We spent 2 weeks at Manta Ray Bay Resort for diving. Yap Divers is on site and very convenient. Just a short walk out of your room, out the dock to your boat. Dive shop well set up for hanging gear to dry, and outdoor area for drying as well. The crew does a "quick" rinse for your gear at the end of the day and sets it up on the boat for you the next day. There appeared to be 3 dive boats while we were there, but one boat is called the "fishing" boat with no tank racks. Our first 3 days we were stuck on this fishing boat and tanks with gear attached were piled up all over the floor. You had to step over others gear to get your own, not too convenient. But the rest of our trip we were assigned to a dive boat, much more relaxing. Boats have no head. Crew supplies water and a snack but we brought our own water bottles each day because the plastic water containers were not clean onboard. The boat crew was excellent, John and Kintu. One guide in the water with about 7 divers. Certain dive sites were repeated when the outer reef was too rough to dive. But, we had a pretty good variety of hard coral reefs, shark dives at Vertigo 4 times and Manta Rays at a cleaning station 4 times) and our favorite dives were at The Caverns, Cabbage Patch and Vertigo. The sharks at Vertigo were gray reef and black tips. At times we were surrounded by about 50 sharks, amazing! Check out some amazing photos by Brad Holland on The Facebook page for Manta Ray Bay Resort. Brad takes photos for the resort as well as photos on some of the dives. He captures the beauty of Yap, you will want to go see this for yourself! Not many big fish on the outer reef unless you see the sharks, but tons of small, colorful tropicals. The visibility was anywhere from "poor" at the Manta dives to "excellent" at the outer reef dives. We saw pods of dolphins while boating to the dive sites a couple of days. We never saw another dive shop boat at any site we dove. Yap Divers seemed to be The dive Shop on the island for serious divers. We visited another resort, Yap Pacific, and it was like a ghost town, very nice but nobody was around. Their dive shop is on a lagoon Many flights of steps downhill from the resort.
Our room at Manta Ray Bay Resort was ocean front with a view of the water and the restaurant, but also in this view is a big warehouse across the water where some locals played LOUD music and karaoke for 2 nights during our stay. We had ear plugs and that helped. Other times it was quiet in our room. The room was not one of the remodeled ones were heard about, so it showed some age. But it was clean, with 2 beds, one was a water bed. There was a small patio and some outdoor chairs we hung our wet clothes on to dry. The water in your room is potable and we never got sick from drinking it.
The staff were always pleasant during our stay. All the room cleaning ladies were excellent, the room was cleaned every day. We had a couple cockroaches at night in the bathroom but small ones so not a big deal. The main area of the resort was clean and comfy with places to sit and use the free wifi. Wifi also worked in the Minew Restaurant top deck and middle deck but not the breakfast room below.
The food at The Minew boat restaurant was average and after 2 weeks we were tired of the variety. The "specials" at lunch and nightly were overpriced. The fish sandwiches were good and buffet breakfast was always fresh. Actually for such a remote island it was a miracle how fresh the food seemed. You go in the grocery store and see nothing much fresh so this restaurant really does pretty well compared to their local food store. The staff in the restaurant made our stay pleasant. The girls always treated us well and at times Ian from the Spa was helping out around the resort and he had an excellent work ethic. ( we also had 2 massages by Ian and he really does a good job!). We ate a few times across the street at The Oasis, an Asian food place. It had huge portions easily share one meal for 2 people for about $10. Very good!
I hesitate to mention this, but the local people are addicted to chewing betel nut. It is not a becoming habit making their teeth red. Even the ladies do it, a bit sad to see that.
We did a day drive around the island. It's a pretty, clean, tropical island, very green. Quiet, unpopulated. Spend an afternoon at the resorts private beach about 20 minutes drive away. They will drop you off and pick you back up whenever you wish. Make sure you go during low tide though or the sand will be in the water. Very pretty place and a nice village to walk through.
Yes, we will go back to Yap someday. It is easy diving and a quiet, remote atmosphere. I think the waters are calmer in May and June so perhaps that would be best for diving the outer reef.
Our room at Manta Ray Bay Resort was ocean front with a view of the water and the restaurant, but also in this view is a big warehouse across the water where some locals played LOUD music and karaoke for 2 nights during our stay. We had ear plugs and that helped. Other times it was quiet in our room. The room was not one of the remodeled ones were heard about, so it showed some age. But it was clean, with 2 beds, one was a water bed. There was a small patio and some outdoor chairs we hung our wet clothes on to dry. The water in your room is potable and we never got sick from drinking it.
The staff were always pleasant during our stay. All the room cleaning ladies were excellent, the room was cleaned every day. We had a couple cockroaches at night in the bathroom but small ones so not a big deal. The main area of the resort was clean and comfy with places to sit and use the free wifi. Wifi also worked in the Minew Restaurant top deck and middle deck but not the breakfast room below.
The food at The Minew boat restaurant was average and after 2 weeks we were tired of the variety. The "specials" at lunch and nightly were overpriced. The fish sandwiches were good and buffet breakfast was always fresh. Actually for such a remote island it was a miracle how fresh the food seemed. You go in the grocery store and see nothing much fresh so this restaurant really does pretty well compared to their local food store. The staff in the restaurant made our stay pleasant. The girls always treated us well and at times Ian from the Spa was helping out around the resort and he had an excellent work ethic. ( we also had 2 massages by Ian and he really does a good job!). We ate a few times across the street at The Oasis, an Asian food place. It had huge portions easily share one meal for 2 people for about $10. Very good!
I hesitate to mention this, but the local people are addicted to chewing betel nut. It is not a becoming habit making their teeth red. Even the ladies do it, a bit sad to see that.
We did a day drive around the island. It's a pretty, clean, tropical island, very green. Quiet, unpopulated. Spend an afternoon at the resorts private beach about 20 minutes drive away. They will drop you off and pick you back up whenever you wish. Make sure you go during low tide though or the sand will be in the water. Very pretty place and a nice village to walk through.
Yes, we will go back to Yap someday. It is easy diving and a quiet, remote atmosphere. I think the waters are calmer in May and June so perhaps that would be best for diving the outer reef.
