We fix one figure per fact
Depth, season, temperature, distance and fee each get a single site-wide value. Where sources disagree we name the disagreement instead of averaging it away.
Karang Makassar · Komodo National Park
Manta Point Komodo, reported straight.
A reef plateau inside Komodo National Park where reef mantas queue at a cleaning station. Snorkellers stay on the 2–5 m shelf; divers work the plateau at 8–18 m.
AI-generated illustration
About this site
An independent English-language guide to Manta Point (Karang Makassar) and Manta Alley, inside Komodo National Park, published by the Manta Point Komodo Editorial Desk, part of Juara Holding Group. We are not a boat operator: Komodo Luxury runs every departure described here, and handles the park ticket, boat, guide and gear.
The numbers this site is built on
- USD 40-50
- Flat park entry per foreign visitor, per visit
- PP No. 36/2024
- 1,000/day
- Park-wide visitor cap, in three scheduled sessions
- Not a per-site quota
- 8–18m
- Dive plateau. Snorkel shelf runs 2–5 m
- Sources disagree; we fix the figure
- 1 Apr 2026
- SiOra e-ticket required from this date
- siora.id, the only official channel
How we work
An editorial desk and an operator, kept separate on purpose
Most manta pages online are sales pages wearing a guide’s clothes. This one splits the two jobs and tells you which is which.
We check the source, not the market
Fees come from the regulation and the park authority’s own page. Season and conditions come from what is reported at the site, not from what sells a trip.
Komodo Luxury runs the boats
This desk operates nothing. Snorkel days, two-tank dives and private charters are run by Komodo Luxury out of Labuan Bajo.
We label every image
Photographs come from Komodo Luxury and are credited as such. Where an image is a generated illustration, its caption says so. Nothing here is presented as something it is not.
Work out the park fee
The government charge, before anyone quotes you a boat
Nothing here is an estimate we invented. The calculator does arithmetic on the published PP No. 36/2024 figures and nothing else.
The published rates
| Foreign visitors (WNA) | USD 40–50 | per person, any day |
|---|---|---|
| Indonesian citizens (WNI) | USD 20 / USD 25 | weekday / weekend |
Conservation, jetty and insurance charges are folded into the ticket system rather than billed separately. The boat, guide and gear are quoted separately by Komodo Luxury.
Snorkel or dive?
The same plateau, two different depths
Pick a mode and a season to see what you would actually get.
Mode
Season
| Snorkelling | Diving | |
|---|---|---|
| Where you are | Over the 2–5 m shelf, at the surface. | On the 8–18 m plateau, busiest band 10–15 m. |
| Certification | None. Open to any confident swimmer. | Open Water, and comfortable in current. |
| What you see | Mantas cruising and feeding just below you. | Feeding passes over the plateau. |
| Current | Tide-driven drift. You stay with the guide and the boat. | Tide-driven drift. This is a drift dive, not a static one. |
| Best pairing | Combined day trips that also call at Padar or Pink Beach. | A dedicated two-tank day on the plateau. |
| Water temperature | 27–29°C at the surface. | 27–29°C down to the thermocline. |
| Visibility | 10–20 m, sometimes below 10 m in heavy blooms. | 10–20 m, sometimes below 10 m in heavy blooms. |
| Season note | Largest reported feeding aggregations. Choppier crossings and short heavy afternoon rain. | Largest reported feeding aggregations. Plankton cuts visibility. |
Divers below the plateau meet about 22–25°C from July to September. That is a thermocline reading at depth, not the surface temperature.
Read the snorkelling pageBefore you book
The questions people actually ask
The place itself
A reef plateau, not an island
Manta Point is the English name for Karang Makassar, a reef plateau in East Nusa Tenggara. It is a natural cleaning and feeding station for the reef manta ray, Mobula alfredi: the fish queue over the coral while cleaner wrasse work them over. Everyone arrives by boat and leaves by boat.
Depth is where most write-ups of this site go wrong. The snorkel shelf runs about 2–5 m; the dive plateau runs 8–18 m, with the busiest cleaning band at 10–15 m. Past the plateau edge, sand channels drop beyond 20 m — that ground exists, but manta dives do not use it.
Published sources disagree, and rather than average them away we name it: Vizzbud gives 8–18 m, Komodo Resort gives 8–20 m, and operator briefings sometimes open at 5 m by counting the snorkel shelf. This site fixes the four figures above and never publishes a different range.
- Snorkel shelf
- 2–5 m
- Dive plateau
- 8–18 m
- Busiest cleaning band
- 10–15 m
- Practical recreational maximum
- 18 m
Getting there
What the crossing from Labuan Bajo costs you in hours
You fly into Komodo Airport (LBJ). The harbour is 2.5–4 km away, about 10–15 minutes by car. From there Manta Point is roughly 1–1.5 hours each way by speedboat, up to two when the sea is rough, or 3–4 hours on a traditional wooden boat or phinisi.
The figure that confuses people is the multi-stop day. A trip calling at Padar or Pink Beach first may not reach the mantas until two or three hours after leaving the harbour — that is itinerary time, not crossing time.
Boats for either shape of day are run by Komodo Luxury, which also books the park ticket for you.
- 10–15 min
- Airport to harbour, by car
- 1–1.5 hrs
- Speedboat, each way
- 3–4 hrs
- Traditional wooden boat, each way
- 40–45 km
- Straight-line sea distance
In the water
The one distance figure we publish
Hold at least three metres from a manta ray, measured horizontally. Three metres is the only minimum-distance figure this site publishes, and no page states a different one.
We are also straight about where it comes from. Indonesia publishes no manta-specific national distance figure; three metres is the park-and-operator standard applied at Manta Point, not a statutory number. Undisturbed mantas keep returning to a cleaning station. Crowded ones stop.
Non-negotiable
- Three metres, held horizontally
- Never overhead, never head-on
- No touching, no chasing
- No close-range flash
Explore by what you came for
Six ways into the guide
What Manta Point is
The site itself
Karang Makassar as a place: an open-water reef plateau with no island and no facilities, and how the cleaning station works.
Read more
When to come
Timing
The two-season canon in full: which months resolve to wet, which to dry, and what each one trades away.
The crossing from Labuan Bajo
Getting there
Airport to harbour, then 1–1.5 hours by speedboat each way — and why a multi-stop day reaches the mantas later.
Fees, permits and SiOra
Money & paperwork
The regulation, the ranger fee, the park-wide daily cap and the e-ticket step you cannot skip since April 2026.
Manta Alley, and how it differs
The other site
The southern channel site: when it is reachable, who it suits, and why it is not a second manta season.
Marine life beyond the mantas
What else is down there
Reef manta versus oceanic manta, plus what is commonly reported at the plateau — and what is not.
Operated by Komodo Luxury
Where the trips themselves are booked
This desk does not sell trips. Every Manta Point departure described here is run by Komodo Luxury, part of the same group, from Labuan Bajo.
Komodo sailing trips
The standard route, with Manta Point on the itinerary.
komodoluxury.com
One-day Komodo tours
A single speedboat day that includes a Manta Point stop.
komodoluxury.com
Liveaboard charters
Multi-day access to Manta Point and Manta Alley, sleeping aboard.
komodoluxury.com
Komodo tours from Bali
For travellers starting outside Labuan Bajo.
komodoluxury.com
Labuan Bajo packages
Komodo National Park more broadly, beyond the manta sites.
komodoluxury.com
Ask a person instead
Dates, group size, snorkel or dive — the Komodo Luxury desk answers on WhatsApp.
Message the deskFrom the journal
Longer reads from the desk
Manta Guides
Whale Sharks, Turtles and Other Megafauna
Beyond reef manta rays, Manta Point Komodo (Karang Makassar) hosts blacktip and whitetip reef sharks, eagle rays, green turtles, and…
11 min
Read
Trip Planning
Reef-Safe Sunscreen for Manta Point
Wear mineral reef-safe sunscreen (zinc oxide or titanium dioxide, non-nano) for any Manta Point Komodo trip. We have not found…
17 min
Read
Manta Guides
How to Identify Individual Reef Mantas
Researchers identify individual reef manta rays by the unique pattern of dark spots on their belly, especially the area between…
13 min
Read
Beyond the manta sites
The rest of a Komodo trip
Mantas are all this desk covers. For the parts of Komodo that are not a cleaning station, these sister sites in the same group are where to look next.
Komodo diving tours
The park’s wider dive map — drifts, walls and reef sites away from the manta plateau.
komododivingtour.com
Boat & yacht charter
Speedboats, phinisi and yachts for day trips and overnight Komodo voyages.
charterlabuanbajo.com
Luxury liveaboard
Sleeping aboard between the park’s dive and snorkel sites over several days.
komodoliveaboardluxury.comReady to see the mantas at Karang Makassar?
Send Komodo Luxury your travel dates on WhatsApp. They will tell you which month suits what you want to see, put you on the right boat, and sort the park entry before you arrive.