Mozambique travel advice
So many of you are planning your travels to Mozambique -it’s wonderful and makes us extremely happy. However, many people seem to be battling to get the correct information about the visas. We’re not visa professionals, but we’ve been here a while now and wanted to share our experiences with you. I’m writing this same information so many times in a day in emails, so better I put it here for everyone to see;-).
The Mozambique visa on arrival service allows foreign visitors to get a visa at border control when entering the country. Nationals of over 180 countries are able to apply for the visa on arrival (VoA) for Mozambique. The VoA grants foreign nationals entry to Mozambique for the purposes of tourism and leisure.
To get a visa on arrival (VoA) you need to have the following:
-negative Covid test
-invitation letter/ booking confirmation from the place you stay (we’re providing this to you if you stay with us)
-return ticket
-passport valid 6 months from the entry to Mozambique
-at least 2 blank passport pages
The cost of a visa is 50USD. You can also pay in other currencies but from our experience it’s the cheapest to pay in USD;-). They do not have change, so make sure you have the exact money with you.
During Covid times there’s been airlines that require you to have a visa before boarding the flight so please check this with your airline!!!!!
You can apply for a visa in advance from your own country’s Mozambican Embassy. This helps you on arrival, you don’t have to stand in a visa queue.
If you want to stay here LONGER than 30 days, you’ll have to get your visa in advance. They DO NOT locally extend the visa on arrival, so if you come in with it, you’ll have to leave the country in 30 days. Coming in with an embassy visa, will allow you to extend it here locally. The embassy visa can be extended here twice, so with the same visa you can stay here for 3 months.
When you’re getting your visa in advance from the embassy, apply for a normal 30 day TOURIST VISA. Don’t try to apply for longer time, remember you can extend it once you’re here. We know it sounds weird, but from our experience this is the easiest and cheapest way.
The citizens of SADC countries (Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Namibia, Tanzania, Seychelles, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe) are able to stay in the country for 30 days without having to obtain a visa.
Please remember we’re not visa professionals, so check with your airline and email us if you’re unsure. We’re happy to help as much as we can.
Hopefully we can meet you here soon!
Mola Mola! Sometimes the unexpected happens!!
On our way to the dive site, before swimming with a whale shark, there was a MOLA MOLA!!
That’s not something we see here often!!! Our head instructor Nadia has over 6000 dives and she’s seen it all -but never Mola Mola.
We had a lovely group of clients there and one of them, Bertrand, captured this amazing video.
In Tofo waters anything is possible. Join us!
New dive site maps
Good news, we have updated our most dived dive site maps to our our website. Please let us know what you think of them and which one is your favorite?
https://www.liquiddiveadventures.com/dive-sites-tofo
PADI Instructor Development Course in March
Are you dreaming of becoming a PADI Scuba Instructor? Stop dreaming and join our next IDC on the 29th of March, followed by an IE on the 10th and 11th of April in Tofo.
With the revised IDC you can start learning anytime and anywhere - all the materials are online.
Currently there’s no entry restrictions at the borders, the visas are issued as usual and there’s no quarantine. The only thing required is a negative PCR test, not older than 72 hours, at the time of entry.
Our special offer for the IDC includes three (Nitrox, Dive Against Debris and Equipment) FREE specialty instructor courses as well as one week of free diving prior the IDC. After passing the IE we also offer you an opportunity to stay and team teach with an experienced instructor for a few months to gain the extremely valuable experience.
Please do not hesitate to contact me for more information on jari@liquiddiveadventures.com or WhatsApp +258846130316.
Jari Forsman
PADI Platinum Course Director
Meet our co-owners
Happy times in Tofo!!! We have finally received our co-owners, Magda, Sebastian, Alek and Leon to Tofo.
These guys are moving here from Uganda, where they’ve been running their lodge for the last 10 years. http://papayalakelodge.com/. They’re originally from Poland but lately been living both in Uganda and Johannesburg SA, where their children went to school.
We’re extremely happy to welcome them to the Liquid Family. We have wild and wonderful future plans for Liquid, and with their experience in running a luxury lodge, Liquid will become greater than ever.
Already now we’ve made some improvements in the restaurant, we hope to see you here to tell more.
Welcome home guys, now it’s time to enjoy surf, dive and beach life.
In partnership with THE SMILING SEAHORSE
Mergui Archipelago: last hidden treasure in the Andaman Sea
Are you looking for a destination still untouched by the mass tourism yet offering excellent diving? Located off the coast of Myanmar (aka Burma), Mergui Archipelago is made of more than 800 islands, for the most part uninhabited, in a perimeter of more than 36,000 square meters still poorly mapped and largely unexplored. This Myanmar's archipelago is very little known by most travellers, and only reachable by a small number of explorers traveling by boat.
To dive there, get in touch with the diving specialist since 2012: The Smiling Seahorse Liveaboard based in Ranong, Thailand. Only 20 minutes away from Myanmar's southern port of entry, Kawthoung, Ranong is the easiest and most accessible entry point to Mergui Archipelago. You can either fly there from Bangkok with 3 flights per day or drive there from Phuket, only 300 km (200 miles) to the South. The Smiling Seahorse is the only dive boat operating exclusively in this wonderful archipelago but you can also find some other liveaboards going there a few times per year.
A week long cruise is perfect to discover this Andaman sea paradise with some of the most beautiful diving spots in South East Asia. Burma has only been open to tourism since 1997 and the issuing of visas and visit permit is highly regulated.
Being so spread out Mergui Archipelago offers very diverse divesites, towards « shark cave » in the middle of the archipelago, you can often spot rare macro life such as seahorses, pineapplefish, ghost pipe fish, frogfishes. The North Myanmar's Archipelago host the famous "black Rock" where you might be surrounded by Oceanic Manta Rays…
In the north-west of the Archipelago you can visit the North Twins giving another chance to meet manta rays or other pelagic species.
And if you take a night West well of sigh of any islands you can reach the Burma banks, which are submarine mountains, whose summit reaches about 20 meters is surrounded by vertiginous depths.
Being so far from the coast, diving here offer excellent visibility to spot passing eagle rays, nurse sharks by dozens as well as other rarer sharks such as Albi-marginatus or tiger sharks ! Finally the South West of the Archipelago whose most famous site is Western Rocky has some of the most colorful dive sites with bright purple soft coral and forests of giant Seafans as the decor to a wide array of marine life.
MV Smiling Seahorse is a new and spacious liveaboard with 4 floors of 25 meters long for only 16 guests in 8 double cabins. All air-conditioned and nicely designed for optimised comfort and storage, deluxe and master cabins have ensuite bathrooms and deluxe and standard are equipped with a smart flexible bedding system to welcome couples in a double bed or singles in twin beds.
The days are usually rhythmed by dive-eat-sleep with 4 dives and 4 meals per day.
During surface intervals, guests usually relax in the hammocks on the upper deck or on the giant sofas in the shaded living room. The Smiling Seahorse is known for a friendly atmosphere and excellent food and overall service.
For more details:
https://www.thesmilingseahorse.com/
More pictures of these cruises: https://www.facebook.com/the.smiling.seahorse/