Mantaray Island Resort

All in all we had a great stay, it’s a great resort and a slightly cheaper alternative to the other hotels on the islands around. The pizza and reef are amazing. Still, the resort is quite stretched, especially to go to the toilets from the tree houses is too far and all in all just not as well equipped (e.g. missing aircon) as other resorts. Its probably more suitable for younger travelers who also look for evening programms.

The resort was in a lovely location but is a little tired, understandable after covid. Even after a few emails requesting a double bed close to the beach they did not have one arraigned for us, they had put us in a Bure up the hill. I have tendinitis in my knees so that was never going to work. In the end they put my husband and I in a Bure with twin beds closer to the beach - not at all romantic! The meal plan was really expensive but the food was plentiful, unfortunately the restaurant was up the hill so it was a painful effort on my behalf for each meal. Unlike other resorts that we stayed in this resort required a daily fuel surcharge and we also had to pay a hire fee for fins. They did not put on Manta ray trips on either of the 2 days that we stayed there although there were Manta rays in the channel both of those days. Unimpressed. Luckily we had also booked nights at Barefoot Manta Ray Resort so ended up swimming with the mantas which was our sole reason for going. To be fair other people staying at MRIR said that they had been taken on Manta trips earlier in the week so I have no idea why they told us that there were no mantas on the 2 days that we were there - Barefoot Manta Resort said that on one of the days there had in fact been 7. This resort is much more of a backpacker resort although the high cost of the meal plan would give most backpackers a second thought.

We had 2 amazing nights in the 32 people dorm! The room was clean and because of how it is built, it felt like being in a 4 people dorm. The team was absolutely amazing and made our stay special. We felt so welcomed and made friends with some of the staff. Our personal highlights were our sunset tube cruise and even more our snorkeling tour. We unfortunately did not see any manta rays because it was to early in the year BUT the snorkeling was still AMAZING as we snorkeld over millions of fish and corals. We felt super save with our guide Nico who was the best and also played Uno with us and gifted us bracelets as good bye. We would definetly recommend staying here and hope to come back one day :) Vinaka!