Journey:

A pretty long 9 hour journey from Quito cost us $10 each, and another $3 in a taxi to our hotel. The bus was pretty empty though and unlike Colombia we haven’t yet had to pay extra for the surfboard (hooray.)

Accommodation:

Hostel Rosa Mar. There is not a lot of accommodation options in Manta (because there is pretty much no reason to come here.) Hostel Rosa Mar was good for a couple of nights (except for the very patchy wifi) and they were nice enough to refund us when we changed our booking from 3 nights to 2 (after we had very quickly worked out there was absolutely nothing to do.)

Sights/activities:

‘Surfing’:

So when we were planning our trip Thomas made a list of the best surf spots in the countries that we absolutely had to go to. Now on this trip we’ve learnt the thing with surfing is that if you are unlucky (which we had definitely been on this trip where surfing was concerned) there might be absolutely no swell and thus no waves (and when I say no waves I mean no waves.) Consequently, if you’re planning a surf trip you have to be extra flexible with where you want to go as you never know where the good waves are going to be until a couple of days before (or even the day itself.)

Manta is meant to be a great surfing spot in Ecuador and I’m sure if there is surf it’s maybe a more fun area but when we were there (sans waves) it was very boring, and so we made the decision to leave a day earlier. (Apparently the best surf spots are San Mateo and San Lorenzo but we wouldn’t know.)

Playa Murcielago

The most busy beach in Manta (apparently – we went in low season so it was more like completely empty.) It’s nothing to rave about. It’s a kind of average beach. I don’t know what more you can really say here.

Montecristo

The only good part of our trip to Manta was going to Montecristo. Just a short taxi drive from Manta ($5), or you can get the bus for very cheap too, sits Montecristo famous for creating the Panama hat.

Mr Fashionista had to get one (apparently I looked like a lesbian in one) and there were masses to choose from. Loads of shops just off the centre sold good quality hats (the better the quality the less transparent they are.) Thomas got a nice one for $50, but the prices ranged from about $20 to $200 or even more. Montecristo was prettier than Manta too so was well worth going to for a couple of hours.

Food:

On our first night we arrived quite late and couldn’t find any where to get some food so ended up eating a couple of empanadas at a restaurant next to our hotel. I don’t know if these were the actual prices or whether we were gringo scammed but we were charged $9 for had 3 empanadas and a drink each which is very expensive (empanadas are really only a snack and in Quito we had paid $3 each for a 2 course meal.) We struggled to find any good, cheap food in Manta, just adding to our dislike for the place.

Summary:

Basically just don’t bother to go here. There are better surf spots in towns with more character so there’s really no reason to go to Manta, other than for a short trip to Montecristo. Although, fun fact: it’s one of the biggest places for tuna fishing and tuna canning in the world. (I mean it’s not really a fun fact but Manta isn’t overly interesting.)