Courtesy Manta ResortA stay in the Underwater Room at Manta Resort is a transporting, immersive experience.
On northern Pemba Island, Zanzibar, the Manta Resort takes immersive travel to new depths.
Zanzibar is made up of two major islands—Unguja (commonly referred to as Zanzibar) and the less visited Pemba. While Unguja welcomes hundreds of thousands of tourists annually, Pemba remains the preserve of intrepid travelers. Access is via a short flight from Unguja or Arusha, followed by a 90-minute drive past clove plantations and old-growth forest.
Despite the remote setting and the absence of in-room Wi-Fi, this isn’t a place for roughing it. The all-inclusive resort offers a beachfront restaurant serving decadent multicourse meals, and you’ll find an assortment of fruity cocktails at the beach bar. Guests get a daily pampering at the spa, which specializes in aromatherapy and deep-tissue massage treatments designed to lull you into island life. And the cozy open-air lounge areas are the perfect place to reflect on the day’s diving (note that dives are not included in the all-inclusive pricing).
Book the signature Underwater Room for the ultimate immersive experience. Floating about 800 feet offshore, reef fish drift past your windows as you fall asleep in a submerged bedroom encased in glass. Large windows surround the sleeping area, allowing guests to watch the marine life, like an inverted aquarium where guests are the ones on display. Above, a sea-level deck is ideal for lounging, while the rooftop offers a private spot for sunbathing and cocktails. A dedicated phone connects you to the main property. A second, larger underwater room will debut at the end of 2025.
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Courtesy Manta ResortMagical views are everywhere, ideal for decompressing after a day of diving.
Tayla Saunders, PADI Master Scuba Diver Trainer at the Manta Resort, jokes that she wouldn’t sleep much in this room. Guests can turn on a soft light to attract plankton to the windows. Where small fish gather, bigger ones follow.
“The evening starts calm and easy,” says Saunders. “Suddenly, you see massive schools of predators like big-eye trevally swimming around the room.” Because the room has 360-degree views, you don’t even have to leave your bed to watch it all unfold.
Though the draw of Underwater Room is understandably huge, the most remarkable element at this resort is its ethos. Through the Kwanini Foundation, the resort helps safeguard Pemba’s fragile marine ecosystems and supports the sustainable development of its surrounding communities.
In 2012, in partnership with local leaders, the resort established a no-take marine zone that spans more than a half mile of coastline and stretches for just over 800 feet offshore. Here, fish populations once decimated by illegal blast fishing—an outlawed practice using explosives to kill fish en masse—are making a steady recovery. A portion of the proceeds from the Underwater Room goes to the Kwanini Foundation.
“This no-take zone has created a safe space for juvenile fish and for adult fish to reproduce safely, especially during spawning aggregations,” says Saunders.
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Courtesy Manta ResortA diver discovers the wonders of diving in a thriving marine protected area.
It’s common to see schools of big-eye trevallies, fusiliers, surgeonfish and red-toothed triggerfish. Octopus populations have flourished and take refuge in the preserve’s shallows. Snorkelers and divers can spend their mornings observing these clever cephalopods mating, changing color or squeezing into impossibly small crevices on the house reef.
Guests can join a paid morning snorkel through the reserve, with proceeds supporting the Kwanini Foundation. The funds are used to train and employ local rangers who patrol the reef and remove illegal fishing gear.
For those who want to go deeper, the Manta Resort is a Five Star PADI Dive Center with access to more than a dozen dive sites, including the coral-covered seascapes near Njao and Fun-do islands, about 30 minutes to an hour away by boat. During a surface interval, divers might spot the endangered Indian Ocean humpback dolphin, distinguished by its small hump and dorsal fin. Sea turtles, other dolphin species and reef mantas are frequent animal celeb sightings.
“Underwater, there’s lettuce coral as far as the eye can see,” says Saunders. Gorgonian fans and anemone gardens adorn the reefs, with fabulous nudibranchs rewarding divers who have an eye for detail.
“Every dive is a Dive Against Debris,” says Saunders, giving a nod to PADI’s marine cleanup initiative. Divers and their guides collect trash or stray fishing gear they find—fortunately, the reefs here are mostly free of trash.
Courtesy Manta ResortA nudibranch crawls along the reef in search of its next meal.
The waters in the Pemba Channel, between Pemba Island and mainland Tanzania, host more than half of Tanzania’s coral reefs and over 40 species of threatened marine animals, including green and hawksbill sea turtles, Napoleon wrasses, dugongs and reef manta rays.
Zanzibar’s government and Blue Alliance, a nonprofit focused on marine protection, established these waters as the Pemba Channel Conservation Area. This has helped local communities transition from unsustainable fishing practices to new careers in seaweed farming, sea cucumber hatcheries and marine patrolling as part of Tanzania’s growing blue economy.
Divers can also help monitor crown-of-thorns starfish populations, gathering data for researchers at Blue Alliance. Though visually striking, these coral-eating starfish have few natural predators and can devastate reefs once their numbers surge. Divers also track sightings of the endangered Napoleon wrasse, citing their size and location.
The resort’s marine education programs, in collaboration with local communities, have helped spark a growing movement to protect sea turtles. Eggs from green and hawksbill turtles are considered a delicacy in the region, which contributed to their declining numbers.
Today, when locals discover a turtle nest, they can alert rangers who relocate the nest to the resort’s protected shoreline; the eggs are safeguarded and hatchlings stand a far greater chance of reaching the ocean. This year, 339 hatchlings from 13 nests made their way to the sea.
Even at max capacity, the beaches and dive sites won’t feel crowded. The dry season spans from June to October, with a second dry season in January and February (December is also pleasant). The Underwater Room books out far in advance. If you’re dreaming of a peaceful retreat into nature where the marine life is its main allure, the Manta Resort is a top contender.
