Dive Review of Various Operators/Various Hotels in
Africa/Mozambique

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Various Operators/Various Hotels: "An Interesting and Different Experience", May, 2015, by Gary & Robin Schiendelman, PA, US ( Top Contributor 31 reports with 46 Helpful votes). Report 8270.
No photos available at this time
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations	N/A	Food	N/A
Service and Attitude	N/A	Environmental Sensitivity
Dive Operation	N/A	Shore Diving	N/A
Snorkeling	N/A
Overall Rating
Value for $$
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	We'll begin by saying that all of the diving here is from RIB's with no ladders and a beach launch. Most of the beach launches were easy as the surf was not heavy while we were there. All of the operators offered only 2 morning dives per day. All divers were required to stay with the DM. We started in Zavora, in the southern portion of the country. Stayed at Zavora Lodge, very rustic, good food, good service. They have a variety of accommodations to offer...some better than others! They have an in house dive shop and all diving was only about a 15 min boat ride. Unfortunately, the vis was not great while we were there. Most dives the vis was only about 30'. Bottom temps 72-74F. But we saw a lot of unusual things including a bow mouth guitar shark, electric ray and many mantas. We left Zavora and traveled by car about an hour and half north to our next stop, Tofo Beach. This is the home of the Marine Megafauna Foundation and it's a hopping little place! We stayed at Baia Sonambula guesthouse and it was just beautiful. Very small (5 rooms) they served breakfast every morning and had amazing grounds. Short walk to the dive shop & to the market in town. Again, we didn't have great vis but the quantity of fish was astounding. We saw many species of rays including both reef and giant pacific mantas. Leatherback and loggerhead turtles were seen, sharks, dolphins, tuna and much more. We dove with Peri Peri Divers. They work with the MMF so that any spots on their boat not taken by paying guests were used by researchers and volunteers. Nice to meet many of them but it resulted in very crowded boats every day. We would probably opt to use another operation in the future. Many small restaurants in town to eat and we found the food to be good (and cheap). From Tofo we returned to the Inhambane airport and flew north to Vilancoulos. From there we had a charter flight to Bazaruto Island. We stayed at Pestana Bazaruto resort and dove with their in house dive operator. The vis was better here and the water a little warmer at 76F. Diving not quite as good here although they did have one site that was excellent. Needless to say, we could write a whole lot more on each of these places and would be happy to respond to anyone having any questions. The short story is...this is a great place to go if you are an adventurous traveler/diver who wants to do something completely different. But, be careful about when you go. Both water and air temp's can vary greatly through out the year. Many hotels do not have heat or a/c. Depending on the season, you can see both species of mantas, whale sharks, humpbacks and they've even seen orcas. Some of the dive operators used questionable practices like not requiring surface markers and allowing divers to share computers. But, if you are an experienced and prepared diver, you won't have any problems. We booked the trip through Reef and Rainforest and, as usual, Jenny and her team did a great job. They have a good knowledge of the country and they worked with a company who has local people in Mozambique so there was always someone in personal contact with us to assist with anything we needed.
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	Over 1000 dives
Where else diving	Indonesia, PNG, Solomon Isl, Red Sea, Maldives, South Africa, Cocos Isl, Galapagos, Socorro, Var Caribbean locations, New Jersey, Florida, No Carolina
Closest Airport		Getting There	JFK-Jo'burg,SA-Inhambane-Vilancoulos
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny	Seas	calm
Water Temp	72-76°F / 22-24°C	Wetsuit Thickness	7
Water Visibility	15-60 Ft/ 5-18 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	no
Enforced diving restrictions	Do decompression diving. Follow the DM.
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?	N/A
What I Saw
Sharks	Lots	Mantas	Squadrons
Dolphins	Schools	Whale Sharks	None
Turtles	> 2	Whales	None
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):
Corals		Tropical Fish
Small Critters		Large Fish
Large Pelagics
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Subject Matter	N/A	Boat Facilities	N/A
Overall rating for UWP's	N/A	Shore Facilities	N/A
UW Photo Comments

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Dive Review of Various Operators/Various Hotels in Africa/Mozambique

Various Operators/Various Hotels: "An Interesting and Different Experience", May, 2015,

Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Overall Rating

Reporter and Travel

Dive Conditions

Dive Policy

What I Saw

Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):

Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Dive Review of Various Operators/Various Hotels in
Africa/Mozambique