Whale Watching??

[ngallag]

I was very lucky in Alaska and saw many whales there--mostly from a distance. No close up experience with whale halitosis thank God!

[shygirl724]

Alaska cruises are a great way to see whales while sitting on your balcony or from any ship window. We saw many when taking a cruise there 2 years ago.



Another favorite location for us is the San Juans in Washington State. The Puget Sound has pods of small killer whales that live there year 'round. We have been out on our boat when they come near us. We just shut down and sit. The whales will come up next to the boat and "blow".



There is a new lovely LL property at Friday Harbor in the islands. You can take a whale watching tour from there. http://www.sanjuansafaris.com/ We are currently in the "whale watching season" until October, if you want to see more variety and some of the larger whales.



L ~

[thepiranha]

Shygirl, it looks like we travel in the same circles. We saw tons of whales on our Alaska cruise last summer. Juneau was one of our ports and we took a side trip called Best of Juneau that included a whale watching trip. It was awesome.



I also went whale watching in the San Juans when I lived on Whidbey Island. We took a small boat from Whidbey to Friday Harbor and saw several pods of orcas.



Thanks for the San Juan whale watching link.

[ShiningLight]

In addition to the web site thepiranha referenced (Pacific Whale - which has lots of typical photos from their outings from Maui), should people go to Maui, they should not miss the outstanding exhibits and aquariums at the www.MauiOceanCenter.com .

And..... TA DA! Both have excellent gift shops with well designed T-shirts, jewelry, inside and outside wall decorations, etc. We had some things mailed home to us due to what the weight would do to our luggage allowance.

Maui is another place where you can watch the whales from your launi (balcony) and other spots. A couple, participants of our Exploritas program had taken a week to relax before the program, and both had intended to catch up on reading, sun, and snoozing. Instead they were constantly fascinated by what was happening in the water with the whales.

LL has several Maui properties where these activities can be enjoyed. Season in Hawai'i is generally Dec to April, and then they go back to Alaska to feed.

[bonniejoy03]

Thanks for the info. I will be going on a dolphin/whale ride in December in Costa Rica. Probably won't see whales but at least I might be in the right place at the right time! I heard further south in Drake Bay area is a great place to catch the migration. Thanks again!!

[kyshel]

we had dolphins chasing us all over Papagayo Bay (Guanacaste area)
apparently we were the only boat that day with an entourage

[shygirl724]

I just saw a cool video clip on the news of a grey whale spotted yesterday feeding in Puget Sound. http://www.komonews.com/home/video/91558019.htm Shy ~Message Edited by shygirl724 on 04-19-2010 06:17 PM

[shygirl724]

I didn't know that you could whale watch in the Dominican Republic. I found this article interesting:

Humpback Whales Hit Hispaniola For Spring Break
http://www.foxnews.com/leisure/2011/...-spring-break/

Shy ~

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I am going on a whale watching excursion when I go to Mexico in March on the Puerta Vallarta portion - whale watching off the pacific coast of Mexico runs December through the end of March and is supposed to be very good - the tour company I am going with just sent me a video saying "the whales are here" Bay of Banderas at PV - looks pretty good. We did go on a whale watching excursion when we went to Maine one August but we had to go pretty far off the coast to see any - which we did. Costa Rica is good for seeing lots of land animals but I found the snorkeling and other water activities off the Pacific Coast there to be pretty rough and we did not see much since the water and waves were very rough - we had gone to Costa Rica in October - mostly to see the turtle nesting which was awesome!

[bonniejoy03]

Hope you see some whales D! Another good spot is Baja California. I still haven't seen any whales and really would love to see them. I did find interesting information that whales can be seen in the Azores.