If you want to escape the noise, bustle and traffic of Maputo, head across the bay to Catembe. While just a short ferry ride away from downtown, Catembe feels more like a rural village, with undeveloped stretches of beach and dirt roads. The best place to stay here is the Catembe Gallery Hotel, which is right on the beach and has fabulous views of Maputo, especially at night, when it glitters from across the bay.

The hotel is in a somewhat dilapidated Spanish-style building (although renovations were under way when I visited in September 2013) with terracotta roofs and verandas looking out to sea. Décor is rather outdated and unfashionable – a mishmash of African art and sculptures, mustard-yellow interiors and huge wall murals in new-age colours – but what Catembe lacks in style it makes up for with its relaxed atmosphere, friendly staff, a wonderfully peaceful setting and views. It’s also great for history buffs – Samora Machel, a revolutionary leader who became the country’s first post-independence president, hid out here on his way to exile in Tanzania in 1963, and the hotel now has a museum room with exhibits depicting his life.

Unlike other Maputo hotels, the Catembe has a fair range of different room options. Choose from eight high-ceilinged rooms with comfortable beds covered in mosquito nets and big balconies, two spacious penthouses (which sleep six and eight people) with Jacuzzis and lounges, or four new chalets built on stilts on the beach. If you’re on a budget, opt for one of eight “compact rooms”, no-frills small rooms with ensuite bathrooms – a more private step up from a dorm.

There’s a lovely pool area with loungers as well as Marisol restaurant, with good seafood, and the Marisol Baia restaurant in a thatched hut at the end of the pier, where you have breakfast (admittedly a pretty paltry one) or feast on seafood tapas for lunch or dinner surrounded by the sea and a panorama of Maputo in the distance.

The Catembe Gallery Hotel is not the best option for business travellers or people who want to do a lot of Maputo sightseeing, as getting to and from the hotel into the city is a bit of a time-consuming adventure. It’s a 10-minute taxi ride from the hotel to the ferry dock on a bumpy dirt road and then a 10-minute ferry ride (it goes every half hour) to the city (if you have a car you can drive it onto the ferry). The other option is a more pricey private boat that the hotel can organise. However, the planned construction of a new bridge connecting Catembe to Maputo will undoubtedly make this a more popular and convenient hotel.