Whale Watching in Sydney?
 

Alright all you Sydney buffs...we are getting down to departure (O.k., it is still three weeks away, but SO much closer than the 8 months when I hopped on here! :-) )My DH showed interest in taking a whale watching excursion. I was a bit surprised, since we are both from Alaska and have been whale watching before, but, it sounds fun to me too. So, I have been checking out the different tours and wanted to get some "first hand" info. We will be in Sydney June 14th-24th and have a fairly open schedule (our week before hand is solid booked, so Sydney is our relax and enjoy whatever we feel like doing). For those of you that live there, or have gone on any tours before...any reccomendations? Should we pay the extra for the tour that has "guaranteed" whale sightings? Or gamble on the cheaper one that doesn't come with a money back guarantee? How heavy is your whale traffic? :-) Would welcome any input. Thanks!

I went out last season with visitors.

I would recommend the larger boat which picks up on the east side of circular quay.It seemed to me that this operation was the most sophisticated of the three boats that followed whales that day.

The numbers of whales on the east coast migration has increased rapidly in recent times.They follow a fairly well defined path and the operators have spotting systems.

These days there are operators all up and down the east coast.Ironically some of these places were whaling stations in past times.If you were to go out at Port Stephens you would see dolphins as well.

Hervey Bay in queensland is 'the whale watching capital' of oz.

Sometimes the whales drop in for a visit - swim around the harbour - sometimes with babies - then just depart.
Only happens occassionally - and you just have to be there on the day for this wonderful event.

Johhj_au thanks for the input. Do you have any idea what their names were? I have found Captain Cook, Tru Blue, Bass and Flinders Cruises, etc... They all seem to offer about the same, but I can't really tell. Bass and Flinders is the most expensive, but their website looks great! :-) Do I base it on their website? B and F as well as Captain Cook go out of Circular Quay.

sunsurfsand...I would LOVE to see them in the harbor...maybe we will be so lucky!

It was Bass and Flinders..

it did seem to me that the other boats followed them around.We picked up a couple of pods.Please try and separate the science from the emotion when talking about this species.

Check the weather forecast before deciding on which day.Join the cruise at east circular quay.it is a good harbour cruise as well..take a harbour map.

Thanks for the input. I think rather than pre-book on line we will wait until we are there so that we can check the forecast before going. When looking at the ships, Bass and Flinders had the much larger boats, and as my husband gets seasick I was leaning towards them for the larger size anyway.

Yeah it's a good strategy to wait and check the forecast before booking for outdoor activites.
Best available forecast is
http://www.bom.gov.au/cgi-bin/wrap_fwo.pl?IDN10064.txt