Whale Watching in Southern California

Since moving to California I have gone on two whale watching excursions. They have both been AMAZING! If you are visiting southern California or live here and want to go, you should check out Davey’s Locker! I know a lot of people will go on whale watching tours and not see anything but with this one, I promise you will. It’s also very affordable. The cheapest one starts at $26 for 2 hours, but if you buy it through an ad, it’s only $16. You can just search “whale watching in Newport beach” and you should find an ad that say it’s $16. You can just click on it to go to their website for the special price. The crew is super knowledgeable and really know where to go. I recommend sitting at the bow of the boat because dolphins will swim right near the front and you can look down on them. It also makes it super easy to see to the port or starboard side. Whale season is year long. You can just see different types, depending on when you go. Gray whales are pretty easy to spot if you go around February and March. Just do some research to find the best times. I really want to go again in the summer when it is blue whale season.

I went today with my fiancé and we saw seven gray whales. I have ALWAYS wanted to see whales in the wild. It’s literally on my bucket list. I’ve been going to various spots across the area to see if I can see any from the shore but hadn’t had much luck (saw a spout of water). This was such a satisfying experience because you can get pretty close to the whales. We were much closer to some of them then the ones in the pictures but they are difficult to photograph. For a while, the boat was riding along three that kept popping up for air. You could see the spots on their bodies. We also saw some sea lions hanging out on a buoy.

The first time I went whale watching was in early December with my sister. We went with the same company, on the same tour. We didn’t see any whales but we did see hundreds of dolphins (yes, hundreds). We ended up seeing several separate pods, and all four of the species that live in southern California. They were jumping out of the water and swimming along the front of the boat. It was so amazing to see. It was honestly one of the coolest things that I have ever done. Once again, if you go, sit at the bow so you can look down on dolphins swimming along with you. Common dolphins are my favorite because they are the smallest and seem to have the most energy. They jump like crazy and just look like a bunch of baby dolphins. I plan on going again this summer. I’m hoping to see a blue whale. I’m not sure how likely that is but I also would love to see more dolphins like I did the first time.