About Whaletrips.org

With this website we want to inspire people to go whale watching in the most beautiful places in the world. This is how it all began.

I went on my first whale-watching tour a few years ago in favour of Theresa. It was summer on Vancouver Island and she really wanted to see orcas, something she had wanted to do ever since she was a child. Vancouver Island is a wonderful place to observe orcas, there's almost nowhere better. So we booked a whale-watching tour.

Before we set off, I obviously considered everything that could go wrong. For instance, it seemed perfectly clear to me that as soon as the orcas saw our boat, they would head straight for us, capsize the boat and eat us. At the same time, I also firmly assumed that we wouldn't encounter any orcas anyway. I was also fully aware I would soon be seasick and wouldn't notice any of this. Just the things you think about before your first whale-watching trip.

As we boarded the boat, which I only now realised was alarmingly small, an Australian girl happily and excitedly explained that this was her fourth or fifth whale-watching tour. Obviously, I thought she was crazy. Why would you go on a whale-watching tour four or five times? You pay 100 dollars per person! And a whale is a whale! Of course, seeing a whale once in your life is on every bucket list. But not a single bucket list includes seeing a whale four or five times. For me, this was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Whale: Check! Over and out.

Theresa at Senja Basecamp just before Christmas. There was nobody else in the fjord apart from us, and the boat was surrounded by orcas and humpback whales. That was probably the moment when the whale thing became a hobby. Photo: Oliver Dirr / Whaletrips

In the following years, we went on a lot more whale-watching tours. It was a gradual process. At first, we continued to go on ordinary trips, and usually you were able to watch whales there. So we watched whales. At some point, we were in exactly the right place at exactly the wrong time – not a single whale, what a disappointment. Later, I found myself researching the next travel destination to see if it was possible to go whale watching at exactly that time. And if so, which ones?

It went on and on. Just before Christmas, we travelled to Tromsø in the Arctic Norway because – according to my research – there was no better place in the world at that time of year to see orcas and humpback whales during the day and northern lights at night. What a fantastic combination! For days on end, we did nothing but watch whales and northern lights in temperatures of -10 degrees. That was probably the moment when the whole thing became a hobby.

When we planned a longer trip for the summer, it was immediately clear that this would also involve whales from time to time: Seeing whales, that's one thing. It's incredibly exciting and fascinating. The other thing is the locations. If you choose where and when to see certain whales, you sometimes end up in places you've never heard of before, regardless of whether you prefer to take your inspiration from Lonely Planet or Instagram.

“Seeing whales is one thing. It’s incredibly exciting and fascinating. The other thing is the locations. If you choose when and where to see certain whales, you sometimes end up in areas you’ve never heard of before.”

The itinerary for summer was as follows: from Snaefellsness to Illulissat to Tadoussac to Telegraph Cove to Kaikoura to Hervey Bay and back. That's in Iceland, in Greenland, in Quebec, in British Columbia, in New Zealand and in Australia. I'd never heard of any of these places before, and yet in all these places you can do all the things you normally do in Iceland, Greenland, Canada, New Zealand and Australia. The blue whales, humpbacks, fin whales, sperm whales, minkes, belugas and orcas would hopefully just be on top. That was the plan.

On our first longer trip, Theresa suddenly came up with an Excel list. She loves making (really good!) Excel lists. Each day of the trip had its own column, behind it were the costs for accommodation and food, some days were planned down to the hour: "13 July | Patricia Lake, Jasper | 3 to 5 pm: paddling on the lake." That's what it really said.

I prefer making websites to Excel lists. So I collected the research for the summer trip on a website. Privately, just for her. With pictures, links, information. Simply instead of Google Docs. Because it's nicer and more fun. I realised that the research wasn't exactly easy. I couldn't find a single website where you can easily find out when and where to go to see certain whales and at the same time find out what else you can do there. There are books, yes. Unfortunately, whales don't stick 100 per cent to routes that were printed in a book a few years ago.

That's why we've expanded on our research a little and made it a bit more attractive, and have now turned the rather stitchy private version into a proper website. Perhaps it will inspire some of you to get on a terrifyingly small boat somewhere you've never heard of and go whale watching in the wild. It's great fun.

Theresa & Oliver

PS: Many thanks to the Whale and Dolphin Conservation, who gave us such great support in researching the locations and times and also provided us with all the important whale information at all times. A thousand thanks to Tobias Lange for designing the site and the wonderful whale illustrations, Maximilian Schmidt for the intro video and countless small and large CSS adjustments, and Heiko Bielinski for the entire setup. <3

PPS: This page does not claim to be complete. There are many, many places in the world where you can watch whales and do exciting, wonderful things. Of course, there are also many more whales and dolphins than the ones we have presented here. This website is a selection, we want to share stories from previous trips and collect information and links for future trips. A kind of bucket list for everyone.

PPPS: After a few years of "whaletrips", Theresa realised at some point that we urgently needed nice notebooks for our next trip. With whales on them. And whales inside. And everything you need for a whale trip. So we made some. They're called Notes and Travel Notes, and we hope they'll make your trips even more beautiful. After all, a whale trip should be something you remember for the rest of your life.