Diving & Travel Guide to Yap

About Yap

Yap is one of the world's great manta ray destinations, home to the most reliable manta cleaning stations on the planet at Mi'il Channel, where up to 15 reef mantas hover year-round. Beyond the mantas, Yap offers thrilling shark diving at organised feeds, dramatic vertical walls draped in gorgonians, swim-through caverns and vibrant macro sites. Goofnuw Channel brings seasonal manta aggregations and grey reef sharks, Gilman Wall and Vertigo deliver pelagics including hammerheads, and Magic Kingdom is a macro paradise of nudibranchs, frogfish and pygmy seahorses. The island's unique stone-money culture and lush, traditional villages add a rich cultural layer topside. Calm lagoons suit training and night dives, while the outer reefs challenge advanced divers with current. Yap is a complete Pacific diving experience.

Highlights

• ✓Mi'il Channel: The world's most reliable manta ray cleaning stations, year-round encounters.
• ✓Yap Shark Dive: An organised feed with dozens of grey reef and whitetip sharks.
• ✓Gilman Wall: A gorgonian-covered wall with sharks, turtles and schooling fish.
• ✓Magic Kingdom: A vibrant coral garden and macro haven for nudibranchs and pygmy seahorses.

Getting There

Yap is reached by international flight to Yap International Airport (YAP) at Colonia, via Guam and Honolulu with United Airlines and connections through Pohnpei. Dive boats from Colonia reach Mi'il Channel and the outer reefs in 15 to 30 minutes. The island's small size keeps every site close.