It is admittedly an ordeal to get to Kisawa Sanctuary, a new resort on Mozambique’s Benguerra Island, almost no matter where you’re coming from. I first flew 15 hours from New York to Johannesburg, arriving too late to catch a connecting flight.
The next morning, it was a two-hour plane trip to the resort town of Vilankulo, where the sun-cracked tarmac was visually at odds with the modern glass-and-metal airport that stood before it—an emblem of Mozambique’s rising tourism industry.
After a quick drive through town, two attendants from Kisawa met me on the beach, where they nimbly hoisted my luggage atop their heads and led me to a boat that would speed through the Indian Ocean toward the Bazaruto Archipelago.
The Bazaruto Archipelago, officially a national park, comprises five islands, renowned for their white beaches and diverse marine life—the second largest of them all, Benguerra, has quietly emerged as a wild and stealthy getaway.
When I pull up to its shores, only a handful of Kisawa’s thatched roofs are visible amid the African bush. Kisawa founder Nina Flohr says she took cues from the tropical modernist movement as well as the work of local craftsmen for Kisawa’s integrated ambience. “It’s a modern-day interpretation of Mozambique,” she says. At my residence (lodgings are arranged in one-, two-, and three-bedroom configurations), one of Kisawa’s on-site butlers, Isaias, hands me the keys to a baby pink Mini Moke while flashing a smile. He could drive me around the property’s 740 acres, he said. Or, even better yet, I could do it myself.
So goes the ethos of Kisawa, a retreat radical in both its remoteness and freedom, where attentiveness is balanced with adventurism. Any guest embarking on the journey to get here, the resort recognizes, must have a desire for exploration.
So Kisawa indulges it: Activities include overnight glamping on the dunes, sunset cocktails on a traditional dhow, and expeditions to spot dugongs (rare sea cows). Kisawa partners with the Bazaruto Center for Scientific Studies (BCSS), the continent’s first-ever permanent ocean observatory, also founded by Flohr, so you can join scientists on coral-monitoring dives or help them tag sharks from research vessels. (A portion of proceeds from Kisawa benefits BCSS.)
Environmentalism and localism are the twin pillars of the resort. “Sustainability is an approach, rather than an underscore,” says Flohr. If the more active offerings seem intense, a spa massage or a poolside glass of Stellenbosch rosé are always options, too. However time passes at Kisawa, it is every hour worth the journey.