Whale Watching in Victoria, British Columbia
After our unsuccessful search for whale sharks in Belize a few months ago, we were thrilled to be invited by Tourism Victoria to go on a whale watching tour with Prince of Whales. Located in the heart of Victoria’s beautiful Inner Harbour, Prince of Whales is the largest year-round whale watching and eco-adventure company in Victoria, British Columbia.
We did a similar trip from Vancouver last summer and spotted a small pod of orca whales, so we had high hopes of repeating the incredible experience. We’re told that the best place to spot orca whales is around the San Juan Islands in Washington State, about 45 minutes southeast of Victoria, British Columbia.
Related post – Best things to do in Victoria, Canada
Our sweet ride for the whale watching trip – Ocean Magic II
Not only is the Ocean Magic II super fast and quiet, it’s also whale friendly and considered to be the premiere whale watching experience in Victoria. With Nicole being pregnant, it was really nice to have the extra space and the ability to roam around freely.
The added bonus of having open air decks allowed us to easily take pictures of the whales, which was needed with all of the action we saw this afternoon.
We could not have asked for better weather conditions that day. The sun is shining, the sky is clear and blue without a cloud in sight, and, most importantly, the water is super calm and flat. It actually looked more like a lake than the Juan de Fuca Straight.
We would have been happy with one or two whale sightings – we ended up seeing over 25 whales!
Yes, you read that correctly. 25 orca whales! We witnessed a Super-pod that day. What’s a super-pod you ask? Well, we’re no experts but our guides explained it like this:
A pod is a cohesive group of related whales, formed when a female whale gives birth. The oldest female is typically the leader of the pod because all the other members are her children and her children’s children. Whereas a Super-pod is a large group of pods that can include upwards of 100 killer whales. The pods within the super-pod spread out and swim at a steady pace, staying together to protect the young and help with hunting and feeding.
Our guide estimates there were 80+ whales in the water that day.
We caught a glimpse of a baby orca whale that was born a few weeks earlier, as well as the oldest orca whale on record. This meant that we saw both the youngest and oldest killer whales in one tour – that’s pretty cool!
The photo of the day! A killer whale perfectly framed with Mount Baker in the backdrop
Pod of killer whales in front of the majestic Mount Baker. Look at how calm the water is!
Cameron snapping photos of a killer whale at the back of the boat
Viewing the whales from the open-aired deck
HUGE whale heading directly for our boat!
Killer whale surfacing in the calm Juan de Fuca Straight, Washington State in the background
Another whale watching tour boat following a pod of killer whales
Victoria Whale Watching
We couldn’t have scripted a better whale watching adventure. At one point, the captain cut the engines and let the boat just float on the calm Juan de Fuca Straight. Our group stood quietly on the rooftop deck and listened intently for the sounds of whales spitting out water from their blowholes.
We couldn’t believe it – we were surrounded by killer whales! It was almost overwhelming. We didn’t know where to point the camera. There were whales in every direction, surfacing every few moments and letting out a loud blast from its blowhole. It was as if the sound of spraying blowholes was in stereo.
We were like kids on Christmas morning!
When is the best time for whale watching in Victoria?
Prince of Whales has a 95% success rate during peak season, which is in the summer months from May to October. In the winter period from November to May, there is about a 50-75% success rate. Our trip at the end of August was a huge success, with over 25 whales spotted within an hour.
So if you want our advice, go whale watching in Victoria during the summer and you’re almost guaranteed to see a whale (a humpback whale was even spotted the day after our tour).
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Have you seen whales in their natural habitat?
Share your experience in the comments section below. Our readers thank you!
Read more posts from British Columbia:
- 25 Awesome Day Trips from Vancouver
- Things to do at Harrison Hot Springs with kids
- 20 Things to do in Whistler this Summer 2021
- 25 FREE Things to do in Vancouver
- Best Things to do Along the Sea to Sky Highway
Disclosure: Our whale watching in Victoria tour with Prince of Whales was complimentary, however the thoughts and opinions shared in this post are entirely our own
Google Bar Harbor Whale Watching, go to flicker link.
We will check it out!
amazing experience… ive never seen a whale before…
If you ever get the chance, it’s an amazing experience.
Wow, amazing experience and I would love to do this one day. The closest I got was seeing Irrawaddy Dolphins playing by my boat on a trip to Turtle Island in Borneo.
Wow, that sounds pretty amazing!
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a whale before, either… despite having lived along the West Coast (and close to the ocean) for most of my life. I guess I always thought these whale watching tours weren’t worth it, but 25 whales spotted in an hour sounds like good odds!
Normally you can call the company to see if they’ve had luck recently. We knew our chances were good because they saw them earlier in the day.
Wow! You guys got really lucky. Great photos!
Thank you. They are hard to catch in a photo because you don’t know where they will pop up.
such a magical creature.
i just hope that these gentle giants are aware that people are actually there to see them.
Yeah, we don’t want them to be scared. All boats must stay a certain distance away so it gives the orcas lots of room.
How cool to see killer whales out in nature! I’ve only seen them at SeaWorld in San Diego. They are such beautiful creatures.
They are! It’s amazing to see them in the ocean (especially when they play and breach). They did it for us, twice.
Wow That sounds like an amazing experience. It seems like they are very friendly and social. Once I was in the Caribbean on top deck of the ship I saw one in distance. But I am still not sure if it was a killer whale. But I think I saw the black and white part. Apart from that I have no direct killer whale meeting experience.
Nice! Sometimes they only come up for a quick minute so it definitely could have been a killer whale!
We went sea kayaking in search of whales in San Juan island but were not lucky to see these beautiful majestic killer whales! We’re going again tomorrow (!!), this time on a boat to see if we can catch a glimpse of them! If nothing else, at least we’ve “seen” them through your post 🙂 Thanks for sharing!
Awesome – did you find any whales on your kayaking trip?!
Fantastic experience! I’ve been lucky enough to go dolphin spotting here in Oz, but I’ve yet to see a whale outside of an aquarium. I’m absolutely fascinated with killer whales, so I’d be on cloud #9 seeing so many of them.
Thanks Chris – if you’re ever in Canada you should definitely check out Victoria for some epic whale watching
I’ve gone on the Prince of Whales Zodiac tour out of Victoria. It was a great experience. We saw numerous whales, although I definitely didn’t get pictures this great!
Hi Heather, the zodiac tours look like a lot of fun. We opted for the bigger boat because of Nicole’s pregnancy, but we’d love to give the zodiaks a shot one day
You’re really lucky you saw 25 whales! That’s a lot!
I haven’t seen one for myself but a good friend of mine is a volunteer for WWF and has been doing researches on whales (a different species though). He’s always telling us about how majestic (that’s his exact term) they are and how beautiful their songs sound.
yes – We were really lucky that day!
If we had more time on the water we probably could have seen up to 50, at least that’s what we were told by our guides. After a while the whales all looked the same, so it’s hard to know exactly how many there were
You said it— you couldn’t have scripted such a great experience. Wonderful photos — you got some amazing up close shots. Well done!
Thanks Cathy!
Absolutely gorgeous photos, guys!
I’ve never seen orcas in the wild, but I really hope to someday. Actually, I wish my family had done this whale watching tour when we were in Victoria last summer! But we didn’t find out about it until too late, and we were only in town for one day, as it was a port stop on the cruise we were on. But I definitely plan to go back someday!
I have seen humpbacks before, though. When I was in Hawaii this February, I went out on a tour where we were supposed to go cage diving with sharks. No sharks showed up, however, but we did see quite a few whales! Including one baby humpback who kept breaching over and over for at least 15 minutes! It was awesome to see.
Would LOVE to see a humpback whale! Too bad you didn’t get to see any sharks, but what a great stroke of luck to see a baby humpback!
Awesome picks guys. You know you can also go whale watching in Nova Scotia but it is something I have never done…yet another thing on my Canada to-do list?
Yeah, I’ve heard that the east coast has a lot of whale watching.
Very cool! I’ve seen whales off od Newfoundland before, but never a pod that size. Well done!
We’ve never been to that part of Canada but have it on the list. What kind of whales did you see in Newfoundland?
That’s incredible! We saw some whales in New Zealand but not that many and I’d love to see Killer Whales
What kind of whales do you find in New Zealand?
That’s amazing! (And congratulations!) I’d love to see a killer whale, let alone that many. I went whale-watching for humpbacks and found that seeing 30 or so to be one of the most exciting travel adventures I’ve ever had.
Wow – 30 humpbacks?! That sounds amazing. Where were you?
What perfect conditions you had. What sort of size are they? As long as a car? Like a dolphin?
Yes, the conditions couldn’t have been better. They are much bigger than a dolphin and a car (well, I guess it depends on the car!). They are quite big – about the size of a zodiak boat?
so cool! I’ve only ever seen Killer Whales in captivity at Marine World (sadly) but they are so majestic! would be awesome to see them in the wild 🙂
It was a very cool experience. At one point we had whales on all sides of the boat!
This is great! I’ve wanted to go whale watching for a long time, I’ll have to keep this in mind. Thanks for sharing!
If you’re ever in the Pacific Northwest, we would recommend you take a tour that has you visiting the the Juan de Fuca Straight region – you won’t be disappointed 😉
Free Willy!!! Awesome shots, you should have jumped in.
I should have jumped in!
I’ve never seen a killer whale outside of sea world… would have loved to have been on this tour.
We definitely got the perfect afternoon for whale watching!
Ah, this reminds me of back home 🙂
Mee too! 😉
We saw a pod of killer whales en route to the very small Indonesian island of Lelei, off Halmahera. Completely unexpected, as I think of them as Arctic creatures. But they were amazing. And all the better for being so unexpected, on a tiny local ferry boat.
Don’t you just love those unexpected encounters! Sometimes I think those experiences are better than the ones you look for deliberately
Great shots guys! You are right, you couldn’t have had better conditions. The water looked smooth as glass and the sun was shining! Glad you had a great time and really enjoyed reading about travel in your own back yard.
Thanks Guys! We’ve been having a lot of fun in our backyard this past year 🙂
I’d love to go whale watching, but I get far too seasick to even consider it! Great photos!
We’re not usually big fans of boat trips either for fear of seasickness, but we lucked out big time that afternoon!
Wow, so jealous! I’ve always wanted to see killer whales in the wild and this looks like the best place to see them. Great photos!
Victoria BC is definitely a great place to spot Killer Whales
Really cool photos and article. The tourism board made a good choice by inviting you two along, as I want to go on one of these tours after reading this post.
We saw Orca whales from our sailboat in the San Juan islands this July. Also a “super pod”. it was thrilling, as we’re from land-locked Atlanta, GA!
That is amazing! Since watching the movie “Free Willy” as a kid, watching killer whales have been on my travel bucket list. Good to know, I’m not far from Canada! =D
Oh wow! I live near an area where a lot of whales pass to migrate (in Australia) but I’ve never seen them as up-close as this!
Would love to go see them in B.C. one day. 🙂
Nice photos guys. Did you see any jump out of the water?
Aloha,
I had the wonderful experience of swimming with the 3 humpback whales in Maui at “Molokini Crater” while scuba diving on the backside of the crater. I was able to get eye contact with the mother whale and got 15 ft away from them. They were just as curious about me as I was about them. A experience, I’ll never forget. Here’s a picture of the island http://www.in2scuba.com/molokini.jpg
Hi great pictures,
We saw humpback whales off of the coast of Sydney whilst living there last year. They are such majestic creatures. I would love to dive with them one day.
That’s so cool! I want to check out those whales. Are those whales always show up or there’s a certain time that they will appear? Thanks.
That’s so cool! I want to check out those whales. Are those whales always show up or there’s a certain time that they will appear? Thanks.
That’s so cool! I want to check out those whales. Are those whales always show up or there’s a certain time that they will appear? Thanks for sharing your wonderful photos.
Killer whales are amazing, looks like you had a great time. We did a similar tour from the San Juan Islands and it was a great experience – wish we had your calm weather though…
Killer whales are so beautiful!
wow…….
That’s incredible. Going whale watching is on my “Mid-Life-Bucket-List”. Hopefully we end up as lucky as you were 🙂
I have tried whale watching 3 times in Maine, with no luck whatsoever. It’s great to live through your photos.
Wow, I’m so happy you had great weather and calm waters… When I went dolphin diving the water was quite murky, but I still loved it, so I can only imagine how cool this must have been. Thanks for sharing these wonderful images!
Wow you guys were really lucky!!! I have done whale watching in Victoria twice and only spotted a few whales. I did see the humpback as well.