Manta Ray Bay Resort

Yap was a great trip! The people at Manta Ray Bay Resort were extremely friendly. It almost seemed like they knew me after the first day of being there. I actually hit my 400th dive while I was there—they made a certificate for me. For a dive nerd like me, that meant a lot. I absolutely loved the resort! I think it's so cool that they named and themed every room after an ocean critter. The resort has a massage place as well—I took advantage of that. I had two queen-size beds to myself. The bathroom was a little small but not a problem. Your gear is taken care of by the resort, so you don’t need to take anything back to your room. The restaurant associated with Manta Ray Bay is called the Mnuw. How cool is this? It's a ship! The bottom deck is for breakfast only. Then there are two other decks where you can eat lunch and dinner. The top deck has a screen on which they play movies. The food was really yummy—I thought the fish tacos were scrumptious! I don’t drink, but I had a Manta Shake just because. I really loved everything about the resort and the Mnuw. It felt very diver-friendly and just perfect for the ocean lover. Everyone knows you go to Yap for the mantas. It really was the best manta dive I’ve ever done. You just sit there in about 15–20 feet of water, and the mantas come to you. I’m more of a shark kind of girl, so I enjoyed the shark dive very much! I even found a tooth that I was able to bring home. One of the days we did some wall diving—it was nice, but I liked the manta and shark dives better. Sitting on the floor of a small metal boat for that long ride out there may have been part of the reason I didn’t care for those dives. I felt every wave. I highly recommend this trip to any diver. I also enjoyed learning some of the local culture when we were above the water. It was a very enjoyable trip for sure!

Living in Los Angeles, when I want to go somewhere remote, with amazing shark life that doesn’t take two days to get to, I go to Manta Ray Bay Resort in Yap. I only had thirty days to do an underwater video product, and I wanted one location, ease of travel, sharks, with warm clear water and a variety of undersea attractions. I like upscale comfort, and a cooperative place to work — so I chose the Manta Ray Bay Resort in Yap. You can get there in a single day of travel with no overnights — you fly from LAX to Honolulu, Honolulu to Guam, Guam to Yap. It is about 13 hours of flying, and 20–21 hours total time including layovers. As for the sharks, Yap’s Vertigo dive site was well known to me, and the water is clear and warm (84°F) with perhaps 30 sharks on a single dive to mingle with. They have a special dive that attracts the sharks without feeding them, by using a closed chum cage. So the sharks approach and circle around smelling a meal, an ideal scenario. We were able to visit the site numerous times. The friendly owner, Bill Acker, came out with us. His familiarity with these sharks was such that we gave him the camera system to hold. Bill got in real close and we soon had great footage in the can. The result is a film: For the Love of Sharks. The beauty of Yap is the lack of crowds. There are no high rises or fast food outlets. You are totally in another culture: Yapese, Micronesian, but the currency is the US $ and everybody speaks English. All the rooms have comfort, air con, and a unique sea creature décor. The food is great and served aboard a large Indonesian phinisi schooner by happy servers. You order from a menu: fresh seafood, local fruit, burgers, salads, sashimi, pasta, and superb pizza. The ship (Mnuw) has a big screen for showing dive movies every night, some from the day’s adventures. They also have a great infinity pool for relaxing, and have a brewery on the premises. I’m told the beer is great! Yap Divers is the resort’s dive center where your dive vessel assignments are posted. It has a spacious dive locker where you can wash and store your gear. There’s a camera rinse tank and extensive camera tables. Yap Divers is a PADI 5-star facility. The routine is two dives in the morning, and additional dives in the afternoon and evening, including a mandarin fish site. The dive vessels are clean, fast, rides are short, and take you through a picturesque mangrove forest. Underwater attractions are the world-famous manta rays, sharks, tropical fish, and critters, with drop-offs all around. Drift dives are common. Each dive site is unique. Most dive sites are a 10–30 minute boat ride away. The Yapese culture is traditional and not westernized. Large stone money discs are everywhere and unique to Yapese culture, with much history behind them. You can visit villages and see colorful native dances. The Manta Ray Bay Resort has been in business since the 1980s and is a popular stopover for visitors to Palau. However, I have been to Yap several times and enjoy being there for longer than a short stopover. A month is perfect. It seems to be the fastest way from LA to get to a remote tropical paradise without overnights, hustle and bustle, big hotels, or dealing with crowds. I love the clear water and plenty of action everywhere. I am very happy I chose Yap for our For the Love of Sharks expedition. Last year, I saw a tremendous product that was engineered to accomplish 360-degree filming underwater. The system was an engineering marvel employing 6 GoPro cameras. I had to have it. Once in my hands, I had to decide where to go to use it. I was looking for the best of all worlds. Our 360Hero video has been to DEMA, CES, and Sundance. See For the Love of Sharks: www.macdonaldrpoductions.com