Is whale watching in Boston worth it? Best time & spot for a tourist?
Posted by According_Owl3583@reddit | whales | View on Reddit | 18 comments
Hi everyone,
I'm going to be in Boston soon and thinking about booking a whale watching tour. I've never done anything like this before and figured this might be a great place to ask:
Is Boston a good spot for whale watching? Is it really worth the time and cost for a tourist, or should I save it for somewhere else?
Also curious about the best time of day to go, and if anyone has recommendations on reliable tour companies.
Thanks for any tips or honest feedback!
Hmp2z1@reddit
I would highly recommend bypassing the aquarium whale watching tour and taking the commuter rail to Gloucester about an hour away. We did 2 tours with the New England aquarium cruise, and they were so MEH. The Stellwagen Bank is quite far away from Boston, so you will spend about 90 minutes cruising out, about 30 minutes cruising around for whales, and then will turn around and go home. We saw 0 whales on one tour and 1 whale on the next. The captain was also not great about positioning the boat. They are taking photos, so he kept pointing the front of the boat at the whale to optimize for his team to photograph it. There wasn’t seating at the front of the boat, so all the passengers were trying to peer around the side of the boat to get a glimpse of the front. After 2 days of this we did more research and traveled by train to Gloucester to tour with the 7 Seas whale watch. This boat was much less crowded; the captain really knew the area, and went to 3 distinct locations looking for whales. We saw 5 different whales and 2 basking sharks. He also positioned the boat for his customers to see the whales, and the naturalist was more experienced and well-informed than the ones on the aquarium cruise. If you want a super average trip, go with the aquarium, but if you actually are there for the whales, go to Gloucester. You won’t regret it!
chrissylulz@reddit
Is one more wheelchair accessible than the other? I use a powered wheelchair and these are the two whale watching cruises I’m trying to decide between.
elle2128@reddit
I've never done the boston one, but I've done a number of whale watches with different companies in New England, and my last time was with 7 Seas, and it was by far the best one I've been on.
Absolutely agree with everything said here. They were really great. Maybe we got lucky, but I feel like the captain really knew what he was doing.
I met a number of people on the boat who sail out with them on the regular, and considering there is another whale watch boat that literally goes out from the same dock essentially and they chose this one for years I think really says something.
I have gone with the other company as well, and it was fine, but 7 Seas definitely impressed me and I am planning to go on a trip again with them next week.
DiscountDisastrous98@reddit
Best time to see whales in Boston
Adorable_Dust3799@reddit
I'm in the west coast and go every few years. Once or twice we haven't seen any, but there are always dolphins playing, and once a huge hammerhead shark. The boat captains here share sitings, so if there's a whale out there you'll find it.
carnalasadasalad@reddit
It is 100% worth it and you should 100% do it. Just go down to the Nee England Aquarium and book it there. So much fun and you will see whales!
According_Owl3583@reddit (OP)
Any time/day suggestions that could increase my chances to see them
My_2Cents_666@reddit
Time of day doesn’t matter, but the water is usually calmer in the morning.
carnalasadasalad@reddit
Go in the morning, the water will be calmer and you have a better chance of seeing fun behavior. Day doesn’t matter though obviously weekends will have a more crowded boat and line.
Have fun maybe we’ll see you there! We’re going in late May.
AvocadoDreamin@reddit
I’ve worked in Boston/live just outside of it since the 90’s and have never whale watched here. I tried it for the first time in Maui in March because there is a humpback whale migration there every year-the whales swim from Alaska to Hawaii to breed and have babies from Jan to March so there’s humpbacks all over. It’s called whale season.
Tomorrow I’m leaving for CA to go whale watching in Monterey Bay because we want to see orcas and they are around this time of year along with humpbacks and tons of other species.
I’d research it a little more. If there’s no migration the boats are just going to be looking for them hoping to spot something. The captain on my boat in Maui said he did a whale watch in Boston and all they saw was some tail slaps (which is like nothing in Maui). It would be very boring to be on a whale watch and not see anything.
My_2Cents_666@reddit
Wow! Thats crazy that you’ve gone to Hawaii and now to Monterey, but have never gone out of Boston. They’re is great whale watching on Stellwagen Bank. You can see humpbacks, fin whales, sei whales and minkes. I’ve only gone out of Provincetown, but the Boston boats go to the same place.
My_2Cents_666@reddit
Totally worth it. They’ve been seeing a lot of whales too.
jimewp86@reddit
If you have not done it before or have not spent much or any time on the ocean, I would recommend some motion sickness medication. When I do deep sea fishing I will take a Dramamine the night before and another the morning of to help with the motion sickness. My best memory of a whale watching voyage from my childhood is watching my fellow cubscout members vomit profusely …
Estania_Lane@reddit
A million times this! I had never been on the open ocean before and I normally don’t have issues with motion sickness in cars/planes. Being on the ocean is NEXT LEVEL times 500.
My ears started ringing almost immediately when hitting the ocean and I spent the next 3 hours being very uncomfortable. 🤢
ChubbyGreyCat@reddit
I had a wonderful whale watching trip through the New England Aquarium!
I’ve done it 3 times from Boston and have seen Humpbacks each time. One trip we also saw Harbour Porpoises, Atlantic White Sided Dolphins, and Fin Whales, that was a fantastic trip. Apparently there was also a Minke but I missed it.
According_Owl3583@reddit (OP)
Great to hear that, I read that it is not guaranteed that we might watch the whales, I wanted to know when is the bet time to go and watch to increase my chances
ChubbyGreyCat@reddit
I’ve done both spring and late summer, morning and afternoon, and it really just depends.
They can’t guarantee that you’ll see whales, but they are normally pretty good at finding humpbacks. They know the individuals there fairly well and the naturalist on board can even tell you their names sometimes. Sometimes the whales won’t be doing much, sometimes they’ll be doing a lot. I definitely recommend it though!
ChubbyGreyCat@reddit
The best trip I had was late April in the morning though. :) no wind, grey skies, which actually made it really easy to spot whales and we saw a lot!
Second best trip was September morning, hot and sunny but we still found 3 humpies and got to see some feeding behaviour and a tale throw.
Worst trip was late April 2 days after I had booked the best trip, it was really windy and sunny, everyone was sick from the giant waves, and we saw some sleepy whales but due to the glint from the sun and the waves it was hard to see them clearly. As we left those of us on the stern got to see a double breach (they were probably happy people weren’t throwing up near them lol) but most people didn’t see it.