Despite being a coastal city, Maputo isn’t blessed with beautiful beaches. On weekends when city dwellers need some sand, sea and surf they head out of town to places like Inhaca Island or, more conveniently, Catembe, only a short (and cheap) ferry ride away from the city.

The Catembe Gallery Hotel, just over 2km from the ferry drop-off point, is a popular choice for lunching families, who go for either the Marisol Restaurant with its tasty seafood platters and grilled prawns, or the more enticing Marisol Baia, a thatched casual eatery on the edge of the hotel’s jetty, which serves up a seafood-heavy tapas menu of cold and hot plates: think prawns cooked in beer, garlic and piri-piri sauce, mussels with bacon, and barracuda fish in pepper and tomato sauce. It’s hard to beat an afternoon of reclining on a comfortable couch on the edge of the ocean, tucking into coconut prawns looking out onto Maputo’s skyline, drink in hand.

While there’s a selection of Italian, South African and Portuguese wines on offer, the cocktail list is more alluring. Try the capirinha (rum, lime cordial, lemon and sugar) or the Catembe, the house special – an unusual combination of red wine and Coca-Cola – which was allegedly invented here in the 1950s.

The restaurants are also open for dinner (although Baia is closed on Wednesdays and Marisol on Mondays), and the last ferry leaves Catembe at 11.30pm, so there’s plenty of time to eat before heading home. Evenings are beautiful, with cooling sea breezes and the lights of Maputo reflecting on the ocean.