What Manta Point is
Karang Makassar as a place: the plateau, the cleaning stations, and the depth figures everyone else gets wrong.
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The Guide
Everything this desk knows about Manta Point
A three-kilometre reef plateau in the channel between Komodo and Tatawa. Eight to eighteen metres, a flat USD 40–50 park fee, and reef mantas that live there rather than migrate through.
Plan your visitIn short
Most visitors reach it on a day trip or liveaboard from Labuan Bajo, snorkel or dive the 8–18 m plateau, and pay a flat USD 40–50 park fee. Twenty to forty minutes in the water per pass.
- A 3 km plateau, not an island
- Resident mantas — no closed season
- Dec–Mar for the largest gatherings
The canon
Every figure this site stands behind
One value per fact, repeated on every page. Where sources disagree we name the disagreement rather than averaging it away.
- Dive plateau
- 8–18 m
- Busiest cleaning band 10–15 m
- Snorkel shelf
- 2–5 m
- No certification needed
- Distance
- 40–45 km
- 1–1.5 hrs speedboat from Labuan Bajo
- Park entry
- USD 40–50
- Flat, foreign visitor, PP No. 36/2024
- In-water time
- 20–40 min
- Per pass, pickup boat trailing
- Manta size
- 3–4.5 m
- Reef manta, Mobula alfredi
- Distance rule
- 3 m
- Park-and-operator standard, not statute
- Peak gatherings
- Dec–Mar
- Plankton bloom, wet season
Since 1 April 2026 park entry is booked through SiOra at siora.id. Most operators handle it as part of the trip.
The guide
Start wherever your question is
Seven pages, each one holding a different part of the answer.
Map, distance & travel time
Coordinates, the crossing from Labuan Bajo, and why a multi-stop day arrives two hours later.
Read moreMarine life
Sharks, turtles, eagle rays and the fish schools — and the species other pages wrongly promise.
Read moreManta Alley
The southern site: colder, deeper, harder, and mostly liveaboard-only.
Read moreConservation & law
The 2014 decree, the IUCN listing, CITES, and why the three-metre rule is not statutory.
Read moreCompared with other sites
Batu Bolong, Pink Beach, Padar — and the other Manta Point, 500 km away near Bali.
Read morePhotos & where to shoot
Midday light, wide lenses, drone permits, and getting the frame without costing the site.
Read moreA day here
What actually happens
From the harbour to the water, for anyone who has not done it before.
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01
Leave Labuan Bajo
A half-day runs Manta Point alone. A full day usually adds Padar’s viewpoint and Pink Beach, which is why it reaches the mantas later.
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02
Take the briefing
The boat drift-positions near the plateau and the guide covers current direction, hand signals and the three-metre rule. Everyone enters together.
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03
Drift, do not swim
You cross the cleaning station with the current rather than swimming against it. Twenty to forty minutes per pass, with a pickup boat trailing the group.
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04
Back aboard
Snorkellers and divers use the same drift technique and the same distance rule. Numbers vary trip to trip — one manta, or several moving through at once.
Comfortable in open water for twenty to thirty minutes is the real requirement, and a life jacket covers most of the rest. Confirm the boat carries child sizes if you are bringing children.
First-timer questions
Ready when you are
Send Komodo Luxury your dates. 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.