Best Whale Watching: Juneau, Ketchikan or Sitka?

[HermmyGranger]

I will be taking a cruise at the end of September with stops in Juneau, Ketchikan, and Sitka. I am wondering which port I should do my whale watching tour from. I know there are options in any of the three, but I'm wondering if one is better than the others.

[martincath]

Definitely Juneau. It's closer to major humpback feeding grounds, where all the tours from there and ISP go with 100% sightings.

 

With Sitka being on the seaward side of Baranoff Island whales are much harder to find - in general boat tours are more general 'wildlife' tours and otter- and puffin-specific tours rather than whale-watching tours and I don't recall Ketchikan having much in the way of whale-watching either. I'm sure you could book a custom charter in either and say "Find me whales cap'n!" but the odds of success will be much lower than from Juneau.

[Grandma Cruising]

I'd agree, we had a great whale watching tour in Juneau. We saw humpbacks very close up.

 

 

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