Snorkel with Manta Rays Guaranteed

Not much of a “sunset cruise”, which was a short ride (<5 min to anchor, that’s actually a huge plus for this tour), but when we anchored there was another boat that obstructed the sunset (minus); however, that being said, the mantas are obviously the main event. It may be more beneficial to try a later night tour which may not be as crowded (see below) since the sunset is not the reason to go. It’s a pretty efficient setup and whereas other tours in the same area may not have gotten a good view, these guys set up sunken lights to augment the floating lights and optimize chances of seeing mantas. Good tour overall, we had a total of 4 sightings, one with a great barrel roll! Somewhat detracting (not the tour operators’ fault) were a couple of people who neglected to tell the crew that they had never snorkeled before (the crew does ask this a couple times, they never spoke up). As they flailed and panicked and couldn’t put their heads underwater, or lost their leg float pool noodles every min or so, the struggling and kicking probably scared some of the mantas off. Perhaps asking each group individually when checking in how much they’ve actually tried placing their head underwater with a snorkel would have allowed for some individual practice with snorkel/mask placement before actually getting in the water. You don’t need to be experienced, but you should probably borrow a snorkel and mask in a swimming pool and practice floating with your face under the surface and breathing through the snorkel, holding onto the ladder or a side wall to make sure you’re ok with the real thing.

Highly recommended and amazing experience. Even with kids. We went as a family of 5 incl 3 boys aged 6, 8 and 11.