Where To Dive With Manta Rays From Bali

How to book

While the island of Bali itself doesn’t have Manta Rays (that we know of), you can easily take a day trip by boat to go snorkel or scuba dive with these gentle giants. I booked my tour to Manta Point just off the island of Nusa Penida (east of Bali) with a company called Bali Diving. You can contact them ahead of time to plan your trip.

We were picked up from our villa at 7 am and driven to their dive shop at Sanur Beach. Once we arrived, we had to handle the payment first (they allow you to pay with a credit card) before moving to the back of the dive shop to try on our equipment. Their rental equipment seemed new and they had lot of choices. Since I had not yet done my Open Water certification, I chose the snorkeling tour which allowed me to freedive with them but share the boat trip with other scuba divers. Once we were ready, we headed to the beach and hung out for a while as they loaded the boat with all the tanks and equipment.

Sanur Beach is unfortunately very polluted. Plastic garbage lines the beach at low tide

Getting to Manta Point

The crossing to Nusa Penida in a speedboat was very rough! The front of the boat rose up until we could only see the sky out front then slammed onto the waves in a big thud that shook the whole boat. This went on for pretty much the entire next hour. It's the closest I've ever felt to death. If possible, try not to eat anything prior and take some anti nausea tablets (they sell them at the local pharmacies in Bali). I threw up when we reach the dive sit. Not fun, but the fish seemed to enjoy the free food. Alternately, you can take the ferry over to Nusa Penida and go from the shore there. That would be a calmer experience but you will need to stay over.

The boat spent more time on it’s side than flat

We eventually reached a calm bay next to some cliffs where other boats were already present. The water looked gorgeous but there were no rays in sight!

Manta Point

The Manta Rays Appear

Once we geared up and jumped in, we realized that everyone was underwater. There were a lot of divers under us! The dive depth is about 30m here but as snorkelers, you can observe from the surface. Some of the cleaning station are located at much shallower depths so even if you're a beginner freediver, you can meet them face to face by just diving down a few metres.

The giant oceanic manta ray with wingspans of up to 7 meters

The Manta cleaning station at Manta Point, Nusa Penida

The rays were massive! Truly gentle giants that seems to serene fly over the cleaning stations. They rays come to this area because of small fish called wrasse that eat the parasites bodies and dead skin cells off their bodies. The rays get a cleaning and the fish get a meal, it's a win-win symbiotic relationship. These areas are called cleaning stations and they make for spectacular dive sites around the world. Some of them swarm in harmony together. One of them was injured and had lost his cephalic fins. While buying a GoPro was too expensive at the time, I bought a budget action camera called Akaso from Amazon that still managed to take some pretty great photos and videos (like the ones above). Although I have upgraded to the DJI Osmo Action. The water was clean while I visited and it was a good break from the pollution in Bali. However, several videos and photos have emerged online about Manta Point being a bit overrun with divers and lots of plastic in the water.

Crystal Bay

After the first dive, we got back on the boat. If you are scuba diving, you will need to monitor your surface interval time. If you don’t yet have.a dive computer, the Cressi Leonardo is a great budget dive computer that should handle most of your recreational scuba diving needs. I bought mine after completing my Advanced Over Water Course and it has increased my dive confidence as well as saving me from having to spend extra money renting one at a dive shop. For snorkelers, the surface interval is a nice break then you're off into Crystal Bay where you'll be mesmerized by gorgeous coral gardens in beautiful crystal clear water. Scuba divers descended in another, much deeper area where they got to see Mola Molas (Sunfish)! I wish we had time to spend at the beach near Crystal Bay because it was absolutely gorgeous but hopefully on my next trip!

The bay was full of colourful corals and beautiful fish! If you swim out into the deep, you can see some massive fish. Our divemaster took us out where you couldn’t see the bottom anymore, seemed like a good spot for spearfishing. We had lunch provided on boat. The shop packed us a lunch of rice with skewers and a few Balinese dishes. I was so pleasantly surprised. It was the best day of my time in Bali. Nusa Penida was what I imagined Bali would be like. Uncrowded, clean, not drowning in the sounds of scooters and choking on smoke.

The ride back by boat was just as bumpy and the morning ride but after the day we had, it made it more bareable. I can’t wait to go back to Nusa Penida, as well as to head further out east to the Komodo Islands and take a liveaboard to Cenderawasih Bay and Raja Ampat!

As we arrived to shore, we saw lots of fishermen in the water. I also spotted.a Portuguese man-o-war in the water which was so scary yet beautiful. We arrived back to Bali at low tide and headed back to the dive shop. As we were walking, the couple in front of me started picking up bits of plastic garbage off the sand.

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Where To Release Baby Sea Turtles in Bali! (Bali Sea Turtle Society)

One of the best days I had in Bali, other than swimming with the giant manta rays, was getting the opportunity to release baby sea turtles out to sea. While Kuta Beach in the south of Bali can be overly touristy and downright polluted at times, one of the highlights of this place is the Bali Sea Turtle Society.

The turtles come here to lay their eggs on the beaches of Bali. It's pretty incredible that the pregnant females who come here were all born here themselves. They somehow remember and come back to give birth at the same beach where they were born.

Unfortunately, pollution and rising sea levels are having a serious negative impact on the health and population of sea turtles not just in Bali but around the world. The Bali Sea Turtle Society dig up the nest after they are laid and move it to the Sanctuary to protect the eggs from tourists and predators who may dig up and eat them. This increases the hatching rates and gives them a better chance of survival.

Best time to go.

Sea turtle hatching season is from April to October each year. If you are visiting Bali, you can pre-purchase your esim on the Airalo App so you're connected as soon as you land and can call your Uber, use Google Maps and WhatsApp without searching for WiFi. If you sign up with my referral code C0887, you’ll get $3 USD off your first purchase! Most of the shuttles/drivers will communicate via WhatsApp.

Before you go

You'll have to go early to pick up your ticket before the release. They are located on Kuta Beach, you can find their location on google maps. Check our their Facebook page here during the day of to see if they have a baby turtle release planned for that day. It is not scheduled ahead in advance. Sometimes they don’t post anything until later during the day. The tickets are free but I recommended you make a donation if you appreciate the important work that they are doing.

Once you have your ticket, you can come back to Kuta Beach at the scheduled time to pick up your little turtle. The babies sometimes hatch days before and dig their way up and they are tired when they reach the surface. When I visited the nests, the baby turtles that made it to the surface all looked like they were dead. They were immobile but really they were just exhausted. Imagine being born underground!

At the start time, you'll line up and be a plastic container with your own little baby turtle swimming in some water inside. Then everyone will head to the beach. We waited for the signal from the staff then lowered them onto the sand and watched them run out to sea. It was a pretty emotional event watching these newborns run out to the open ocean full of danger and scary predators without any defences.

To make it even worse, only 1 in a 1000 of them will survive. There is a very passionate man that works there who will share his wisdom with the group.

After the babies have made it out to sea, don’t head home just yet. This area of the beach tends to be very crowded but if you have some time after it's a great opportunity to have a beer on the beach and watch the sunset. Any of the drink vendors on the beach will have some chairs for you to chill on while enjoying your beer and it's an easy way to put your tourist dollars directly into the local economy. A lot of these vendors were severely affected during the covid pandemic.

If you have some time in Bali, I hope you visit this wonderful place and give this activity a try! I still think back to this day with wonderful memories.

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Where To Snorkel With Reef Sharks in Fiji

For my last trip to Fiji, I chose to stay at Barefoot Kuata Island just to get the chance to snorkel with reef sharks and scuba dive with bull sharks. After an amazing morning dive with the bull sharks, I arrived back on the island and had just enough time to get ready for the reef shark snorkelling activity.

I wrote a full review of Barefoot Kuata Island below if you are thinking of visiting.

Barefoot Kuata Island

A serene getaway in the Yasawa Islands surrounded by sharks.

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Reef Shark Tour

The tour starts at 11 am but unfortunately that's also the time that the ferry stops at the island so plan accordingly because you won't have enough time if you need to take the ferry on the same day to go to another resort. You can sign up at the dive shop located on the beach. You can’t miss it, you will see it when arriving on the Island.

After a short boat ride from the resort, we arrived at the snorkelling site. Equipment (masks, fins and lifejackets) were provided by the friendly crew. The water is deep here so you need to be a comfortable in deep water. There were several families with young kids on the tour and it looked like they enjoyed it so it not that difficult but just keep in mind if it’s your first time in deep water (you can see the ocean bottom here). One dressed, we all jumped in the water and spotted the sharks right away. You can observe the sharks from the surface but they tend to keep their distance from humans so they are usually several meters below.

This is an awesome place for freediving as you can descend to around 20m or so in some areas and come face to face with the sharks as you explore the area. Keep in mind that if you went scuba diving earlier in the morning then you shouldn't be mixing freediving right after.

In total, I saw around 5 reef sharks. There were both white tip and black tip reef sharks. In case you are wondering, reef sharks are not dangerous to humans. They hunt mostly fish and keep our oceans healthy. I highly recommend bringing a waterproof camera if you have one, I used my Akaso EK7000 for all the pictures in this blog post that I bought for less than $100.

After everyone had a great time snorkelling, we headed back on the boat. This was also a great time to speak to the crew who live and work on the island and are often from nearby villages. We headed back to the resort and with a big smile on our faces. If you love sharks, I think this is a must do when visiting Fiji!

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Mantaray Island Resort Review - Fiji

Mantaray Island is part of the Yasawa chain of islands off of Fiji’s coast. The island is uninhabited except for the Mantaray Island resort located here. To reach the island, the easiest way is to take the high speed ferry from Port Denarau known as the Yasawa Flyer. You can prebook your tickets online and they conveniently also offer airport pickups to the port.

After boarding the ferry, get comfortable because it will take around 2.5 hours to reach Mantaray Island. During that time, you can move around the cabin and also sit on the deck up front to work on your tan. As you arrive, the resort will send a smaller boat to transfer you and your luggage over to the island.

The Resort

Mango Trees

The sunset views are unmatched here!

The Rooms

We stayed in the Family Reef Bure which was located right on the beach. The room was very comfortable albeit a bit small. The beach bungalows (Reef Bure) felt private and they had their own little slice of beach just in front. During my time here, I barely saw anyone else on the beach and never had to fight anyone for a beach chair. The tropical outdoor bathroom was gorgeous!! It was surrounded by lush plants and beautiful walls. After having stayed at the Barefoot Kuata Island, I was so thankful that the rooms here had AC to beat the heat and humidity. The rooms had a wrap around deck with a comfortable outdoor sofa.

The outdoor shower was gorgeous!

There was a little bucket of water outside the bungalow to wash the sand off your feet before entering

While the Reef Bures all featured private bedrooms and bathrooms, the hotel also had some dorm style accomodations available at a more budget friendly price.

Food and Dining

Since there is no other restaurant on the island, the resort’s restaurant is the only place to dine. You will need to pay for the mandatory meal plan which includes 3 meals per day. Food was generally pretty good both in quantity and quality. The breakfast included eggs, which was a welcome improvement after coming from the Barefoot Kuata Resort. The menu for lunch and dinner were written on the blackboard at the entrance of the restaurant and varied frequently. I'd suggest bringing some trail mix and granola bars to snack on in between meals if you get tend to get hungry after a swim. Alcoholic drinks are not included in the meal plan.

Wifi is technically available but the signal is so weak and cuts out often that it's really only useful for occasionally sending messages. When I visited, the only place the Wifi was available was at the restaurant. In a way this is nice because it adds to that remote feeling and really helped me disconnect and fully enjoy my vacation. Forget about working remotely from here through or uploading or watching videos.

Activities

Mantarays

I visited this island mainly for the chance to snorkel with the Manta Ray but unfortunately I did not see any. The trips are run whenever Mantas are spotted in the channel between the nearby island so you never have any advance notice or schedule for this trip. Just alert the staff that you are interested in the trip and they will notify you if they plan to go.

Village Visit

I signed up to visit a local Fijian Village which I think was well worth the trip. We got to speak to the local Fijians, learn a bit about their way of life and sustainable practices, learn how the resort and community work together. I also visited a school and brought some colouring books and crayons which was much appreciated by the teachers. If you are planning to visit, I highly recommend bringing some presents. I had read that while candy is highly appreciated, it's recommended not to bring any due to the high rates of diabetes.

Snorkelling

Snorkelling from the beach is the best snorkelling I have ever experienced, easily rivalling the Great Barrier Reef given that you can just walk off the beach and the corals were stunning and full of life. I recommend bringing your own mask and snorkel. Although they were available from the dive shop, they were out when Felix wanted some. Since then, we always travel with at least our own masks and it's also better to wear your own mask as you’ll be more comfortable and it’s less likely to leak water and give you trouble in the water. I always bring my own fins as well as they are light enough and work well for both snorkelling and scuba diving.

No snorkelling is allowed in the afternoons

Low tide is during the afternoon and they put out a sign that no snorkelling is allowed because it's too easy to damage the corals. I loved seeing them taking care of their island and heritage. During my recent trip to Mauritius, I saw tourists standing on the corals without anyone giving it a second though.
Unfortunately a lot of the activities take place in the morning and given that snorkelling is forbidden in the afternoon, you'll need to plan your day accordingly to ensure you have lots to do! I also wanted to go scuba diving but it didn’t fit into my schedule. Make sure you check the ferry’s schedule as they only pass by once per day to pick up guests so you often have to fit all your activities in the mornings.

I very much enjoyed my visit to the Mantaray Island resort and Fiji in general and I cannot wait to visit again. I think they have done an amazing job at preserving their reefs.

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