Manta's economy rests on three pillars. Tuna dominates, with canneries and processing plants clustered near the port, shipping product to grocery stores across Europe and the United States. Coffee and cocoa pass through the city on their way to export markets. The third pillar is quieter and more artisanal: the tagua nut, sometimes called vegetable ivory, a hard seed from the tagua palm that local carvers shape into jewelry, figurines, buttons, and small sculptures. A good tagua carving can be mistaken for ivory at first glance. The trade began as a response to international ivory bans, and Ecuadorian carvers have developed it into a genuine craft tradition. In markets along the coast, tagua jewelry sells for a few dollars per piece, though serious carvers charge more for work that takes days to complete.

A string of beaches surrounds Manta, each with its own personality. La Tinosa runs three kilometers long, backed by sand dunes and ten-foot cactus. Linguique, about eighteen kilometers from the center, features rocky tide pools full of snails, octopus, and lobsters. San Lorenzo is best known for its rock formations, caves, and marine birds, plus the Isla de la Plata offshore. From June through September, humpback whales pass here, close enough to watch from the lighthouse on the point. The lighthouse climb is itself worth doing, often accompanied by the company of blue-footed boobies along the path. Santa Marianita, ten miles west of the city, is the kitesurfing beach, with consistent winds making it one of the better sites on the South American coast. San Mateo, a working fishing village, has the longest wave in Ecuador and a local surf scene that can be territorial toward outsiders.

Between 1999 and 2009, Manta's airport served a strange double function. By day it handled civilian flights. By day and night it also launched U.S. Air Force surveillance missions against Colombian drug cartels, part of an American anti-narcotics operation that used Manta as a forward base. The arrangement ended when the Ecuadorian government declined to renew the lease, and the last American aircraft departed in 2009. The base, Eloy Alfaro Air Base, continues to serve the Ecuadorian military. In 1996, years before the American operation began, a Boeing 707 cargo aircraft crashed into a wooden church in the city. The news reports noted, without editorial comment, that the statue of the virgin inside remained intact. Eight decades of aviation history have given Manta more stories than most port cities.

Manta hosts an International Theater Festival every September, drawing companies from across Latin America and beyond. The city has also become known for its international film festival, which has developed enough prestige to send Ecuadorian actors like Carlos Valencia to Cannes. The sporting calendar runs heaviest from January through April, football matches and tennis tournaments filling the stadium and the ATP Challenger Series venues. Between events, the city eats. Ceviche is the traditional dish, prepared with fresh Pacific shellfish marinated in lime and served cold with sliced red onion. Viche de pescado, a fish soup with peanuts and plantains, is the local comfort food. Fresh coconut juice and fruit smoothies on the Malecon complete the sensory experience that defines a Manta evening.

The Malecon arcs around the bay, always windblown, always several degrees cooler than the interior streets. In the evenings it becomes the city's social center: families walking with children, teenagers clustering around benches, vendors selling iced coconut water for a dollar. Cars cruise the main frontage with windows down, music playing, making the whole waterfront feel like one long slow dance. The Flavio Reyes corridor nearby holds the main nightlife, with clubs like Black Daddy, West End, Conga, and Krug running Latin music, electronic music, and karaoke until the early hours. Tourists are advised to take taxis even for short distances, to avoid flashing valuables, and to watch their drinks in bars. These are universal precautions for South American port cities. The rest of the time, Manta is just a coastal city doing what coastal cities do: working the water by day, walking the boardwalk by night.