Creating the Ultimate Diving Experience – mantaray.com

Macdonald Design LLC was approached by the owners of the Manta Ray Bay Resort, a boutique resort located on the island of Yap in Micronesia, to create a new website that would reflect the unique nature of the resort and offer a seamless online experience for visitors. Having previously worked with the resort (mantaray.com v2), we were excited to take on the challenge of creating what the owners desired, the “best dive website in the world”.

The brief was clear: the website needed to capture the essence of the resort, offering visitors the chance to experience the feeling of sitting at the resort’s restaurant, talking about their dives that day, while enjoying a locally-caught meal and sipping on award-winning microbrew made at the resort. With this in mind, we set about building a custom WordPress theme from the ground up.

The first step was to port over the existing content and reorganize it with the resort’s experiences in mind. We collected over 3,700 stunning photos, taken by award-winning photographers, to showcase the resort’s unique surroundings and world-class diving experiences. The content was sorted and made easily accessible, with 108 pages, 36 dive sites, 35 rooms, and 458 blog posts.

To truly immerse visitors in the resort’s atmosphere, we integrated social media feeds and 35 videos and vide headers, bringing the resort to life with all its sights and sounds. The website also highlights the resort’s individuality, with 30 individually-themed unique rooms, a private pool, and an on-site spa.

The heart of the resort is its dive operation, which takes guests to over 50 dive spots around Yap, including manta ray dives, shark dives, and a wealth of unique South Pacific sealife. With water temperatures of 80 degrees and underwater visibility well over 100 feet, this is truly a diver’s paradise. And for those looking to explore beyond the water, the resort offers private beach BBQ trips, cultural tours of the unique island, and its inhabitants, WWII history tours, and guided kayak tours through the majestic mangroves.

The result is a website that truly captures the unique spirit of the Manta Ray Bay Resort, showcasing the stunning surroundings and world-class experiences that await visitors. The new website offers a seamless online experience that brings the resort to life, with a custom theme that truly reflects the feeling of being there. Check it out at mantaray.com .