no alt text

Travel bucket list ideas:

Last updated: 18 July, 2023

Graceful, gliding, gigantic yet manta rays are an awe-inspiring sight to behold, and getting up close to these harmless filter feeders in a once-in-a-lifetime experience worthy of any travel bucket list.

Traditionally less appealing due a potentially deadly sting, (friendly) stingray encounters offer a more accessible opportunity to get up close to these bewitching fish, in just a few feet of water.

Here’s our round-up of the best places in the world to swim with them.

Table of Contents
Manta ray floating underwater among plankton
Experience

Cocos Island, Costa Rica

Cocos Island, Puntarenas Province, Costa Rica

|
Bucket List Experience

550km off the Costa Rican coast, Cocos Island is a world-class dive site famous for huge congregations of rays which converge in the swirling currents welling up from deep water. Access is on 11-day live-aboard dive trips, from December to May, departing from Puntarenas.

Best for ages: 18+ | £1,500 | 3 hours

Website >
More details >
Manta ray floating underwater among plankton
Experience

Manta rays, Kona, Big Islands, Hawaii

Cocos Island, Puntarenas Province, Costa Rica

|
Bucket List Experience

Just of Hawaii’s coast at Kona, is a manta ray ‘feeding station’, rich in plankton, that’s home to resident population of over 240 individuals. Snorkel (5+ years) and/or dive (15+ years) tours run daily, year-round from Kona – but uniquely at night. Tour operators shine lights that attract plankton, and manta rays, to the surface.

Best for ages: 18+ | £1,500 | 3 hours

Website >
More details >

Manta rays, The Maldives

Hanifaru Bay, Maldives

|
Bucket List Experience

Hanifaru Bay, a huge lagoon on the Baa Atoll Hanifaru in the Maldives, has become renowned as a global manta ray hotspot. Mantas gather here in their hundreds, along for feeding frenzy on blooming plankton blooms from June to October. 3-hour snorkelling tours depart from Baa Atoll. Note – diving is banned.

Best for ages: 13+ | £200 | 2-3 hours

Girl snorkeling scuba with sharks and manta ray over reef in underwater Paradise. Turquoise sea in tropical wildlife in Bora Bora and Maldives
Experience

Stingrays, Bimini, The Bahamas

Bimini, Bahamas

|
Bucket List Experience

Honeymoon Harbour on the small islet of Gun Cay is home to a friendly population of southern stingrays. In exchange for fish morsels, the rays will obligingly congregate and interact with you, in the shallows just offshore or from the back of the tour boat. Half-day tours, for all ages, depart twice daily from Bimini.

Best for ages: 10+ | £80 | Half day

Website >
More details >

Stingrays, Grand Island, Cayman Islands

George Town, Grand Cayman, United Kingdom (UK)

|
Bucket List Experience

This shallow sandbar, nicknamed ‘Stingray City’, was for years a dumping ground for the unwanted catch of local fishermen. Stingrays now congregate here in their hundreds, associating boats with an easy meal. You can hold them, even tickle them, standing in just three feet of water. 3-hour tours, for all ages, depart year-round, weather permitting.

Best for ages: 5+ | £35 | 3 hours