Winter Victoria Whale and Wildlife Zodiac Tour
Description
Come aboard a 12-passenger zodiac to experience the wild west coast. Let the snow-capped mountains of the Olympic Peninsula be your guide to open the doors to fascinating wildlife of the waters surrounding southern Vancouver Island. With tours lead by a passionate, knowledgeable, and experienced captain, you will be equipped with a cruiser suit, hat, and gloves before departing from the dock in search of the mysterious and exciting wildlife that’s waiting to be discovered. Possible wildlife that you may see include Stellar and California sea lions, harbour and Elephant Seals, Humpback Whales, otters, Bigg’s Killer Whales, and a variety of birds such as cormorants and bald eagles. Tours are three hours in length, departing from our inner harbour location daily at 12pm.
Tour Options
Itinerary
Come aboard a 12-passenger zodiac to experience the wild west coast. Let the snow-capped mountains of the Olympic Peninsula be your guide to open the doors to fascinating wildlife of the waters surrounding southern Vancouver Island. With tours lead by a passionate, knowledgeable, and experienced captain, you will be equipped with a cruiser suit, hat, and gloves before departing from the dock in search of the mysterious and exciting wildlife that’s waiting to be discovered. Possible wildlife that you may see include Stellar and California sea lions, harbour and elephant seals, humpback whales, otters, Bigg’s killer whales, and a variety of birds such as cormorants and bald eagles. Tours are three hours in length, departing from our inner harbour location daily at 1pm.
Highlights
What's included
Traveller Ratings
Important Information
- Public transportation options are available nearby
- Not recommended for travelers with spinal injuries
- Not recommended for pregnant travelers
- Not recommended for travelers with poor cardiovascular health
- Suitable for all physical fitness levels
- Not suitable for pregnant women
- Not suitable for participants with pre-existing injuries and/or health conditions
- Minimum age of 6 years old and must be above 4ft tall for Zodiac tours
- Operates rain or shine, please dress appropriately
Reviews(232)
Amazing experience with Ryan as our guide and Captain. Beautiful weather and got to see two pods of Orcas! Also saw a sea otter, many seals and eagles. Definitely Recommend!
Thank you for spending the afternoon with us! We’re pleased to hear that you had such a great experience. It’s always rewarding for our crew to share time on the Salish Sea and help guests connect with the marine environment in such a meaningful way. We appreciate you taking the time to share this and hope the memories stay with you for a long time! 🦅
My daughter and I did a morning zodiac tour with Luke as our guide. We had a fantastic time and saw sea lions, seals, a porpoise, and a pod of four killer whales. Luke shared plenty of interesting info and made us feel safe the whole time (important for young kids).
Thank you for sharing this review! It sounds like a really special morning on the water for you and your daughter, with a great mix of wildlife along the way. We’re glad Luke helped make the experience both engaging and reassuring, especially with younger guests on board. We appreciate you joining us and taking the time to leave a review!
I can’t say enough about how wonderful my experience was! Drove from Ottawa for this. Watched Orcas hunting and so much more! My guide was the best!!
This was a wonderful experience which exceeded my expectations. We saw 2 beautiful humpback whales from a good distance (bearing in mind it is not good practice to get too close). We were close enough to hear as well as see them spouting and got wonderful sightings of their flukes as they dived periodically. A sight which inspired the awe and wonder you might imagine. We also saw orcas, seals and sea lions and bald eagles. All this against the beautiful backdrop of snow covered mountains in Washington state. Our guide and skipper was Luke who is a local to Victoria, born and raised, and very friendly, knowledgeable and fun. I should add that speeding between locations in the zodiac was lots of fun. The survival suits which were provided, kept us warm and snug, but also looked hilarious on everyone who wore them, so that gave us all a laugh as well. Highly recommended - thank you!
Excursion was great- saw lots of whale action. Naturalist was good right up until she discredited the bible about the story of Jonah and the whale, which was totally unnecessary. She actually used foul language when saying the story was untrue. Serval people on board were offended by her comments. My advice is ...Next time keep your non-religious remarks out of the commentary. Would I recommend Orca Spirit for whale watching? Yes I would. Just be aware that some of the staff is super liberal and you may get offended by her comments.
WOW! What an amazing experience! This was the best part of our trip to the West Coast. The day of the tour we had experienced a couple of unfortunate setbacks but the team at Orca Spirit stepped up to the plate to ensure we didn't miss out on this experience! Liam (I think) and Ryan were our guides and we're friendly, knowledgeable and attentive! The ladies at the desk were top notch as well! On our tour we followed a pod of Orcas for about 20 minutes and were filled in on the family structure of this particular pod. They know all of the pods by look. This was amazing and would have been more than enough for the price of admission but there is more. We moved on from the Orca pod in search of some humpbacks and boy did we find them! What I am trying to say is we saw a full double breach!!!! Talk about a once in a lifetime memory, we were in awe! All of this is to say that if you are thinking about doing something like this please be sure to book your tour with Orca Spirit Adventures in Victoria BC !!! You will not be disappointed!!!
It was excellent. Crew was super friendly and knowledgeable. Jake great photographer shared photos!!! Saw Or as and they swam under boat!!! Best day ever. Also saw humpbacks and sea lions. Beautiful lighthouse. A fabulous trip would do it again.
My wife and I booked the Eagle watching tour through our cruise ship. This company was great and I would recommend them to anyone. The crew was real knowledgeable on the animals and were able to answer all questions. We saw many whales while we were out, one of the crew members took pictures and sent us some amazing pictures.
It was a beautiful day in Victoria. Where we went to see the whales it was foggy. That made it exciting and beautiful at the same time. They said keep your ears open. The air they blow out that makes a lot of noise. And then there they were amazing 🤩 A wonderful experience. At the end of the excursion we would go to the seals. But then the boat turned around, Orcas had been spotted. What a present. According to the crew exceptional that we both see giant in 1 excursion that was mega lucky 🍀. We look back on a mega wonderful day and experience.
What an absolutely amazing time we had, from the thrilling Zodiac ride to seeing a number of Orca whale's from a respectful distance. Our guide on the day was fantastic she kept us out late so we could enjoy the encounter. On the way back we were also lucky enough to encounter 3 Humpbacked whales. Would definitely recommend this trip. If we had anymore time we would go again.
