route, offering unparalleled wilderness scenery as it traverses the country’s two highest mountain ranges. From Denver, the train climbs the pine-covered eastern slopes of the Rockies, then charts a sinuous course through a dazzling series of steep-walled canyons along the Colorado River. Near sunset, the train emerges into the majestic red rock desert of eastern Utah, then crosses overnight into the forbidding vastness of Nevada’s sagebrush country, with salt flats and stark, arid mountains as far as the eye can see. By noon the next day, you’re climbing into the granite grandeur of California’s Sierra Nevada, where you can stop off in the appealing 19th-century railroad town of Truckee, or continue over Donner Pass into San Francisco.

The Coast Starlight hugs California’s dramatic coastline © Amtrak

2. Los Angeles to Seattle

The Coast Starlight from Los Angeles to Seattle features the finest coastal scenery in the nation, hugging the Southern California shoreline for over 100 miles near Santa Barbara, so close to the waves that you can actually wave to the surfers. The remainder of the route heads inland through Northern California and the Pacific Northwest, where highlights include dramatic sunrise perspectives on 14,179ft Mt Shasta, and a gorgeous midday traverse of Oregon’s Cascade Range.

Hop off the Empire Builder at Glacier National Park to break up the long journey © Amtrak

3. Chicago to Seattle

The Empire Builder from Chicago to Seattle glides through Wisconsin’s woodlands, Minnesota’s lake country and the North Dakota prairies en route to a western horizon swarming with snow-capped Rocky Mountain peaks. From Browning, Montana, an unforgettable 60-mile run along the southern edge of Glacier National Park leads to the park entrance at West Glacier, where nature lovers will want to break their journey before continuing to Seattle.

The Vermonter showcases some of the state’s loveliest scenery © Amtrak

4. St Albans, Vermont to Washington, DC

The Vermonter from Washington, DC to St Albans, VT is the most scenic route east of the Mississippi, especially in its northern reaches, where it snakes for four hours through the bucolic green hills and photogenic villages of rural Vermont.

Let the good times roll… all the way to New Orleans © eyfoto / Getty Images

5. Chicago to New Orleans

The City of New Orleans train, made famous by the song of the same name, offers a romantic approach to one of America’s great cities — New Orleans. After travelling overnight from Chicago to Memphis, its daylight run through the morning mists of Mississippi and Louisiana make a perfect introduction to the Deep South.

More information

Routes through the Rocky Mountains are best enjoyed from June through August, when summer wildflowers and longer daylight make for optimal sightseeing.

Adventurous spirits may also want to consider purchasing a multi-week train pass, which allows you to build a customized transcontinental itinerary combining these and other US train routes.

First published in March 2012.