Whale watching in Seattle?

Usually the whale watching is done up in the San Juan's, north of Seattle. So you have to figure out how to get up there.

If you will have a rental car (or are willing to get one for the day), your best bet would be to look at a whale watching tour that goes out of Anacortes WA, or Friday Harbor WA.

Anacortes is about a 1.5 hour drive north of Seattle. The whale watching tours I'm familiar with there are larger boats - a bit more comfortable, but more people on the boat.

Friday Harbor WA is on San Juan Island - you'd need to drive to Anacortes, but you can park the car at the ferry terminal and walk on to the ferry. The ferry pulls right into the marina at Friday Harbor, the same place the whale watching tours leave from. If you plan to do this, check the ferry schedule carefully, not all ferries go to all islands, and you could be waiting a long time for the right ferry if your timing is off.

If you are shorter on time but have the funds to spare, you could take a floatplane trip to San Juan Island instead. Kenmore air has flights from South Lake Union - and the trip is spectacular.

http://www.kenmoreair.com/Whale-Watching-Tours

One tour that does leave from Seattle are the Victoria Clipper tours:

http://www.clippervacations.com/packages/whale-wat...

Reminders - it's always colder on the water than on shore - you'll probably want a jacket unless the temperatures are in the 90's.

The whales spend most of their time in the Salish Sea and/or around the San Juan Islands, so naturally most of the tours leave from that area.

If you're staying in Seattle and don't have a rental car, then your best option is probably the Victoria Clipper, their boats leave from the Seattle downtown waterfront area so its a short cab ride or bus from anywhere in Seattle.

http://www.clippervacations.com/multi-package/san-...

There are a few tours operating out of Anacortes. The advantage of these is that you don't have to take a ferry. That saves you about $50 for the ferry ride plus saves the time of waiting for and riding the ferry each way.

If don't mind the ferry ride (or want that as part of your Seattle experience anyway), then look for boats that leave from Friday Harbor in the San Juan Islands.

There are also some boats from Bellingham and some from Victoria BC.

A few things to keep in mind:

Temperatures are cooler and winds are higher on the water, so bring a coat or sweatshirt even if mainland weather looks nice.

The boats work together to find the whales, so all the tours have a "success" rate of about 95% - which means that there's roughly a 5% chance you won't see any whales. there's also plenty of trips where you barely see whales for a few minutes - but they count those as "successful" trips.

Some tours offer a guarantee but usually it just means that if you don't see whales you get a voucher for a free trip in the future. if you're only in town for a few days, this might be worthless because these trips fill up months in advance and your schedule might not give you time for another trip anyway. Keep in mind all the boats give you the same chances, if the whales are in the area your boat will find them.

The boats are required by law to stay back something like 200 yards. Those pictures on tour websites are taken with telephoto lenses and whales rarely jump out of the water like that. Typically all you see is some water spouts in the distance as the whales surface to breath. Bring your binoculars and a camera with a good zoom if you have them.

Pay attention to the size of the boat and what kinds of accommodations they offer. For example I saw one tour that was basically a small personal yacht, limited to 6 people per sailing, outdoor seating only with no interior cabin and the bathroom was basically a small outhouse in the bow. Tours range from that all the way up to large vessels that carry several hundred people per tour with heated indoor cabins, full service bathrooms and some may even have food available on board.

Even if you choose one of the larger vessels with indoor cabins you'll get the best views from the outdoor deck areas, so bring your coat anyway.

Your timing if perfect! July is generally the best time of the year to have a good chance of seeing orcas in the San Juan Islands. The easiest way to get there is to take the clipper from pier 69 in Seattle to San Juan Island: http://www.clippervacations.com/?npoCode=310605 If you don't have much time, the clipper offers their own whale watching add on, but I think it is better to take a separate whale watching trip on a smaller boat after you arrive in Friday Harbor. The smaller boat operators are all good. They all use the same whale spotting network and have a naturalist on board. Here is an article with more information: http://www.squidoo.com/San_Juan_Island

Sorry to barge in but if you still haven't taken the tour or for those checking this for suggestions, watch whales is one of the best there. The whales can be seen up to mid September and since they are members of Pacific Whale Watch Association, they know where the whales are at what time. Its worth checking out.

I have been on two of the whale watch boats, one from Anacortes and one from Bellingham. All the boats work togethere and have spotters in a plane. When whales are spotted, all the boats go to the same place, so it does not matter so much which one you go on. Anacortes is likely the closest, but not by much. It's likely to be cold out on the Salish Sea, so have warm clothes.

ask goofle ??? .... and natives do not like anything over 80*. And it is not chilly until it gets below 60*.

And God save us if the temps get up in the 90's. {Only happens for a few days once every 4 or 5 years.}

And it is illegal to harass the whales !!

None actually IN Seattle- you have to go out to the Islands