Last month a guest came out with us who had been whale watching on four continents. Fifteen tours, in Mauritius, Norway, South Africa, New Caledonia and here in Sydney. This is what they left on our Google profile afterwards.
I did around 15 whale watching tours in my life in Mauritius, Norway, South Africa, New Caledonia and Sydney last year.
But this one today was by far the very best!!! Super nice, competent and funny captain who explained a lot about the whales. We saw multiple times so called double breaches (which is super rare). Since it’s a speedboat it is way easier to reach the whales than on these slower boats. Will definitely book it again! Thank you so much for an unforgettable experience
Dr. Dani, five star Google review
That is a big call from someone with fifteen tours behind them, on four continents. What makes a day like that possible off Sydney comes down to the numbers, and they are worth knowing.
About 40,000 humpbacks go past Sydney every year
According to NSW Environment and Heritage, around 40,000 humpback whales leave the krill rich waters of Antarctica each autumn and travel north along the NSW coastline. They make a round trip of roughly 10,000 kilometres, one of the longest migrations undertaken by any mammal, and they grow up to 16 metres long.
That is the part worth sitting with. Forty thousand animals the length of a bus, swimming past the front of a city of more than five million people, twice a year, every year.
Sixty years ago it was almost over. Whaling had cut the east coast population so far back that the last whaling station in New South Wales, at Byron Bay, closed in 1962 because there were too few whales left to catch. What people watch from our deck today is a recovery, not a constant.
What makes Sydney unusual is not just the number of whales. It is how close the highway runs to the city. The migration passes the entrance to the harbour, so we head out through the heads to the water off North Head at Manly, where the whales are travelling. You can be standing in the middle of the CBD in the morning and be watching a humpback that afternoon.
What a double breach actually is
A breach is when a whale throws most of its body clear of the water and lands back with an enormous amount of spray. Nobody is completely certain why they do it. The leading explanations are communication, shifting parasites off the skin, or simply because a forty tonne animal can.
What our guest called a double breach is two whales going up together, or one whale going up twice in quick succession. It is the kind of thing that empties every camera battery on the boat.
Breaching is the behaviour our guests mention most in their reviews, and on a good day it happens again and again. Nobody can put it on a schedule, which is exactly why people talk about it for years afterwards.
Amazing tour! I joined the afternoon trip and got incredibly lucky with the whales — we saw three very active ones breaching every few minutes! It was such an unforgettable experience. The guides were friendly, knowledgeable, and made the whole trip even better. Highly recommend!
Felix Magiera, five star Google review
The one thing we do guarantee
We back ourselves with a whale guarantee. If whales are not spotted on your first cruise, you rebook within five days of your original trip and come back out with us again, free of charge.
Through the season our skippers are out on that water every day, and they know where the whales have been moving all week. That local knowledge is the real reason guests see what they see.
Our boat has changed since some of these reviews
You will see the old boat mentioned in some of our earlier reviews. Guests last season were on a smaller, quicker vessel, and several of them wrote about the ride.
Our whale cruises now run on Port Venture, an 18.5 metre custom catamaran that arrived in Sydney this year. It has five viewing levels and wide decks, so there is room to move around and find your own spot rather than queueing for a rail. It is built for stability in Sydney conditions, and it is fully wheelchair accessible, with a roll on, roll off ramp and accessible amenities on board.
Port Venture is a steadier, roomier boat with far more room to spread out, and a much better one for anybody who is nervous about the open water or travelling with a pram, a wheelchair or small children.
What other guests have said
This was honestly the best whale watching tour I’ve ever done. Skipper Dylan was absolutely amazing – so friendly, knowledgeable and clearly passionate about what he does. The deckhand was also incredibly kind and made everyone feel really welcome and safe on board. … We saw so many whales, and the most incredible part was how close they came to the boat – they actually came right up to us. It felt so special and unreal to experience them that way in the wild.
Lena Deiritz, five star Google review
Such a surreal experience with a very experienced and passionate skipper by the name of Dylan as well as “deckhand Dan”. … Both were happy to answer any questions I had and overall made it a very comfortable experience as it was my first real time out in open water and I was quite nervous. I left with a new, keen interest in marine life.
Madison Blackburn, five star Google review
The pattern across them is not really about whales. It is the crew. Almost every review names the skipper or the deckhand, which tells you what actually makes three hours at sea good or forgettable.
When to come
Sydney’s whale watching season runs from May to November. NSW Environment and Heritage puts the northward migration between May and July, and the return south, when mothers travel with their calves, from September to November. Both halves are worth seeing, and they look quite different.
If you are planning it, two things are worth reading first: the best time of day to go out, and what to wear, which people underestimate every single season. It is always colder out past the heads than it is on the wharf.
Tours have limited tickets and they do sell out, so book as far ahead as you can. We depart daily from King Street Wharf 6 in Darling Harbour, which is Darling Harbour and not Circular Quay, and the cruise runs for three hours out past the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge to the whale grounds off North Head.
So, is Sydney one of the best places in the world to see whales? We are biased. But a guest who has done this in Norway, South Africa, Mauritius and New Caledonia thinks so, and 40,000 humpbacks a year seem to agree.
See our Sydney whale watching cruises, or read our departure information before you come down to the wharf.