Barefoot Manta Island Resort

Such a cool place with amazing facilities- they have a marine biology research centre which does great talks every day. Food is good and service is so friendly

Good value for money. The food is great!

We spent 4 nights at Barefoot and wished we had more time there . The staff were so friendly - the manager Robin ensured he spoke to guests throughout the day and was both warm and personable to everyone , and Matthew at the dive shop was so friendly and informative . And we loved our fancy bure tent right on the beach - natural and private … this place really feels like the Fiji you imagine. The resort was also very clean and my husband and daughter being celiacs, also had their diet catered to with care once we reminded them … after the first day the cooking staff became masters ! We also appreciated how the resort takes such care with protecting and caring the corals and environment - having marine scientists and the leadership of Rob is also very impactful . Hopefully other resorts will take this learning forward !

Just because they try and make swimming with Manta Rays ethical it doesn’t mean it is. We unfortunately had an awful experience snorkelling with a single manta. I don’t believe they should announce the manta rays if there is only 1. We ended up in the water with over 50 people swimming to one manta ray. It was disgusting and very upsetting. In fairness to our guide she said that it was particularly bad and she disagreed with it, but continued with the tour despite this. I understand it’s not like that for every snorkel, but in my opinion if you can’t guarantee it being ethical and fair for the Manta Rays 100% of the time then it shouldn’t be done at all. Barefoot manta resort could lead the way in swimming ethically with Manta Rays and make a genuine difference, instead they choose to ignore the other resorts and say “well we try to be ethical, it’s not our problem that the other resorts aren’t trying”. At no point was general snorkel etiquette spoken about such as keeping fins away from reefs, and we witnessed other people continuously kicking the reef with their fins. Something that we saw much less of on other islands as it’s drilled into you from the minute you hire snorkel gear. If this isn’t something the resort is willing to do then they shouldn’t supply fins as it’s not necessary for an average snorkel. While the resort itself is amazing and most of the staff are wonderful, its treatment of the local wildlife was consistently upsetting, especially in comparison to its sister resort Barefoot Kuata.