Whale Watching excursions in Vancouver?

[jmz43]

Can anybody suggest any good whale watching excursions in Vancouver? Does not look like I will have an opportunity while on the Alaskan cruise given my current shore excursion setup. Thanks!

[tim agg]

Vancouver is not a good base for whale watching - your options in BC are Victoria for orcas, Tofino for grays, Prince Rupert for humpbacks and the north end of Vancouver Island for orcas and some humpbacks.

[sasco]

Hi - I was wondering whether you have any idea as to the chances of orca sightings in mid October from Victoria - thanks!

[Nanaimo Tour Guide]

Here is a link from Orca Network -a list of whale sighted from Oct 2004 to give you an idea of what you might see near Victoria that time of year!

Have fun!

 

http://www.orcanetwork.org/sightings/oct04.html

[TylerMan]

Vancouver is not a good base for whale watching - your options in BC are Victoria for orcas, Tofino for grays, Prince Rupert for humpbacks and the north end of Vancouver Island for orcas and some humpbacks.

Are you saying there it is not a good idea to book a whale watching excursion out of Vancouver? We are going to be there 5/26 and 5/27 and our son is interested in seeing some whales. I don't want to waste our money if we are not going to see anything. I have seen a couple of sights indicating the excursion is 4-5 hours long. Any recommendations on a good company or should I just pass on it? Thanks

[fozzyfoz]

Here's a link to a Vancouver company. They leave from Granville Island and the tour is 3-6 hours depending on how far they have to travel to the whales. http://www.whalesvancouver.com

 

Then click on maps and trip route for whale watching. It shows it takes you down to the San Juans where the whales are usually found. Sounds like a portion of the trip would be just getting to/from the whalesd and then actually being around the whales.

 

We are going to be in Victoria and are taking our whale watching trip from there but looks like Vancouver is an option just plan for some travel time (but if it's a beautiful day it would be a nice boat trip as well). I had considered Vancouver as well - but have never taken the actual tour to recommend it.

 

Summer months are prime season for Orcas - not sure when they start heading south.

[snowbird1]

Last year at almost exactly this time of the year I went on a whale watching trip in Victoria that my friend Michelle arranged. We had a great day with wonderful weather and saw a lot of Orca's. I was able to get some really nice pictures because it was such a nice day.