The whales are somewhere every month. Here is where.
Which boats get close without chasing, what a morning off Tenerife costs against a day out of Juneau, and when the humpbacks have already moved on. Reviews of the whale trips you can book today.
Four whale watching mornings worth building a trip around.
Alaska, the Canaries, Reykjavik and the Massachusetts coast. What each costs, and what the people on board said.
01AlaskaJuneau Wildlife Whale WatchingHumpbacks bubble-net feeding in the passages south of Juneau, with the engine cut so they can work.
02The CanariesTenerife: Eco-Yacht Whale and Dolphin Watching and SwimmingPilot whales sit in the channel off Tenerife all year. This boat keeps its distance and lets you swim afterwards.
03IcelandReykjavík: Whale Watching and Marine Life CruiseOut of the old harbour into Faxaflói bay for minke and humpback, with a guide naming everything that surfaces.
04New EnglandWhale Watching Tour in GloucesterStellwagen Bank, an hour off Gloucester, is where the humpbacks feed all summer.
Whale watching runs on three things: the season, the sea and the boat.
Whales move. Most coasts have a window of a few months and nothing outside it, so the calendar picks the country more often than the country picks the trip. Then there is the water. An open inflatable in a two-metre swell is a different day out from a covered catamaran, and the fast boats usually set a minimum age of five or eight. Sailings get cancelled for wind, not for rain.
Six coasts where the whales turn up on schedule.
Cold northern feeding grounds, warm winter nurseries, and one island group where a resident pod never leaves at all. The trips worth booking on each.
Iceland and Arctic Norway: whale watching in water that never warms up.
Húsavík built a town on it. Boats leave the north Icelandic coast for minke, humpback and the occasional blue whale from spring through autumn, and in winter the orcas follow the herring into the fjords around Tromsø. Bring more layers than you think you need, and take the sea-sickness tablet before you board.
Alaska, Hawaii or California: three American whale seasons, three different animals.
The United States offers a choice almost nowhere else can. Humpbacks feeding in southeast Alaska through the summer, the same population breeding off Maui in the winter, and grays and blues passing the California coast in between. Pick the month, then pick the coast.
The boat decides a whale watching day almost as much as the whales do.
A big covered cruiser buys you a heated cabin, a toilet and a slow approach. A rigid inflatable puts you low, fast and wet. A sailing catamaran gets quiet enough that you hear the blow before you see it. None of the three is the right answer for everybody.
The whale watching trips more travellers take than any other.
Every whale trip we have reviewed →The boats that fill up first, from a cheap morning in the Tenerife channel to a full day out of a cruise berth in Juneau.
1
Tenerife: Eco-Yacht Whale and Dolphin Watching and Swimming
Review of Tenerife’s ethical eco-yacht whale and dolphin tour from Los Cristianos, with swimming, snorkeling, the Cave of Love, and practical tips.
From · $13
Read our review →
2
Los Cristianos Respectful No-Chase Whale and Dolphin Safari
from $29
3
Reykjavík: Whale Watching and Marine Life Cruise
from $87
4
From Funchal: Ecological Catamaran Dolphin Whale Watching
from $41
5
Juneau Wildlife Whale Watching
from $177
6
Juneau Wildlife Whale Watching & Mendenhall Glacier
from $249
7
Funchal: Dolphin and Whale Watching Catamaran Cruise
from $41
8
Costa Adeje: Whale & Dolphin Eco-Cruise with Snacks & Drinks
from $52
Tenerife has whales on every day of the year.
A resident pod of short-finned pilot whales lives in the deep channel between Tenerife and La Gomera, and bottlenose dolphins work the same water. No season to wait for and no migration to miss. Boats leave from Los Cristianos, Los Gigantes and Costa Adeje, and the good ones idle rather than chase.
Every whale trip in Spain →The humpback highway: Australia gets the same whales twice.
Between May and November tens of thousands of humpbacks run north along the east coast to breed, then back south again with calves alongside. Hervey Bay is where they stop and rest, which is why encounters there are long and close instead of a passing blow. Sydney and the Gold Coast catch them on the move.
- 1Sydney: Whale Watching Adventure Cruisefrom $63
- 2Brisbane Whale Watching Cruise from Redcliffe or Sunshine Coastfrom $114
- 3Freedom 3/4 Day Hervey Bay Premium Whale Watching Cruisefrom $125
What a whale watching trip really costs, from Tenerife to Alaska.
Every priced trip on the site, grouped by what one adult pays. The gap between a short island boat and a full day in Alaska is wider than most people expect.
Short island boats and the resident-pod trips that sail all year round.
The standard half day: covered cruisers, catamarans and guided sailings.
Alaska, Arctic Norway, private charters and the fly-out days.
Humpbacks, orcas, gray whales: three animals you can plan a trip around.
Plenty of boats sell you whales and leave the species to luck. These three are predictable enough to book a flight for.
Humpbacks
The humpback is the reason whale watching became an industry. It breaches, it slaps its tail, it lifts a four-metre pectoral fin clear of the water for no obvious reason, and it does all of that close to boats. Numbers recovered strongly after commercial hunting stopped, and the migration is regular enough that Hervey Bay, Maui and southeast Alaska each built a season around the same animals.
- 1Humpback Whales in Cabo San Lucas★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 1,005 reviews
- 2Swim with humpback whales★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 224 reviews
- 3Humpback whale watching and marine life in Moorea★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 199 reviews
Orcas
Orcas are the reason to book in winter. Around Tromsø they follow the herring into the fjords from November, and in the Salish Sea between Vancouver Island and Washington the resident pods are tracked and named individually. They travel in family groups and they move fast, so a sighting usually means a whole pod crossing in front of the bow rather than one animal surfacing.
- 1From Tromsø: All-Inclusive Whale & Orca Safari★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 1,221 reviews
- 2Orcas Island Whale Watching★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 442 reviews
- 3Orca Cove Sea Kayaking★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 322 reviews
Gray whales
Gray whales make one of the longest migrations of any mammal, from the Bering Sea down to the lagoons of Baja California and back again. In the lagoons the mothers are famously curious and will bring a calf alongside a small boat. On the way past California the same whales stay close enough to shore for a two-hour trip out of San Diego or Dana Point to find them.
- 1Full Day Gray Whale Watching Experience★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 53 reviews
- 2Gray Whale Watching Tour with Marine Biologist and Small Group★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 37 reviews
- 3Gray Whales Watching in Magdalena Bay★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 25 reviews
Four whale watching seasons that will not wait for your holiday.
Plenty of whale trips can be arranged the night before. These four cannot. The animals arrive on their own calendar, the permits are capped, and once a season closes the boats stop sailing altogether.
- 01Samana: Whale Watching and Cayo Levantado Full Day TourHumpbacks are only in Samaná bay from mid January to late March, and the number of boats allowed near them is capped.
- 02Freedom 3/4 Day Hervey Bay Premium Whale Watching CruiseHervey Bay works from roughly July to October, while the migration is resting inside the bay. Outside that the whales are simply somewhere else.
- 03Húsavík: Whale Watching Tour with GuideHúsavík sails from spring to autumn. There is no winter whale watching from the north coast of Iceland.
- 04Hermanus: Boat Based Whale Watching ExperienceSouthern right whales are off Hermanus from June to November, and the boat-based permits there are limited by law.
Whale coasts, country by country
Every kind of whale watching day
Somewhere in the world the whales are arriving this month.
Samaná
HúsavíkThe whale boats we have just finished reviewing.
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RIB Whale Watching Small-Group Boat Tour from Reykjavik
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Port Stephens 3 Hour Whale and Dolphin Watch Cruise
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