Mantaray Island Resort

Snorkeling/Diving Opportunities: Consistently praised for exceptional reef snorkeling directly from the beach and manta ray encounters, with organized paid trips and free kayaks/SUPs.

This is one of the best resorts on the Yasawas for solo travelers; the dorm accommodation is large, clean and allows you to meet new people. There are also lots of activities and the food provided is great.

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.