Whale watching tours in Alaska

Alaska whale watching: bubble-net feeding in the Inside Passage

Alaska whale watching means something most other destinations cannot offer: a group of humpback whales working together, in real time, to catch their own dinner. From June through August, humpbacks pack the Inside Passage of Southeast Alaska to feed, and a subset of them have learned to hunt cooperatively, blowing a spiral curtain of bubbles around a school of herring, then lunging up through the middle of it together, jaws wide, in a single explosive rush. Stephens Passage near Juneau and the waters around Icy Strait Point are two of the best places on Earth to watch it happen. Picture the surface going still, a ring of bubbles breaking through it, and then four or five sets of jaws erupting at once while gulls wheel in for the scraps.

This hub covers Alaska's whale watching season top to bottom: the month-by-month best time to go, the three signature species you are most likely to see, the state's main departure regions, what a typical tour costs and includes, and how to pick the right boat. Every price below is a snapshot of real tours we compare, most bookable with free cancellation, so you can hold a peak-summer date now and change your mind later without losing a cent. If Alaska is one of several trips on your shortlist, our full list of whale watching destinations lines it up against every other region we cover.

Best time for whale watching in Alaska

The short answer is June, July and August. Those three months are the peak of the Alaska whale watching season, when humpback whales are settled into the Inside Passage's feeding grounds in the largest numbers and sighting rates on dedicated tours run around 95%. This is also when bubble-net feeding groups are at their most active, since the whales need to feed nearly around the clock to build the fat reserves that carry them through winter. If you can only travel once, build the trip around these three months.

May and September are solid shoulder months. Humpbacks are already arriving by May and many are still present in September, sightings stay good, and both crowds and prices ease off a little compared with the height of summer. Orcas are seen across this whole window too, since both resident, fish-eating pods and transient, marine-mammal-hunting pods move through Southeast Alaska all season.

October through April is the off season for the classic Southeast Alaska day tour. Most of the summer humpback population has left for warmer breeding waters by then, daylight shortens fast, and the small-boat tours this page is built around largely stop running. The one exception is the Gulf of Alaska side of the state, where gray whales pass Seward and the Kenai Fjords each spring on their migration north, a different season entirely from the one covered here. For a side-by-side comparison of Alaska against warmer-water destinations, see our best time for whale watching guide.

What whales you'll see in Alaska

Three cetaceans account for almost every sighting on a Southeast Alaska whale watching tour, and each is doing something different with its summer. Marine wildlife here goes well beyond whales, too: calving glaciers, Steller sea lions hauled out on rocks, and bald eagles overhead are all part of the same trip.

Humpback whale

The whale Alaska whale watching is built around. Adults reach up to about 60 feet and 40 tons, according to NOAA Fisheries, and thousands of them arrive in the Inside Passage each summer specifically to feed. Most feed alone or in loose groups, lunging through bait balls near the surface, but a subset of Southeast Alaska humpbacks have learned bubble-net feeding, the cooperative technique that makes this stretch of coast famous among whale watchers worldwide. Commercial whaling reduced humpback numbers by more than 95 percent before the 1985 international moratorium, and the species has been rebounding steadily since, though a few regional populations remain listed as endangered.

Orca (killer whale)

Alaska hosts both major types of North Pacific orca, and telling them apart is part of the fun. Resident pods travel in large, stable family groups and hunt fish, mostly salmon, while transient, or Bigg's, orcas move in smaller groups and hunt marine mammals such as seals and sea lions, according to Whale and Dolphin Conservation. A pod can turn up almost anywhere in the Inside Passage on a given day, and an experienced guide can often tell which type you are looking at from behavior alone: resident pods calling constantly to each other, transients moving in near silence so as not to alert their prey.

Gray whale

A springtime specialty rather than a summer regular. Gray whales pass along Alaska's Gulf Coast, near Seward and the Kenai Fjords, during their spring migration from breeding lagoons off Baja California to Arctic feeding grounds, a round trip that can run past 10,000 miles and ranks among the longest migrations of any mammal. The eastern North Pacific population was once listed as endangered but was declared recovered and delisted in 1994, according to NOAA Fisheries. If your Alaska trip is timed for spring rather than peak summer, Seward is the place to look for them.

Where to go: Alaska whale watching departure regions

Alaska whale watching is spread across a coastline bigger than most countries, but three regions account for most of it, and each has its own character.

Juneau and Stephens Passage

• Best for: Bubble-net feeding
• From $154
• Southeast Alaska capital

Alaska's capital sits beside Stephens Passage and the waters around Admiralty Island, some of the richest summer humpback feeding grounds in the Pacific, and it is the most heavily used whale watching base in the state thanks to the volume of summer cruise and independent travel through the Inside Passage. Boats leave straight from the harbor and are often on whales within 20 to 30 minutes. Many Juneau tours pair the whale watching with a visit to Mendenhall Glacier, so you can combine a wildlife cruise and a glacier walk or visitor-center stop in a single outing. This is where the tours we compare on this page are based, and it is a reliable bet for both humpbacks and orcas all summer.

Icy Strait Point and Hoonah

• Best for: Reliable sightings
• Late Apr-Oct season
• Near Point Adolphus

Icy Strait Point, next to the Tlingit village of Hoonah, sits beside Point Adolphus and Icy Strait, waters that draw one of the largest concentrations of feeding humpbacks anywhere in Alaska. The season here runs unusually long, from late April into October, and the combination of a major cruise port and consistently productive feeding grounds has made this stretch of coast one of the more dependable places in the state to see a whale, sometimes several, close to the boat. Alongside Juneau, it is prime bubble-net territory.

Seward and Kenai Fjords National Park

• Best for: Gray whales & glaciers
• Mar-Oct season
• Gulf of Alaska side

Seward, on the Gulf of Alaska side of the Kenai Peninsula, is the gateway to Kenai Fjords National Park, where wildlife cruises run daily from March through October past tidewater glaciers that calve directly into the sea. Gray whales pass through in spring, typically March and April, on their migration to Arctic feeding grounds, orcas are seen most reliably from mid-May through mid-June, and humpbacks build through the rest of summer. It is a different kind of trip from the Southeast Alaska ports, built around the whole Kenai Fjords ecosystem, glaciers, puffins and sea lions included, rather than a single guaranteed species.

Southeast Alaska is one of the only places on Earth where a group of whales will blow a curtain of bubbles around a school of herring and then break the surface together, jaws open, as a team.

What an Alaska whale watching tour is like

Most Juneau tours run 3 to 5.5 hours, and the extra time on the longer options usually buys a stop at Mendenhall Glacier rather than more time searching for whales. A typical outing starts with a safety briefing at the dock, a run out into Stephens Passage or the waters around Auke Bay, then an open-ended stretch of watching and following whatever the guide finds, whether that is a lone humpback lunge-feeding, a pod of orcas moving through, or, with some luck, a bubble-net group at work. Boats carry naturalist guides who narrate constantly, calling out blows and dorsal fins long before most passengers spot them. Four broad formats define the choice:

As a rule of thumb, the core Alaska whale watching tours sit in a band of about $184 to $199, covering the small-group catamaran and the two glacier combos. The jet boat is the cheapest way onto the water at about $154, and the full-day kayak trip to Channel Islands State Marine Park is the premium outlier at about $471, a long-format wilderness experience rather than a quick whale watch. You can compare every current option, including exact duration and what is included, on the full tour list.

How to choose the right Alaska whale watching tour

Alaska rewards a little planning more than most whale destinations, mostly because the season is short and the state is enormous. A few decisions narrow the choice quickly.

• Match the tour to your itinerary, not the other way round.On a Southeast Alaska cruise or a Juneau stopover, the harbor-based tours on this page are the easy choice. Building a longer land trip around Seward and Kenai Fjords, or timing a spring visit for gray whales? Plan around that region instead.
• Book peak dates early.June through August is when bubble-net feeding is most active and sighting rates are highest, which also means it is when boats fill fastest. Most tours can be cancelled free, so booking early costs nothing if your plans shift.
• Decide how much time you want to spend.A 3-hour jet boat gets you on and off the water fast. The 4.5 to 5.5-hour glacier combos turn the day into two experiences in one. The 6-hour kayak trip is a bigger commitment, worth choosing only if a slower wilderness pace appeals more than maximizing time spent looking for whales.
• Weigh new listings on itinerary, not star ratings.Several of the tours we compare here are newly listed and do not yet have a review history to lean on. Judge them on duration, route and what is included instead, and treat the free-cancellation policy as your safety net rather than someone else's rating.
• Pack for the boat, not the forecast.Southeast Alaska weather changes quickly, and layers matter more than a single warm coat. See the tips below before you go.

Tips for whale watching in Alaska