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Old 02-19-2013, 12:27 AM
 
2 posts, read 1,999 times
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My husband and I will be visiting San Francisco between March 12-17 and we are interesting in booking a whale watching tour. We are staying in Fisherman's Wharf and I have found some information on a few whale watching tours that leave from the wharf, but they are all day excursions, meaning that they leave around 8:00am and return at 3:00-4:00pm. We were hoping to find one that leaves a little bit later in the day and is only for a couple of hours as opposed to all day long. We are renting a car so we don't have to book a tour that leaves from the wharf, but we don't want to go too far out of the way, say no more than 30 miles or so outside of the San Francisco area.

Does anyone know if there are any whale watching tours like this that will be available for these dates? Thanks!
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Old 02-19-2013, 01:36 AM
 
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If you are serious about seeing whales, you'll need to leave early in the morning. It's an all day thing otherwise you'll probably go home whale-less.
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Old 02-19-2013, 03:36 AM
 
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Whale waiting is definitely an all day thing.
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Old 02-19-2013, 09:10 AM
 
Location: Lafayette, CA
2,518 posts, read 4,012,365 times
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It kind of blows to be honest (pun intended). I've gone out at least 4-5 times, and probably only saw whales once. Most of the time you'll see Dolphins, or something like that, but rarely a full blown whale out of the water. If you treat it as a relaxing boat cruise, it's less disappointing.

Also, bring a small back pack with snacks and drinks. If you buy them ON the boat, be prepared to pay $6 for a hotdog.
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Old 02-19-2013, 10:34 AM
 
Location: Bay Area
3,980 posts, read 8,992,286 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by sandrea91483 View Post
My husband and I will be visiting San Francisco between March 12-17 and we are interesting in booking a whale watching tour. We are staying in Fisherman's Wharf and I have found some information on a few whale watching tours that leave from the wharf, but they are all day excursions, meaning that they leave around 8:00am and return at 3:00-4:00pm. We were hoping to find one that leaves a little bit later in the day and is only for a couple of hours as opposed to all day long. We are renting a car so we don't have to book a tour that leaves from the wharf, but we don't want to go too far out of the way, say no more than 30 miles or so outside of the San Francisco area.

Does anyone know if there are any whale watching tours like this that will be available for these dates? Thanks!
Consider driving down a bit to Monterey first thing in the morning... It's supposedly one of the better areas to see them.

My husband and daughter were just out there on a whale watching tour and it really only lasted 3 hours. He got to see Orcas (REALLY rare since there's only a couple hundred of them off our coast) some seals, and a whale. Very reasonable in price. I think it was this place...Monterey Bay Whale Watch - Whale Watching Trips
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Old 02-20-2013, 09:54 PM
 
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Thanks everyone for all the advice! We went whale watching in Hawaii a few years back and the boat left in the late morning or early afternoon. I don't think we were out at sea for more than two hours, but we saw tons of whales, so we were hoping to have a similar experience in California. I realize it might be a different scenario because of the different location, though. We will look into it some more to see if it is something we still want to do. We are not early morning people, especially while we're on vacation, so we'll see.

Thanks again!
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Old 02-20-2013, 10:05 PM
 
Location: San Francisco, CA
15,088 posts, read 13,456,732 times
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I know a few places where you can go see some whale tail...
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