Best time to visit Maputo

Mozambique · Africa

All twelve months scored on daily temperature, rainfall, humidity and holiday crowding.

The year in Maputo

Tap a month for its page

Sweet spot
Good
OK
Avoid
Busy

Go in Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Aug, Sep or Oct — these months score within a whisker of each other; 28C max, 3 rainy days. Jan is the next best.

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Things to do in Maputo

Maputo City Hall Seat of local government, housed in a neoclassical building from 1947.
Cathedral of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception Largest Roman Catholic cathedral in Maputo, completed in 1944.
Tunduru Gardens Park in Maputo, Mozambique
Maputo Fortress Remains of a Portuguese fortress, built in 1785.
Praça da Independência (Maputo) Square in Maputo, Mozambique

Tours and tickets in Maputo

Each site opens on its own search: choose your dates there. A few open on their home page, where you type the place too. Links marked Ad pay us a commission if you book, at no extra cost to you; most pay nothing, and what a site pays never decides whether it is listed or where. How we rank

Sights and their lines from Wikivoyage (Maputo), licensed CC BY-SA 4.0, and Wikidata; in order of how often each one's Wikipedia article was read on phones in the last 12 months.

Month by month

No fare history for this route yet, so this ranking is climate and crowds only — the price column will fill in as the scanner collects.

Month	Max °C	Rain days	Humidity	Sun h/day	Verdict	Why
Jan	30°	7d	76%	10.9h	good	30C max, 7 rainy days
Feb	30°	7d	77%	10.2h	sweet spot	30C max, 7 rainy days
Mar	30°	4d	77%	10.8h	sweet spot	30C max, 4 rainy days
Apr	28°	4d	77%	9.8h	sweet spot	28C max, 4 rainy days
May	27°	2d	76%	9.9h	sweet spot	27C max, 2 rainy days
Jun	25°	1d	73%	9.8h	sweet spot	25C max, 1 rainy day
Jul	25°	0d	69%	9.7h	goodbusy	busier than usual
Aug	26°	2d	69%	9.5h	sweet spot	26C max, 2 rainy days
Sep	28°	3d	71%	9.5h	sweet spot	28C max, 3 rainy days
Oct	27°	4d	73%	9.8h	sweet spot	27C max, 4 rainy days
Nov	29°	4d	73%	10.3h	goodbusy	busier than usual
Dec	30°	6d	75%	10.5h	goodbusy	busier than usual

Rain days are the days with at least 1 mm of rain, as a weather station counts them.

Weather read at the Baixa and the Marginal, 5 km from the airport (MPM): ten years of ERA5 and ERA5-Land reanalysis, through Open-Meteo's open data.

A busy month is a crowded one, not a bad one — usually it is crowded because the weather is good. It is flagged rather than scored down, and crowds alone never make a month “avoid”: that is reserved for weather worth skipping.

How busy it gets

Busiest in July and November; quietest in October.

Then and now

Maputo's September days now average 27.6°C, 2.6°C warmer than in 1981–1990. 12 of 12 months are clearly warmer.

	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
1981–90	28.8°	28.4°	28.2°	26.7°	25.3°	23.4°	23.5°	24.3°	25.0°	25.5°	26.5°	27.9°
2017–26	30.0°	30.2°	29.6°	28.2°	26.8°	25.3°	25.3°	26.4°	27.6°	27.5°	28.9°	29.9°
Change	+1.2°	+1.8°	+1.4°	+1.4°	+1.5°	+1.9°	+1.8°	+2.1°	+2.6°	+2.0°	+2.4°	+2.0°

The average daily high, month by month, for the nearest ERA5 grid cell. Bold is a clear change; grey is within the ordinary spread between years. Every destination, ranked.

Getting there

How far Maputo is, and what it costs, depends on where you set off from — the months above do not.

Before you go

Cost of living	very cheap — prices run about 37% of the United States' (World Bank, 2025)
Currency	Mozambican metical
Languages	Portuguese
Plugs	Type C and D and F, 220 V
Driving	On the left
Calling code	+258
Travel advice	avoid all travel to parts, avoid all but essential travel to parts — UK Foreign Office, updated 2026-08-20
Health	UK Foreign Office health advice

Facts from Wikidata (CC0), the UK Foreign Office (Open Government Licence) and the World Bank, refreshed 2026-10-10. The advisory is written for British travellers; entry rules depend on your passport.

Being there

On arrival

Paying — The currency is the metical (MZN; plural meticais). US dollars and South African rand are the easiest to change, at banks or authorised bureaux only; dollars are widely taken in tourist spots, and outside the major cities most businesses take only meticais, dollars or rand. Cards are increasingly accepted in the larger cities, though Mastercard is not taken everywhere: carry more than one way to pay, and tell your bank before you travel. ATMs are in the larger cities but scarce in remote areas; use those inside banks, and not at night, as card cloning happens.
UPI, for visitors from India — Not accepted for paying here; bring a card that works abroad.
Tipping — Voluntary, but about 10% in restaurants is standard; tips are usually given in cash, in meticais or US dollars.

Getting around Maputo

Maputo International Airport is 3 km north-west of the city centre, and the airport operator lists accredited taxis round the clock just outside arrivals. In town, do not hail taxis in the street: use registered taxis from a reputable firm, best booked through your hotel, avoid yellow and green taxis, where thefts are reported, and make sure no other passenger is in the car. Public transport is limited, and the chapa minibuses are often overcrowded and poorly maintained and are frequently in fatal accidents. Carry your passport at all times: police checkpoints are common and will not accept copies or photos.

Apps — Rides: Yango. Maps: Google Maps. Yango books cars, motorbike taxis and txopela tuk-tuks in Maputo, Matola and Beira, paid in cash or by Visa or Mastercard; Uber and Bolt do not list Mozambique among their cities.

You can walk the center of the city by day but steer clear of the central business district at night. Yango is a popular app to order taxis / moto-taxis or tuk-tuks and probably the best choice in town. More on Wikivoyage

From the Wikivoyage article on Maputo, written by travellers and licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Open in Google MapsMaputo on the map

Help

Emergency — 112 (any emergency) · fire 198. If the call to 112 does not connect, call an ambulance on 848888 or 823388, or contact the nearest police station or medical facility.
TravelCharika is not an emergency service: we cannot call for help or send anyone. Numbers can change; if one fails, ask someone local or your hotel.

Put together by hand from the sources listed, checked 10 October 2026. Apps, cards and rules change, so check before you rely on one.

Sources (15)

Maputo in pictures

Maputo Seaside View — i

Claus Wonnemann, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Maputo seen from southeast October 2006 — i

AmigoDia, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Maputo Waterfront beach, Mozambique — i

Cyr~commonswiki, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

What Maputo is like

Maputo is the capital city of Mozambique. Buildings range from old colonial palaces to new high-rise constructions, but the dominant architecture consists of Stalinist-looking concrete-walled boxes, generally with badly eroded paint and rusty security bars. More on Wikivoyage

Worth seeing: A recommended walk is along Avenida Julius Nyerere. Start from the Hotel Cardoso or Natural History Museum along R Mutemba to Nyerere then left (north) to the Polana Hotel. More on Wikivoyage
Worth doing: Visit some beautiful beaches, such as Catembe and Ponta d'Ouro. It is very jovial in these atmospheres and are generally safe, but beware of pickpocketing and avoid bringing valuables with you on a beach stroll. More on Wikivoyage
Getting in: Maputo airport (MPM IATA). Most international flights to Mozambique use Maputo's airport. More on Wikivoyage
Staying safe: Violent crime does not rise to the Johannesburg level but is still a problem. Occasional pickpocketing attempts do occur and are almost guaranteed on busy streets. More on Wikivoyage
Staying healthy: Malarial prophylaxis is essential in all parts of Mozambique. Do not drink the tap water. More on Wikivoyage

From the Wikivoyage article on Maputo, written by travellers and licensed CC BY-SA 4.0; the full article has far more. The numbers above are measured; this is experience.

Around Maputo

Nearby

Kind of place

Maputo is in Mozambique, Africa. Distances are great-circle, so a short one can still be a long way round.

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