World Traveller 73 
Swimming with the Manta Rays, Hawaii, USA
The Big Island of Hawaii has one of the best locations in the world to snorkel and swim with Manta Rays. Every night, teams of boats head out to visit Makako Bay, a short distance away from the airport in order to swim with pods of Manta Rays that have called this cove home. While sighting aren’t guaranteed, there is a fairly good chance you will get the opportunity to see these majestic creatures up close.
This post is one chapter on my trip to the Big Island of Hawaii, United States of America. This trip was enhanced through Marriott Bonvoy Elite Status, Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan and Hertz Gold Plus Rewards. For more information on how this trip was booked, please see our trip introduction. For other parts of the trip, please see this index.
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✈️ Read more from this trip:
- Introduction: Hawaii Five – Oh. A Fiftieth Birthday in Kona, Hawaii, USA via Alaska Airlines First Class
- Alaska Airlines First Class: Bellingham – Seattle
- Alaska Airlines First Class: Seattle – Kona
- My Experience Renting with Hertz President’s Circle: Kona, Hawaii, USA
- The Westin Hapuna Beach Resort, Kona, Hawaii, USA
- Climbing in Hawaii’s Volcano National Park, Big Island, Hawaii, USA
- Exploring Nāhuku Lava Tubes, Hawaii Volcano National Park, Big Island, Hawaii, USA
- Restaurant Review: Café Pesto, Hilo, Hawaii, USA
- Restaurant Review: ‘ULU Ocean Grill, Four Seasons Hualalai, Kona, Hawaii, USA
- From Sea Level to 13,845 feet: Driving Up to Hawaii’s Big Island Observatories
- Swimming with Manta’s: The Big Islands’s Manta Rays up Close
- Alaska Airlines First Class: Kona – Seattle
- Alaska Airlines First Class: Seattle – Bellingham
Swimming with the Manta Rays, Kailua – Kona, Hawaii, United States of America
The Big Island of Hawaii offers one of Kailua Kona’s most engaging underwater activities; the ability to swim observing the Manta Ray’s of Hawaii. While I’ve always gotten the chance opportunity to see them from overwater pontoons in French Polynesia and the Maldives, this would mark my first opportunity to be able to actually spend some time with them in the water, for any period of time.
Booking Manta Ray Excursions:
The Big Island of Hawaii offers many companies that run Manta Ray Excursions. Most offer two time slots; an early evening session that usually encompasses a sunset on the boat that runs between 5:30 PM – 7:30 PM, and a later event that usually runs between 8:00PM – 10 PM.
We ended up booking with Ocean Encounters. After consideration of going on an early or later session, we ended up (by choice) on the earlier evening session.
The earlier evening session was the right choice for us. It was already later with the time zone change being from our home Pacific Standard Time to Hawaiian Standard Time Zone, being two hours behind. In addition, we had some travel time from The Westin Hapuna Beach Resort that added about forty minutes “to and from” the marina.
During our visit in the summer months of August, we found that availability was booking out about forty eight hours before travel. There are typically a limited amount of seats on the boat (in our case about thirty seats). As a result, I would recommend booking well in advance of travel if this is an activity you don’t want to miss.
Lastly many operators off a guarantee that you can return on another day (subject to space availability), if you are exceptionally unlucky and you don’t see any manta rays. If you’re hoping to hedge your bets, obviously booking earlier in your trip will allow you to take advantage of any rain check guarantees on later days in your trip.
In our case, we ended up taking the excursion on the last night of our journey. As a result, we were fortunate enough to see rays on our first trip. We didn’t have to avail ourselves of the rain check guarantees.
Getting to Ocean Encounters:
We drove our rental car from The Westin Hapuna Beach Resort to the Ocean Encounters offices located at the Honokohau Harbor in Kona, Hawaii. It was a pleasant thirty five minute drive down the highway, with a brief stop roadside to check out some of the island’s lava flows that spread across the highway. The lava flows that we looked at had vegetation sprouting through it; a unique sight for volcano lovers.
On arrival to Honokohau Harbor in Kona, we checked in. We started to get set up for the activity and were offered a wet suit. We headed down to the boat at around 6:00 PM where we had a quick safety briefing.
Getting to Makako Bay:
Our trip to Makako Bay by boat had us hugging the Kona coastline on the western side of the island as we navigated north. Our cruise took us along the shoreline with fabulous aviation views. The Kona International Airport had places taking off on a regular basis, and we viewed UPS Wide bodies take off over top of the runways with a backdrop of Hawaiian mountains.
We arrived to Makako Bay, where there were approximately seven boats parked and waiting for sunset. It’s always great to have sunset on the water, and tonights’ sunset would mark our only water sunset for this trip.
Makako Bay was reported to be popular with the Manta Rays as it was a sheltered bay that was fee of other natural predators. Over time the location had grown to become home to many Manta Rays.
Snorkeling with Manta Rays:
After the sun went down, it was time for the main event. The boat staff put out surfboards to float in the water. The surfboards had been converted to house giant lights in the middle, along with small rings around each side for visitors to hang on to.
We were called into the water by group. As we were only in a group of two, we ended up along the end of the first surfboard.
Once we were in the water, the Manta Rays came slowly at first. Before long, we were complete surrounded by them looping underneath the lights.
The Manta Rayas are plankton scoopers. The plankton seems to rest near the surface of the water at dusk, attracted by the giant lights from the surfboards. The rays complete looping spins around the lights naturally, as they scoop up pieces of plankton in their mouths.
The Manta Rays can get pretty close; close enough to accidentally bump you while you are hanging onto the surfboard. We were instructed not to touch the Manta Rays, as a result of a thin bacterial film that protected their bodies. The Manta Rays came so close, the photographs don’t really do them justice.
I took the GoPro along to get some video. It was pretty special to see these creatures zooming around under the water. They are such majestic giants that I hadn’t gotten to experience this close ever before.
Since webspace isn’t always about videos, I snapped a few more photographs of the Manta Rays before we had to say good bye.
It was such a treat to see Manta Rays in the wild. The visit to the Makaoka Cove was well worth our time to come and find these beautiful animals.
A trip out to Makako Bay allowed for an opportunity to view Manta Rays in their natural habitat. Seeing these creatures loop and scoop plankton was exceptionally need and ranked right up there with the underwater attractions world.
After about thirty minutes of Manta Ray viewing, we had a thirty minute boat ride back to the harbour. We arrived to the parking lot at about 8:30 PM with most of the marina sewn up tight. With a parking lot change, we towelled off with towels that we brought ourselves, and headed back to The Westin Hapuna Beach Resort for the night. Since we didn’t think we’d be in the mood for a sit down restaurant after being in the water for several hours, we settled for ABC Stores sandwiches for dinner.
My Thoughts on Swimming with Manta Rays:
Swimming with Manta Rays in Kailua Kona, Hawaii is one of the few places. inth world where you can swim with Manta Rays just. ashort way off shore. This is a pretty unique experience that I haven’t had the opportunity to try anywhere else.
There are several boat operators and it probably doesn’t make a whole lot of difference between operators as the Manta Rays are the main event. This managed to be one of MrsWT73’s favorite activities on the island. We really enjoyed ourselves and time with the Manta Rays.
World Traveller 73 
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