Whale watching near me: the nearest port from wherever you are

"Whale watching near me" has two honest answers. If you live on the right coast, the nearest boat is closer than the nearest decent beach — Long Beach is 33 km from downtown Los Angeles, the Old Harbour is a walk from central Reykjavík, and Sydney's boats leave from Circular Quay. If you live anywhere else, the nearest port is a flight, and the month you go matters far more than the distance you travel.

Use the finder for the first answer. Use the city sections below for the second.

The button asks your browser for your position, compares it with every port pinned on this atlas, and ranks the six closest. It runs entirely in this page: your coordinates never reach us, and nothing is stored. If you would rather not share your location, the map does the same job by eye.

• AkureyriYear-round, peak May–Sep
• AlaskaMay–Sep
• Argentina & PatagoniaJun–Dec
• AzoresYear-round, peak Apr–Oct
• CaliforniaYear-round
• CanadaMar–Nov
• Canary IslandsYear-round
• Cape Cod & New EnglandApr–Oct
• Costa RicaJul–Nov & Dec–Apr
• DalvíkYear-round, peak May–Sep
• Dana PointYear-round
• Dominican RepublicMid-Jan to end of Mar
• Ecuador & GalápagosLate Jun–Sep
• HauganesYear-round, peak Jun–Aug
• HawaiiNov–Apr
• HúsavíkMar–Nov, peak Jun–Aug
• IcelandApr–Oct
• JapanJan–Apr and May–Oct
• Long BeachYear-round
• MadeiraYear-round
• Mauritius & MadagascarJul–Nov, sperm whales year-round
• Mexico & BajaDec–Apr
• MontereyYear-round
• New South WalesMay–Nov
• New ZealandYear-round
• Newport BeachYear-round
• NorwayNov–Jan (Tromsø) · year-round (Andenes)
• Pacific NorthwestApr–Oct
• Québec CityMay–Oct
• QueenslandJun–Nov
• ReykjavíkYear-round, peak Apr–Oct
• San DiegoYear-round
• San FranciscoYear-round
• Santa BarbaraYear-round
• Santa CruzYear-round
• Scotland & IrelandMay–Oct
• South AfricaJun–Nov
• Sri LankaNov–Apr south, May–Oct east
• TadoussacMay–Oct
• VancouverApr–Oct
• Victoria & South AustraliaJun–Oct
• Victoria, BCMar–Nov, zodiacs year-round
• Western AustraliaMay–Dec

Nearest whales from Los Angeles

Southern California is the densest cluster of whale ports in the world, and all four are day trips. Long Beach is about 33 km (20 mi) from downtown; Newport Beach about 59 km (37 mi); Dana Point about 82 km (51 mi) down the I-5, and one of only two designated Whale Heritage Areas in the United States — the other is the Santa Barbara Channel, further up the same coast. San Diego is about 179 km (111 mi) — two hours without traffic, which is not a thing that exists.

Gray whales pass December to May, blue and humpback whales feed June to October, and dolphins are year-round. Read California first if you have not chosen a port yet.

Nearest whales from San Francisco

The boats leave from the city: San Francisco trips run out past the Golden Gate to the Farallon Islands, and the whales are sometimes inside the bay. If you want the reliable version, Santa Cruz is 97 km (60 mi) and Monterey 138 km (86 mi) south — the submarine canyon there brings deep water within a few kilometers of the wharf, which is why Monterey Bay works nearly all year.

Nearest whales from New York and Boston

From Boston it is easy: the harbor boats sail to Stellwagen Bank in about an hour, and Provincetown is 80 km (50 mi) away by road or a fast ferry across the bay. From New York it is a commitment — Provincetown is about 353 km (219 mi) — but the New Jersey and Cape May boats run much closer, and humpbacks now feed off Rockaway and Sandy Hook in late summer. The season on this coast is April to October, with the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale in Cape Cod Bay in spring; federal law keeps every vessel 500 yards from them.

Nearest whales from Seattle

The Pacific Northwest puts Friday Harbor about 114 km (71 mi) from Seattle — a ferry-and-drive morning, or a floatplane. Victoria in British Columbia is roughly the same distance by fast ferry. This is the one region where the rules shape the trip: Washington state law requires vessels to stay 1,000 yards from a southern resident orca and below seven knots inside that distance, so operators here work the Bigg's (transient) orcas and the humpbacks instead. Boats run best May to October.

Nearest whales from Vancouver and Victoria

Vancouver has whale boats leaving from Granville Island and Steveston inside the city. Victoria is about 97 km (60 mi) across the Strait of Georgia and is the single best base on this coast — a working Inner Harbour with a dozen operators and year-round departures. Fisheries and Oceans Canada sets 100 m as the general approach distance, 200 m for resting whales and Bigg's orcas in BC, and 1,000 m for southern residents. See Canada for the whole three-coast picture.

Nearest whales from Toronto and Montréal

There is no whale watching on the Great Lakes. From Montréal, the St. Lawrence estuary starts to work at Québec City, 233 km (145 mi) away, and delivers properly at Tadoussac, 415 km (257 mi) — belugas, minkes, fins and, in a good August, blue whales. From Toronto, Tadoussac is about 898 km (558 mi): a two-night trip, not a day out. June to October.

Nearest whales from London

Britain's own whale watching is in the Hebrides: Mull and Tobermory are about 687 km (427 mi) from London, which is a sleeper train and a ferry, for minke whales and basking sharks from May to October. The faster answer is a three-hour flight: Reykjavík is about 1,890 km (1,173 mi) and has boats leaving the Old Harbour most of the year, and the Azores about 2,514 km (1,561 mi), where Visit Azores says watching is possible in every month of the year.

Nearest whales from Amsterdam

The North Sea has porpoises, not whale tours. From Schiphol the real options are all short-haul: Iceland at roughly 2,018 km (1,253 mi), Tromsø at 2,053 km (1,275 mi) for the winter orca and humpback season, the Azores at 2,867 km (1,780 mi), and Tenerife at 3,239 km (2,011 mi) for the only European water with resident pilot whales all year.

Nearest whales from Frankfurt and Munich

German travelers have the best-served whale routes in Europe, which is why the demand data for Teneriffa, Madeira, Island and Norwegen is so strong. From Frankfurt, Tenerife is about 3,256 km (2,022 mi), Madeira 2,859 km (1,776 mi), Iceland 2,378 km (1,477 mi) and Tromsø 2,240 km (1,391 mi). From Munich the Atlantic islands are 40 to 80 km further and the flight time is effectively the same. Tenerife and Madeira run all year; Iceland is April to October; Tromsø is November to January.

Nearest whales from Milan and Rome

Italian readers looking for balene have no domestic tour on this atlas — the Ligurian Sea sanctuary is real but we do not cover it — so the shortest hops are the Azores at about 2,997 km (1,861 mi) from Milan, Iceland at 2,826 km (1,755 mi), and Tenerife at 2,987 km (1,855 mi). From Rome the three are about 3,265, 3,302 and 3,052 km. The Azores in spring is the one that justifies the fare: blue and fin whales pass through, and Visit Azores groups sperm and sei whales with the species frequent in summer.

Nearest whales from Sydney, Melbourne and Auckland

Sydney is the easiest big-city whale watching anywhere: the boats leave Circular Quay and Darling Harbour, clear the Heads in 20 minutes and meet migrating humpbacks from May to November. Hervey Bay — where humpbacks stop rather than pass, and a designated Whale Heritage Area — is about 968 km (601 mi) north.

From Melbourne, Warrnambool is about 226 km (140 mi) along the Great Ocean Road, and Logans Beach is a shore platform above a southern right whale nursery from June to October. From Auckland, Kaikōura is about 624 km (388 mi) and a domestic flight, for sperm whales that are there every month of the year.

Nearest whales from Cape Town, Singapore and Colombo

Hermanus is about 94 km (58 mi) from Cape Town, roughly 90 minutes along the coast, and from June to November you can watch southern right whales from a cliff path for nothing before deciding whether to take a boat. Mirissa is about 128 km (79 mi) from Colombo on the expressway — the shortest drive to blue whales anywhere — and 2,641 km (1,640 mi) from Singapore. Sri Lanka's south coast runs November to April; Trincomalee on the east coast takes over May to October.

When the nearest port is not the right one

Distance is the weakest of the three variables. A two-hour drive in the wrong month gets you a boat trip and a refund voucher; a four-hour flight in the right month gets you whales. Before you book the closest dot on the map, check the season calendar for the month you can actually travel, and the twenty best places in the world for what a good day looks like. Then pick the boat that suits the people coming with you.