I had put the island on my TODO list for Mozambique but at the time I wasn't visiting for world heritage reasons. I actually went to Mozambique for scuba diving which is more interesting so a trip to Vilanculos and Tofo (WHALESHARKS!) is much more rewarding. As I was going to Malawi it made sense to fly via Nampula and the island of Mozambique isn't far off. Originally I had a hotel booked in Nampula and planned to do a daytrip but a hostel run by a Portuguese lady in another town had a friend on the island who ran on and it was cheaper and why not stay on the island you may think. Well, let's get into that soon. After arrival at the airport you can jump into a bus that goes to the island and it's super cheap. First stop will be the west side of town which is the shanty. I mean, poor, dirty, wondering how people survive. I actually got off here even though the driver said he'll take me to the end, the good part, but I felt I wanted to see the entire place a bit more. That is not recommended by the way so maybe just go to the end.

When you reach the good section the buildings look better and my hostel wasn't far off. It was more of a guest house actually, and the owner's partner would later drive me to the airport for a reasonable fee. Since I was here a day earlier than expected I already felt I want to explore the sights.

The place isn't big and rather clean. There isn't much of relaxation to do though. The easiest to spot is the church, which maybe is part of the superlative of "oldest European building in the southern hemisphere" that got it the UNESCO status. There is a fancy building within that you can visit as a guided tour which may start whenever someone shows up because the place isn't very busy. It's quite interesting even if you went to see lots of these in Europe already, not for the decoration and knight's armor etc but just to get some background (for example it was built for royal family but they never came to visit) so I want to recommend it plus it's not so hot inside. Second sight I might want to recommend is the fort but in my case I didn't because there is a sign that you need to go somewhere to get a ticket plus have a guardian open it up for you and someone tried to explain that to me in Portuguese as well so obviously I still had no idea and moved it for another time - which in the end never happened. I think I won't miss that skipped it but if you have the time and figure out how to explore it's probably a good sight. Apart from that I don't think there is much more than random statues and decorations around the area which means strolling around is enough and I was basically already done that afternoon.

Can I recommend you going all the way to the island if you are not notching WH counts? Hardly. It's too far off the beaten track unless, like me, you are connecting through Nampula. It will thus cost you quite a bit and won't be worth your time so I can only say you add this to a Mozambique trip that goes to the beach if at all.