Mafia Island

Mafia Island is the most culturally original and natural of Tanzania’s Indian Ocean islands, only visited by the few who know its charms and desire a special adventure. The best thing about being a tourist in Mafia is that everything is so accessible and at reasonable cost. It offers the complete island experience from intense activity to complete laid-back, feet-up bliss. Further, Mafia is not a “tourist hotspot”. To this day, only known to a few travel agents, tour operators and travellers worldwide. Mafia attracts those who have a wish to get away from crowds, explore something new, experience nature and local culture, which has not yet been disturbed by urban or industrial developments or mass tourism.

Zanzibar has the name, but Mafia has the treasured, old-fashioned Island Life. While Mafia is a water paradise, we like to point out its many other attractions and unique characteristics: its people and their lives, history and archaeology (there is a thousand years of history here), unique marine and bird life, plants, and all the beaches and sand banks, mangrove forest inlets, coral islets that make it so breathtakingly beautiful.

The Historical Site Mafia has spectacular ruins which reveals an ancient settlement, which transports you into the ancient world. Cultural artifacts dated as far as 600 B.C. The Kua and submerged Kisimani ruins are just two of the important marine archeological sites located in the park area. The marine park area at Mafia Island extends across some 822km2, with more than 75% of it being below the high-water mark. The area hosts an outstanding mosaic of tropic marine habitats including coral reefs, seagrass beds, mangroves, and inter- tidal flats.