Pemba Hotels and Restaurants, Where Gas Contractors, Aid Staff and Visitors Stay Along Wimbe Beach
Pemba's hotel market runs on the gas industry and the aid agencies, not on tourists. When TotalEnergies froze its project in 2021, business slumped. Since the full restart in January 2026 (the restart), occupancy has followed the construction schedule: crew changes, supplier visits and workshops fill the better hotels, and rates are set with corporate budgets in mind. If you're coming on business, book early and get a corporate rate through your company or the project you're working for.
Almost everything a visitor needs sits along the waterfront road at Wimbe Beach, about five kilometres east of the city centre (the neighbourhoods). Staying there keeps you close to the restaurants and, for most foreign visitors, away from the busier and less predictable parts of town after dark (is Pemba safe).
Image: pxef.com
Where to stay
The best-known international-standard hotel is the Avani Pemba Beach Hotel & Spa, on its own stretch of beach east of the city centre, with a pool, conference rooms and the security arrangements corporate clients expect. It's a common choice for oil and gas companies, diplomats and visiting officials, so book well ahead.
On the Wimbe waterfront itself, The Nautilus Hotel, on the Avenida Marginal, is one of the established mid-range options, with rooms near the sand and a restaurant and bar facing the water.
Beyond these, Wimbe and the streets behind it have a mix of smaller lodges, guesthouses and serviced apartments, many of them let by the month to contractors and NGO staff. Quality varies a lot, and the market has been through a long slump and a quick recovery. Read recent reviews, ask about generators and water (power cuts happen), and check that the place you book is still operating.
Where to eat
Pemba is a seafood town. Prawns, crab, lobster and fish come in fresh from the bay and the coast, often grilled with piri-piri, the Mozambican chilli sauce, and served with chips or rice. Matapa, cassava leaves cooked with peanuts and coconut, is the classic local side dish.
Most visitors eat along the Wimbe waterfront, at the hotel restaurants and the beach restaurants and bars between them, which serve grilled seafood, pizza and Portuguese-influenced dishes, with cold Mozambican beer, 2M or Laurentina. The Nautilus's restaurant and the Caracol on Wimbe Beach are two of the better-known names. In the centre and the old town, small cafés and Portuguese-style bakeries serve coffee, pastries and quick lunches for the office crowd.
Practical points
Card payments work at the bigger hotels and some restaurants, but cash in meticais is still needed for taxis, markets and smaller places. Tipping of around 10 percent is appreciated in restaurants.
The Makonde carvers' cooperative, Artes Makondes, has outlets in town and on Wimbe Beach. Makonde wood carving, from the plateau in the north of the province, is one of the great African sculptural traditions, and the best pieces are well worth the money.
For the city behind the beach, see our Pemba city guide.