Coral Bay
A tiny, laid-back town where the Ningaloo reef begins right off the sand.
Coral Bay is a single street of caravan parks, a resort and a small shopping arcade running down to Bill’s Bay, on the southern tip of Ningaloo Reef about 150 km south of Exmouth. It is the smaller, quieter of Ningaloo’s two reef bases — a permanent population of a couple of hundred that swells with visitors over the cooler months — and it trades resort polish for the simple fact that world-class coral starts metres from the beach.
The draw is the reef and the wildlife: calm, sheltered snorkelling straight off the sand, manta rays that live here year-round, and a shallow reef-shark nursery you can walk to. Services are deliberately limited — there is a nursing post but no hospital or pharmacy, a couple of shops and a fuel station — so a little planning goes a long way.
Things to do here
- Quad-bike snorkel safari · Year-round; snorkel stops are tide-dependent.Ride a quad along the beach to remote reef you can’t reach without a 4WD.
- Reef fishing charter · Year-round (best May–Aug)Head out past the reef for coral trout, emperor and pelagics — outside the sanctuary zones.
- Coral Bay scenic flight · Year-round; wildlife-spotting best Mar–Oct.See the reef, the lagoon and the wildlife from the air — flights leave the town airstrip.
More info
- town
- reef off the beach
- family
- manta rays
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