Whale watching tours in Canary Islands

Canary Islands whale watching: resident pilot whales and dolphins, every month of the year

Canary Islands whale watching has no season to miss. About 96% of tours find whales or dolphins on any given sailing, in any given month, because the short-finned pilot whales and bottlenose dolphins you are looking for live in these warm Atlantic waters permanently. Picture a pod of pilot whales rolling past the bow in flat, sun-warmed water off the southwest coast of Tenerife, a calf tucked close to its mother, volcanic peaks rising behind the boat, on an ordinary Wednesday in November. All but a handful of sailings in a hundred go something like that.

Read on for why the season never closes, the four species you are most likely to meet, the two main departure islands (each with its own page), what a typical tour costs and includes, and how to choose between a budget boat and a private charter. Prices are snapshots of the tours we compare, most bookable through Headout with free cancellation, so you can lock in a date and still change your mind.

Best time for whale watching in the Canary Islands

There is no bad month for Canary Islands whale watching. Every one of the twelve months carries the same peak rating in the data behind this page, because the animals that make up most sightings, short-finned pilot whales and common bottlenose dolphins, are residents. Where a destination like Iceland or Norway lives or dies by a two-to-three month window, a January sailing here and a July sailing have essentially the same odds, around 96% on the tours we track. That is why the Canaries are often recommended as the most dependable place in Europe for a first whale watching trip.

A few seasonal differences are still worth knowing. Atlantic spotted dolphins gather in larger, more energetic pods in the warmer months, roughly from late spring through early autumn, so a summer sailing carries a slightly better chance of a big, playful pod alongside the resident animals. Spring is when fin whale migrants are most likely to pass through the islands on a wider migration, a lucky extra if it happens, but too occasional to plan a trip around. If you are weighing the Canaries against a seasonal destination for another leg of your travels, our guide to the best time for whale watching lines up the regions side by side.

What whales you'll see in the Canary Islands

Somewhere between 21 and 28 cetacean species have been recorded across the archipelago, making Canary Islands waters some of the richest for marine wildlife in Europe. Four cetaceans account for the vast majority of sightings on a typical tour, and two of them are residents you can expect on close to any crossing.

Short-finned pilot whale

The signature sighting of the archipelago and the reason the sighting rate holds steady all year. Around 400 individuals live permanently in the strait off southwest Tenerife, traveling in tight, matriarchal family pods of ten to fifty animals. NOAA Fisheries notes that these dolphins (they are technically large dolphins, despite the name) dive deep and hunt mostly at night, which means what you see by day is largely rest and social behavior: slow rolls at the surface, calves staying close to their mothers, and occasional spyhopping.

Bottlenose dolphin

Resident year-round alongside the pilot whales and often the more active half of a sighting, frequently with calves in the pod. NOAA Fisheries notes that common bottlenose dolphins can weigh up to 1,400 pounds and live 40 to 60 years, and Canary Islands crews describe the same family groups turning up trip after trip, generation after generation. They are the species most likely to bow-ride, cutting in front of the boat to ride the pressure wave off the hull.

Atlantic spotted dolphin

A warmer-water specialist that shows up in larger, more energetic pods than the resident bottlenose dolphins, with numbers picking up through the warmer months. Adults develop a spotted pattern over gray flanks as they age, so a pod can look like a mix of plain-sided juveniles and heavily speckled adults. They are fast and acrobatic at the surface, often leaping clear of the water in groups, so a large pod is a highlight for any tour that finds one.

Fin whale

A spring migrant rather than a resident, and the biggest animal most visitors will ever see in the Canaries: the second-largest whale on Earth after the blue whale, reaching 75 to 85 feet. Fin whales pass through the islands on a wider Atlantic migration, so a sighting comes on top of the pilot whales and dolphins you are already likely to see. Look for a tall, straight blow and a long, low back that seems to take a while to finish surfacing.

Where to go: Canary Islands whale watching departure points

Tours run from several islands in the archipelago, but two account for most of the boats and have full guides of their own on this site.

Tenerife

• Best for: Most tours, resident pods
• From $31
• Southwest coast (Teno-Rasca strait)

The strait off southwest Tenerife is one of Europe's most important cetacean habitats, with pilot whales and bottlenose dolphins seen on almost every trip in calm, warm water. It is also the busiest island for whale watching by a wide margin, with the widest range of boats and prices, from a $31 pirate boat crossing out of Los Cristianos to full-day private sailing charters well above $600. Read the full guide to whale watching in Tenerife for every harbor, boat and price broken down.

Lanzarote

• Best for: Isla de Lobos crossing
• From $41
• Puerto del Carmen & Marina Rubicon

Lanzarote sits further from the resident pilot whale strait, so a sighting here leans more on passing pods and the occasional migrant among the archipelago's dolphins, but small-group boats out of Puerto del Carmen and Marina Rubicon at Playa Blanca still find dolphins and the odd whale regularly on the crossing toward Isla de Lobos, a nature reserve just off Fuerteventura's north coast, with tours from about $41 and the half-day Lobos trip at about $84. See our page on whale watching in Lanzarote for the details.

The wider archipelago adds to the picture: La Gomera sits right across the strait from Tenerife and shares the same resident pods, Gran Canaria and Fuerteventura both run their own boats along calmer stretches of coast, and interisland ferries occasionally turn up an unplanned sighting of their own. If you are island-hopping, Tenerife and Lanzarote are the two departure points with the deepest tour selection covered on this site.

Elsewhere you plan a whale watching trip around a season. In the Canary Islands the season is every month, because the whales never leave.

What a Canary Islands whale watching tour is like

Most tours run 2 to 5 hours and follow a similar rhythm: a short crossing to open water, often 15 to 30 minutes, a search phase where the crew reads the water and radios other boats, and a slower drift once whales or dolphins are found so the animals set the pace. Warm, calm conditions mean most Canary Islands tours skip the rough-crossing anxiety that comes with a colder, more exposed coastline, one reason the islands suit beginners so well. Four broad boat types change the experience more than the island does:

As a rule of thumb, the core Canary Islands whale watching tours sit in a band of about $31 to $87, which is unusually affordable next to most whale watching destinations, largely because the crossings are short and the resident pods are close to shore. Private boats are a separate category: about $692 to $756 for a full day off Tenerife, and about $872 for a 4-hour private cruise on Lanzarote. You are paying for an exclusive boat, so treat them as a splurge.

How to choose the right Canary Islands whale watching tour

With the season open all year, your choices come down to island, boat and budget.

• Pick the island that fits your trip.Based in Tenerife or want the widest choice of boats and the strongest odds? Book Tenerife. Staying in Lanzarote or adding a day trip to Isla de Lobos? Book from there instead.
• Decide how long you want on the water.A 2-hour small boat is enough for a sighting and a good afternoon. A 5-hour catamaran or a full-day private charter gives the crew far more time to find a large pod, and adds swimming or a meal to the trip.
• Book ahead in school-holiday weeks.The sighting rate does not swing much month to month, but boats still fill up around Christmas, Easter and the summer holidays. Most listings let you cancel free, so there is little downside to booking early.
• Motor or sail?An eco sailing cruise trades a little speed for a quieter ride that puts less engine noise into the water around the whales. If that matters to you, choose it over a standard motor cruise.
• Check ratings, not just the lowest price.Several tours we compare carry ratings of 4.3 to 4.8 across a meaningful number of reviews, a better signal than a near-identical tour with no review history yet. Booking through Headout lets you compare formats and hold a date with free cancellation on most listings.

Tips for whale watching in the Canary Islands