What this site is
whale-watching.tours is an atlas. Every place where people reliably go out to see whales gets a page, a pin on the world map, a season wheel and a price — so that the four questions that actually decide a trip can be answered in one sitting: which whales, which month, which boat, what it costs.
It covers six continents in four languages: English, German, Italian and Dutch. The English version is the source; the other three are translated from it, and operator reviews stay in English only.
Who writes it
An independent editorial team of travel writers and editors. We are not a tour operator, a booking platform, a marine park, a sanctuary or a regulator, and we have no commercial relationship with any of the companies reviewed here.
We do not write in the first person about trips we did not take. There are no invented anecdotes on this site, and where a claim cannot be checked against an official source, it does not appear.
How a page is built
Every page follows the same method.
Official sources first. Seasons, species lists, approach distances, park fees, permit rules, founding years and sighting guarantees are taken from the authority or the company that publishes them — a fisheries regulator, a national or marine park, a tourism board, an operators' association, or the operator's own site — and are cited at the foot of the page with a link. Nothing is taken on trust from another travel site.
A shared facts file. Each verified fact is logged with its source URL and the date it was checked, so that every writer on the project works from the same record and an editor can re-check any line.
Live prices. Tour prices, durations, ratings and review counts come from the GetYourGuide feed and nowhere else. The date of the last refresh is printed at the bottom of every page, next to the date the page itself was updated. Prices are checked regularly.
No year, ever. Nothing here is dated to a calendar year, because a guide that says "the best tours this year" is wrong within months. Seasons are given as months; currency figures carry their refresh date.
Photographs. Every image is from Wikimedia Commons under a free licence, with the photographer and the licence credited under the picture and listed in full on the photo credits page.
How we are paid
Booking links on this site point to GetYourGuide. If you book through one, we may earn a commission; you pay the same price either way. Those links are marked as sponsored, do not pass search authority, and go straight to GetYourGuide with no redirect on our side.
That is the whole business model. No operator has ever paid to appear here, to rank higher, or to have a review changed, and none will. Where the honest answer is that a place has no tours worth booking, or that an operator's guarantee is weaker than it looks, the page says so.
Corrections
If something here is out of date, incomplete or wrong, tell us: team@whale-watching.tours. Include the page address and, if you have it, a link to the official page that settles the point. Operators are welcome to send updates about their own fleet, season, prices or policies — we will check them against the published source and update the page and its facts record.
What we cannot do is take or change a booking, chase a refund, or contact an operator on your behalf. The contact page explains what to send where.
Questions people ask
Are you a whale-watching operator?
No. We do not own boats, sell tickets or take bookings. We are not affiliated with any operator, marine park, sanctuary, NOAA, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, the IWC, the Icelandic Whale Watching Association or GetYourGuide. If you need to change a booking, contact the operator or the platform you bought it from.
How do you make money?
Through affiliate links to GetYourGuide. If you book after following one, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Commission plays no part in what a page says, which places rank where, or how an operator is reviewed.
Where do your prices come from?
From the live GetYourGuide feed, refreshed on the date printed at the foot of every page. English pages show US dollars; the German, Italian and Dutch versions show euros. Operators' own prices are quoted only from their own websites and attributed.
How do I report a mistake?
Email team@whale-watching.tours with the page address and, where possible, a link to the official source. Corrections from operators about their own fleet, season or prices are welcome and are checked against the published page before we change anything.
Updated October 10, 2026 · partner prices refreshed October 6, 2026
