"I look out from my sunlounger, flanked by a wall of dazzling fuchsia bougainvillea and surrounded by combed sand the colour of flour. In the salty breeze the sweet smell of freshly baked croissants drifts across from the nearby veranda, where giant passion fruits and fine slices of mango and papaya are being laid out for breakfast. On the immaculately mowed lawns below, a waiter is taking down fairy lights, strung between palm trees for last night's seafood barbecue."
"The South African couple have been fans of Mozambique for decades. Mike's father built a house in this gated enclave on the coast in 1997, which the pair later took over and called Villa Coco, bringing their children almost every year. So many people wanted to rent it, says Mike with a laugh, "we couldn't get into our own house"."
Vilanculos's coastline features flour-coloured sand, bougainvillea, palm-fringed lawns and pale turquoise seas studded with dune-shaped islands. Saudade, a six-bedroom boutique hotel opened in February by South Africans Mike and Sarah von Hone, combines whitewashed modernist walls with steep thatched roofs and an enormous inside-outside living space. The couple previously ran Villa Coco and named Saudade to express longing when away. The hotel offers suites and a family room, garden access, poolside views and local breakfasts of passionfruit, mango and papaya. Growing interest in private houses and boutique openings signals rising demand for refined, intimate tourism experiences in Mozambique.
Read at CN Traveller
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