Prince of Whales Whale Watching

We had such a magical experience seeing two pods of orcas. We saw about 30 – 40 killer whales! Rhonda was a passionate and knowledgeable tour guide who really cared about the animals. I would recommend this without hesitation to anyone!

I was recently in Victoria for vacation and, at the last minute, decided to do a whale-​watching tour through Prince of Whales. The reservation and check-​in process was straightforward, and I was assigned to a zodiac tour (you can do either that or an enclosed vessel) leaving a little over an hour after I went in to signed up.
After grabbing some lunch I returned and waited for the tour to leave. The one place where I’ll ding them a star is that there was some confusion about where we were supposed to wait, who our contact was, etc. I found it easily enough after asking at the desk, but some signage would go along way. Also worth noting is that the tour was about 15 minutes late getting started, and there was minimal communication from the staff that this was the case.
Once we got underway, though, the experience was fantastic. Our captain/​guide went above and beyond, taking the 6 of us on what ended up being a 94 nautical mile journey to find the orcas that were apparently very dispersed that day. We finally saw some, though, and had a great time. From my understanding we went about twice as far as normal to make sure that happened, which I appreciate.
Overall, a great choice for whale watching out of Victoria. Worth mentioning is that they have several other tours including passage from Vancouver, and combo tours including Butchart Gardens among others, so it might be a good option for an all-​inclusive Victoria day trip.

Good tour. We ended up spending an hour viewing orcas. Only disappointing this was not seeing them close up. We were quite a distance away. Other than that it was good fun riding the speedboat, seeing orcas, surrounding islands and seals.

Was out today in Victoria on the 3.30pm Ocean Magic tour. We saw a hump back, 2 pods of resident orkas and a minky whale right beside the boat. Our tour guide TOM was fabulously educated, informative and engaged. Loved every second.

Epic day with Prince of Whales. We booked the zodiac during our long weekend in Victoria and it was the high point of our trip. Our guide was friendly and informative and the boat was a great adventure but the highlight were the whales. We buzzed over to the San Juans and got to see some great whale watching. Orcas everywhere! One even swam right past me, it was a truly once in a lifetime experience. Can’t recommend these guys enough. What to bring: sunscreen and sunglasses if the weather is nice, long pants and warm shoes — boots would be ideal (even on the nicest days 60+ degrees Fahrenheit, dress warm). A longer lens than you think you need — a 70−200mm or 300 mm fixed and a really fast body would be ideal with a weatherproof bag and lens cap readily accessible along with a cloth to clean off salt spray.

I am spending a month in Vancouver as a visiting student from Colorado and my mom came to visit me for a weekend. I really like whales and as it is whale season here my mom thought a boat tour would be fun. We chose the Ultimate Day Tour which is a 10 hour event– a 4 hour boat ride from Vancouver to Victoria, a couple of hours in Victoria to eat and explore, a bus to the Butchart Gardens, and a boatride back to Vancouver. We loved the excursion. Wilma, the naturalist, as well as the rest of the crew really made the trip. Wilma was extremely knowledgeable and passionate about whales and was also a wonderful hostess and spent time talking to and teaching every passenger on the boat. We saw a mother and baby humpback playing together, but no Orcas. The captain and other crew also pointed out eagles, porpoise, seals, etc. We had a great time.
The company also provided protective rain jackets, pants, hats, gloves, blankets, etc. I was very happily surprised that they provided so much cold weather gear because I had not packed much. I would have been chilly without them!

We weren’t lucky to see Orcas on our 3 hour tour (no other tours this day saw them either) but they were spotted the day before. If you don’t see them you can come back anytime and go out for free which we’ll do next year. July and August have the most sightings. If you do see the Orcas you’ll be amazed because you’ll be so close on the zodiac. Good company.

We went last summer and lucked out BIG time! We saw over 30 whales, and some were mating… it was crazy!

As good as it gets! Without a doubt, the best whale watch my boyfriend or I have ever been on. We are both marine biologists, so we really appreciated our knowledgeable guide and his commitment to finding whales on our «adventure tour». Given that we took this trip one month ago in December, we only expected to see resident orcas (if anything and Prince of Whales promises nothing in the winter trips). Not only did we see residents, our guide recognized the transients as well, AND took us all the way to Race Rocks just to see a gorgeous humpback (and stellar sea lions) that he heard was spotted there. He was really dedicated to giving us the best trip and the outdoor, «adventure» boat allowed us to get up-​close with the whales as opposed to the ferry-​styles we are used to. Although be warned, if was a VERY bumpy ride. If you have any sortof back or neck problems, you definitely want to stay away from the winter trips.

A perfect day. Just to be clear we booked the one day trip from Vancouver where you go whale watching first on your way to Victoria. You are then dropped off at the Victoria harbor where you have time for lunch and a little stroll downtown before hopping on a bus to the gardens and then you catch the same boat a the gardens for the ride back to Vancouver in the sunset.
Makes for a really full and amazing day.
The crew was professional and perfect. We got quite a few explanations on the whales and the area. This is a well thought out and perfectly executed tour. I highly recommend it.

Truly a life event!
Today is my first day back in reality after a wonderful visit to Victoria. And while our whole trip was amazing, it is the whale watching that is the first thing I tell people about. We went on the «big boat» since we had our almost 4-​year old with us and while it technically can hold something like 70 people, we only had 20 – 25. We had lots of space to move from the top of the boat to the inside when it got cold then back out again when we actually spotted the whales. The boat was so well maintained and was clean and comfortable. There really wasn’t a «bad seat» on it.
Probably my favorite part of the ride was interaction with the crew. They were so knowledgable about the geography and the whales and other wildlife and were happy to answer my many questions. They were wonderful at helping you know where to look and talk about the different families of Orcas and even individual members.
Did we see whales? Oh did we ever! We saw so many Orcas (and even a humpback) and saw them so close that you didn’t really have to look for them. They were right there in front of you. It is true that they can’t drive up close to the whales, but the whales can swim up to the boat if they want to and they did. Another highlight was that they put a microphone down in the water so we could hear their sounds communicating with each other. WOW.
If you are thinking about going whale watching in Victoria, you absolutely should and this is the company to go with. They know their stuff and love the animals.

This is a first-​rate outfit. We booked them after checking them out on TripAdvisor and took an afternoon boat that brought us to Butchart Gardens after the whale watching part was complete. We boarded the boat right in Victoria’s Inner Harbour and within no time were out on the open water on a glorious day — blue water, blue skies, snow capped mountains. Just spectacular. Like a previous reviewer said, it was so perfect it was like a painting. We could see the Olympic mountains in Washington, as well as the snow-​capped Mt. Baker (a dormant volcano at least 30 miles away) and even the top of Mt. Rainier at one point (150 miles away!). It was THAT CLEAR!
The two guides, both named Anthony, could not have been nicer or more informative. They keep in touch with other boaters via radio and cell phone and are able to get you to where the whales are if the whales are around. And they were! They sped us north into the Straits of Georgia where were treated to a pod of orca whales circling schools of salmon. Just beautiful. We got to see at least four or five different whales.
Also seen on the trip were numerous bald eagles, blue egrets and several species of seal. The boat is quite fast and quite noisy, but not uncomfortable. The younger Anthony is a skilled photographer and e-​mailed me three beautiful pictures from the trip. I posted a couple here.
The boat let us off at the dock at the beautiful Butchart Gardens on schedule at 5:00 as promised. Wow.
We enjoyed this tremendously and it was totally worth the money. An afternoon to be remembered.

Amazing. What more can I say?
3 hours of intimate whale watching on a 12 person zodiac. Besides seeing seals, sea lions, tons of birds, and about 7 o 8 different whales, the ride itself was worth it.
The view: breathtaking. Mountains, clear skies, water. It looked like a painting. I couldn’t take my eyes off the beautiful landscape and snow capped mountains; the clouds and the sky blending into the snow capped mountains, blending into the clam sea. The whole thing was a monochromatic masterpiece of varying shades of blue and white.
The boat: only 12 people, so ever seat is a good one. The zodiac goes up to like 3o miles an hour or 20, I’m not sure, but just so fast and exciting. It’s almost like riding a roller coaster. Jumping off waves and zooming around; it was so. much. fun.
The guide: was a naturalist who had been all over the world studying and following different species of whales. Very knowledgeable, could answer all our questions, and really helpful in helping us spot the whales.
The whales: oh my god. Whales came up to about 50 feet from us. The killer whales were so amazing. Being able to see the SO closely and hearing them spray water and aklsdjfao;ejadf.
Hands down, easily the highlight of my trip to Victoria. I would recommend this to anyone. The best $ 100 dollars you will ever spend.

On a vacation in Victoria we had a terrific excursion. The guides knew exactly where to find the pods and we were able to see orcas breaching all around us and swimming within a few feet of our boat. It is a trip I will not soon forget!
Taking my recommendation, my mom and sister went the next day and said the sightings were mediocre at best. I guess it is hit or miss depending in the day and your guides.

In Sept 2010 we had a mediocre cruise to Alaska. Our off-​shore in Juneau did get us some nice views of orcas and humpbacks. One week later in Victoria, our boat tour with Prince of Whales gave us twice as much time on the water, cost much less, and we saw twice as much wildlife, including the humpbacks coming within thirty yards of the boat!
Whale-​watching is always serendipity — you might get lucky, you might not. On this, our third whale-​watching excursion over the years, we were VERY lucky, and had a great time.
Tips: Dress warmly for the Ocean Magic boat — hat, gloves, warm jacket. If you take the Jetboat, company provides waterproof jacket/​pants/​boots. No bathrooms on the Jetboat, bathrooms but only minimal refreshments on Ocean Magic, so be forewarned and eat a very hearty breakfast. You won’t get back on land until after 3p and will miss lunch.

One of our missions when we visited BC was to see orcas in the wild. So we booked a whale watching tour on one of the Zodiacs. The zodiac is one of those inflatable motorized speed boats. Make sure to bring a hair tie if you are female because your hair will be flying around like crazy. I forgot to bring one but was lucky that one of the girls working there let me borrow hers. You should also wear sunglasses because it helps to block the harmful rays of the sun and also helps keep water from flying into your eyes. If you don’t bring your own sunglasses they also have ugly goggles that you can borrow. Your choice. It gets super windy and cold on the boat so I also recommend wearing closed-​toe shoes if you get cold easily. People who run these whale watching tours know what they are doing because they know exactly where the whales are going to be. The boat took us out to the Strait of Juan de Fuca where tons of orcas were just swimming around. We were lucky enough to see two whales jump out of the water. It was amazing!

I originally booked this tour while on a cruise that stopped in Victoria in May 2009. I knew that this was a little early for seeing Orcas, but I was hoping that we would get lucky. No such luck it turns out. Instead we were shown seals, bald eagles, goats and a few dolphins. Totally disappointed. But not unexpected as it was early in the season. During the cruise, the staff told us since we didn’t spot any whales, we were welcome to come back and stand-​by for another cruise (part of their guarantee). My guess is most people don’t do that, but since my brother works for an airline that travels to Victoria, we were able to take advantage.
We flew back in late July, 2009. We had no problem standing by for the first cruise of the day since it tends to be the least occupied. I knew from their website that whales were spotted the last several days. I was so, so excited to take this cruise. As expected, we were able to board the boat.
Wow…we were able to observe Pods K, L & M feeding near Vancouver Island. I can’t explain how majestic it is to watch Killer Whales swimming, breaching and feeding in almost every direction you look. Crazy cool! Once in a Lifetime does not do this cruise justice.
If you find yourself in beautiful Victoria, do yourself a favor and book a whale watching cruise. Not to be missed.
There are several outfits in Victoria, but we chose this one because of it’s convenient location. It’s just across the street from the Fairmont Hotel and so easy to find. The staff is super friendly and knowledgeable. Assuming you book during whale season, you will not be disappointed!

This was one of the best things we did while in Victoria. These guys were on it and had been following a pod of whales through the area so we zipped out to them and sure enough there they were. I would have been happy if it was just a boat ride but we got to see some incredible stuff with the pod of whales that were swimming by. The scenery is gorgeous. Just be prepared because it does get a tad chilly on the boat no matter how warm it is on land. They give you a full body wet suit which cuts out the wind and they also had beanies and some small gloves if you didn’t bring any yourself. Very friendly staff. If you want to get out on the water this is the way to do it. They offer a number of boats you can go on from decent sized ones down to pretty small coast guard type boats (what we went on) which were really fun bouncing around on the waves in.