Whale Watching from Seattle or Vancouver
 

My husband and I are planning a trip to Seattle and Vancouver August 28th through September 5th. We will be in Seattle from the 28th through the 1st and then Vancouver the 1st through the 4th and then back to Seattle for the trip home on the 5th. We definitely want to do a whale watching tour but we are unsure if it's best to go from Seattle or Vancouver.

Neither is a really good base for whale watching--both are quite a distance from where the orcas tend to be found. victoria or the san juan islands make a better base for whale watching.

also, it's past peak time for seeing the orcas in this area--they tend to range further afield in search of salmon later in the summer, so are not always found in boat range.

you might consider stopping for a night in the san juans on the way between vancouver and seattle, or even do it as part of a long day as you travel between the cities. you could walk on the ferry in anacortes to friday harbor and do a whale watching tour that leaves from there.

I understood we would need to take a ferry to the Islands, I was trying to determine which starting point was the best. I know it would save time to go "on the way", but we didn't really want to do that with our luggage. One idea was to stay in Victoria one of the nights, either leaving Seattle or Vancouver a night earlier.

I would do an overnight on San Juan Island between the two cities, and whale watch from there. You leave from Anacortes, which is a little closer to Seattle than Vancouver.

i don't think it really matters which one you choose--trying to do a day trip to go whale watching from either place is going to make for a very long day whether you go from vancouver or seattle.

you could do victoria for a night but that means taking your car on two different ferries so it's more complicated logistically than doing an overnight in friday harbor from anacortes--walking on to the ferry--as you drive between vancouver and seattle.

but if you want to see other things in victoria, then maybe the extra ferry hassle makes sense for you.

You can also catch whale watching trips from Anacortes without going on the ferry. These would likely be as good as the trips from Friday Harbor - way closer to the whales than Vancouver or Seattle.