5 Best places to swim with rays

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.