Ibo Island is a former Portuguese settlement and slave port in the Quirimbas Archipelago. Arab traders had previously held sway on the tropical island, but under the Portuguese it became the second-most important settlement on the Mozambique coast, after Ilha de Moçambique. Its crumbling Catholic churches, forts and colonial villas are a haunting memory of East Africa past.

Nowadays, daily life on Ibo is languorous as can be, reminiscent of long, lazy childhood days. The luxurious Ibo Island Lodge is the best-known hotel on Ibo Island, spread over three century-old mansions, and located on the waterfront - where dhows sail at high tide.