Take a journey through the wonders of Yap. From stone money, to cultural dances, to Yapese "highways", to traditional fishing and anciant mariners, you will be sure to experince the richness of Yapese life.
Yap is belived to have been settled by a seafaring people from the area today known as eastern Indonesia and the southern part of the Philippines sometime around 1500 B.C.
Yap is probably best known among non-divers as the Land of Stone Money. Up to 12 feet in diameter these massive stone discs rate, without competition, as the largest coins in the world.
The Yapese have managed to maintain their ancient culture better than anywhere else in Micronesia. The heritage and traditions of the Yapese people are carefully nourished to preserve the Micronesian way of life.
Bill Acker, founder of the Manta Ray Bay Resort and Yap Divers, is proud to share his love of Yap and diving with guests from all over the world. A resident of Yap for almost 30 years, Bill is eminently qualified to make your Micronesian dive experience one that you’ll never forget. Bill and his family own and operate the Manta Ray Bay Resort & Yap Divers.
Welcome to The Manta Ray Bay Resort. We are a small, 4-star resort located on the wonderful island of Yap in Micronesia. Enjoy your stay in our luxurious, individually themed rooms. Delight your tastes at our floating restaurant, the Mnuw Restaurant and Bar. Dive in to adventure with our expericed dive team. Relax into bliss at our Taro Leaf Spa. Welcome to paradise.
Our resort offers many different package and activities for everyone to enjoy the wonders of Yap. From our hotel & diving packages to island tours to kayak adventures to spa treatments, our resort offers packages individually tailored to you.
There are many special times to visit Yap and the Manta Ray Bay Resort, like Yap Day, MantaFest, and during the manta ray mating season. Plus, we have partnered with the best resort operators and vessels in the region to offer truly unique and luxurious experiences.
The Mnuw is the most unique restaurant and bar in Micronesia if not the world. She is a 170ft (55m) Phinisi schooner from Indonesia with 3 dining decks, 2 bars and her kitchen all on board.
The Manta Ray Bay Resort was built FOR divers, BY divers. Our harborside dive center, Yap Divers, has everything you’d expect from a PADI 5-star facility and SSI Platinum Dive Center, and so much more. Yap Divers is a full-service facility with modern boats, rental gear, dive shop, camera bays, gear rinse and storage.
The Taro Leaf Spa takes the best of everything that is Yapese to bring you an experience that will, relax, energize, invigorate, revitalize and harmonize you.
Come experience all that Yap has to offer. From exclusive, world-class diving to vibrant mangroves to pristine beaches to a fascinating history to a rich, anciant culture, Yap truly is a wonder to behold.
Serving only 1,000 divers a year, we offer our guests crowd-free dive sites and VIP service. Yap has a resident population of manta rays and several shallow cleaning stations where divers can see mantas year-round. And, Yap is more than just mantas! We have great blue water diving, shark diving, wall diving, critter diving, black water diving and large schools of big game fish!
Among the mangroves you will go were none can go but by kayak. There are no roads, no way to bring a powered boat in and no habitation, there is but you and nature. This is the perfect way to explore one of the few ecosystems on this planet that remains untouched by man.
Imagine looking over the side of the boat into ink blue water so clear that you can see fish swimming 100 feet below you. Imagine being on a boat 20 yards from the edge of the reef, looking across the turquoise colored lagoon to the verdant, green tropical island in the background. You cast your lure into the surf breaking on the edge of the reef and then boom – a huge black Giant Trevally comes from the surf line and attacks your wooden bait. The fight is on.
The Manta Ray Bay Hotel’s Concierge staff offer a complete range of land tours specifically designed to showcase the unique island culture of Yap. Everything from the famous stone money and stone money banks, to traditional thatched roof men’s houses, centuries old stone paths which are still used to connect the various villages, to the flora and fauna.
On Yap you can spend all day on a private beach with your partner, dive buddy or group in the village with no one else around. We arrange private beach trips, group events, parties and BBQs.
The Taro Leaf Spa takes the best of everything that is Yapese to bring you an experience that will, relax, energize, invigorate, revitalize and harmonize you.
Here you will find out the latest goings on in Yap, photo galleries of visiting pros and visitors alike. Plus, a library of wallpapers for your desktop and mobile devices.
Give a big welcome to Kudakwashe “Kuda” Lusinga, Manta Ray Bay Resort’s new head chef, blends Zimbabwean and Yapese flavors with standout dishes like Stuffed Pork and Dovi Chicken. Inspired by his uncle and a passion for cooking, Chef Kuda brings creativity, culture, and fresh ideas to the Mnuw restaurant, delighting guests with innovative cuisine.
Throughout the years we have been honored to host several top professional photographers and videographers. From Paul Tzimoulis to William "Bill" Macdonald. From Marty Snyderman to Andy Schumacher. From David Doubilet to David Fleetham plus many, many more. We are very honored to be able to share some of the images captured in Yap by these great friends.
Imagine the thousands of divers who have visited us over the years. Now imagine the wonderful memories they captured via photographs both above and below water. We want to share these with you and ask you to consider posting your memories of Yap and the Manta Ray Bay Resort & Yap Divers.
We know it can be a daunting task to book travel to Yap with diffeent time zones, the International Date Line and often confusing flight schedules. Let us help you make getting to Yap a warm, tropical breeze. Ask Bill!
Here you will find the latest information about the latest on flights to Yap. There are both international and regional carries currently servicing the island. And, for flight help you can always Ask Bill!
Back in March I threw a blind invitation at the Scuba Diver Girls to create a custom media party in Yap, and last night they finished their 24-hour travel across the Pacific Ocean. This week we’ll be promoting scuba diving’s people, places and products with Yap’s manta rays, sharks and warm water reef life as our backdrop.
For some people this will be the first time they even hear of Yap and see the kind of diving going on here all year round. These girls travel the world promoting dive destinations and scuba gear.
What attracted them to Yap was the big animal interaction, clear warm water and the ancient island culture. This week we’re going to get them as much of that as they can handle, starting with the diving.
Today was a check out dive after they unpacked a tropical dive arsenal from Mares and Suunto. Shiny new scuba rigs included Abyss regulators, hybrid pro tech BCs, Reef 2.5 wetsuits and two kinds of fins with Mares’ unique bungee straps. Scuba Diver Girl computing is done by Suunto with easy-to-use and feature rich matching white D6’s.
Today’s first dive was Valley of the Rays which finds itself praised in the list of top dive sites in the world. It’s where we interact with the mantas after the trade winds settle down on the West side of the island. It’s a shallow narrow channel with 4 cleaning stations. The mantas favor outgoing tide which generally means reduced visibility and current.
We rolled into a 1-2 knot current and 30 foot of vis and immediately came across sleeping white tips at the sand bottom, then started checking the cleaning stations for manta action. At the second cleaning station we got our ray, first swimming right passed Stephanie on it’s way to the top of the coral head.
This is the time of year that mantas migrate, however Yap is quite possibly the only place on earth where there is no season, there’s always mantas here to dive with. Today’s first sighting was a resident easily identified with a shark bite taken out of it’s right wing in the back.
After hanging around and watching the ray circle and clean itself, we popped up to waiting boats, hot tea and post dive snacks. Only a couple of gear tweaks were necessary, a mouthpiece swap and tank strap adjustment later, we were surfing across the lagoon on our way to the other side of the island for a clear blue water photo adventure.
Mantas are protected in Yap, their water as well as habitat is part of a government-backed protection program that benefits all big animals, including reef sharks. Vertigo was our second stop.
This is where we introduced the ladies to well over a hundred feet of vis, infinite depth below the reef wall and a large school of friendly reef sharks that are well adjusted to boats and divers. An environment like this raises already high enthusiasm.
Vertigo doesn’t disappoint and today was no exception. Grey and black tip reef sharks constantly patrol the wall and clear blue. This week I promised the girls a super charged shark experience, this was just the introduction.
We’ll be seeing sharks all week, recently the list of species contains Leopard, Nurse, big Silky and Silvertip sharks, along with the normal Grey, Black Tip and White Tip reef sharks seen on almost every dive. Yap’s big animal sanctuary keeps the shark population thriving… which makes for exciting diving.
Over an hour of Nitrox later the girls’ SD cards were filling up with each other, mantas and sharks on our Sunday shake down dive. Our boat ride home was only 25 minutes, which put us back at the ranch before happy hour even with an 11 o’clock start time.
Tomorrow we are breaking off on our own schedule with a pile of tanks, snacks and spare batteries on a dive adventure. Alex and I will be guiding and looking for clear water, bait balls, current and getting the girls onto the action with media to share.
Stay tuned on the Scuba Diver Girls facebook feed and check back here for the latest status of their Yap adventure. We’ll be checking out the rest of the island, introducing them to the native culture and getting on some night diving before they’re done.
This is a Yap Sunday and what it looks like after our guests make the journey here, sleep in, have breakfast and take a late boat out onto the reef. Tomorrow we’ll be waking up and hitting it earlier and staying out until they get what they came for. Here’s what we’ll be looking for, photos from the last couple of weeks.