Whale watching suggestions

[RweTHEREyet]

We will be visiting Orange County during the week following Christmas and I was wondering if that was a good time for whale watching and if anyone has any suggestions on specific tours or locations to do it on your own from land?

 

[sonnyjane]

It's a great time to go! Grey whale season is from late December to early April so you should have good luck. I am only familiar with the San Diego companies so can't recommend an outfitter in the OC. Definitely go on a boat though. Your success from shore will be minimal and you would need great binoculars. The whales are usually at least a mile offshore, sometimes up to ten miles out.

 

[endy]

We went out on danawharf.com in Aug 2010.
It was so great we went twice. There's a place out of Newport as well, haven't tried them, I've seen coupons for both on californiafunspots.com

 

[RweTHEREyet]

Thanks for the responses.

 

[Bruins]

Harbor Breeze cruises (2seewhales.com) is out of Long Beach, next to the Long Beach Aquarium. The website shows how many whales are seen on a given day, so it should give you an idea of whether the whales are in the area when you are in town.

Our family volunteers at the aquarium, and I got to volunteer on a blue whale trip this morning. We saw a couple of blue whales and one actually went under our boat.