Barefoot Manta Island Resort

Good value for money. The food is great!

Barefoot Manta was amazing! We spent 5 nights and had the best time. The staff were incredible, especially the resident marine biologist Rob who was a mine of information and enthusiasm. There are 3 different beaches to snorkel from and the snorkelling was the best we have ever seen, it is a protected marine reserve and we participated in coral planting which was great. The Manta Ray trips happened on 3 of our 5 days, it is a bit of an uncontrolled bun fight with various resorts sending their boats to see the mantas but the Barefoot Manta crew were educated and respectful. The resort is beautiful and has a lovely vibe, the staff were so friendly and helpful. We stayed in a double Bure on the sunset side, it was a permanent tent and it was all that we could have wished for, right on the beach. The meal plan is really expensive by our standards, I would have preferred an al a carte option as I have food restrictions and I found that eating salad and rice for almost every meal was boring and repetitive. The staff did try though, however $40 Fijian for salad and rice was a bit on the nose. Bring snacks! It would have been good if they could have made the tea/coffee available all day and maybe had something available for afternoon tea as it is 6 hrs between lunch and dinner. We do recommend this place.

Ci siamo trovati bene location bella staff caloroso e amichevole Da consigliare

Terrible. Staff unfriendly and unhelpful. Food is terrible and not worth the $139 compulsory payment. “Luxury” room was a tent with mould on the walls. Manager said it wasn’t mould and refused to move me. The bar plays loud music all day so it’s not relaxing. Do not book here. I paid in cash and they didn’t have change.

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.

My husband and I went to Barefoot Manta Island Resort for three nights and had a great experience! The resort is definitely rustic (no air conditioning, wifi only in the common area), but was very beautiful and well cared for. Our beachfront Bure was cozy but clean and had lots of great outdoor space to lounge (and we were mere steps from the beach). The food was pretty good (buffets for breakfast and lunch, seated dinner). The corals on the island are absolutely amazing, and we spent much of our time snorkeling. The dive shop staff were incredibly helpful and very available to answer any questions at any time. The most amazing part of the Resort is the staff, who are incredibly warm and friendly and greeted us by name every day and made us feel like part of a family. For the staff alone I would recommend Barefoot Manta to anyone.