Stingray City snorkel trip

The rays aren't fenced in. A five-minute speedboat ride from the land base at Seaton's Village crosses between the offshore islands to a shallow pool with a white sand bottom ringed by reef, and the southern stingrays swim up as the boat moors. You climb down from a floating platform and stand or swim among them, holding and feeding them while a guide explains what you are handling, then snorkel the coral nearby.

Children are welcome and life jackets are handed out. Back on shore there is a shower under a coconut palm and a glass of rum or fruit punch on the house. The same base runs trips to Laviscount Island, a small private island with more than 50 Aldabra giant tortoises, iguanas, parrots, walking trails, a beach and mangrove snorkelling, which can be combined with the rays.