Whale Watching in Monterey, CA: Worth It? (Honest Tour Review)

Thinking about booking a whale watching tour in Monterey? In this video I'm sharing an honest review of my recent whale watching tour experience. I went out in May which is considered a great time to see whales, especially humpbacks, in Monterey. I arrived at Moss Landing for my 8am tour and paid a $15 parking fee before heading to the dock. Our group of 5 boarded a small boat that only fits up to 6 people, plus the captain. This tour was pricier compared to the other tours, but I was willing to pay more for the smaller, more personal experience. As we left the harbor we saw quite a few sea otters and they were really cute. Then we passed a channel marker surrounded by sea lions. Sea lions are pretty common in California so anyone living on the coast, whether SoCal or NorCal, is probably used to seeing them. It was a very grey, cold day on the water. I took Dramamine beforehand to prevent seasickness and I was really glad I did because it got a little choppy out there. The captain heard there were dolphin sightings so we went looking and we found them. I did notice that these dolphins weren't the curious kind. I went on a whale watching tour from Newport Beach in Orange County where we saw lots of bottlenose dolphins jumping and coming right up to the boat, but these dolphins, called Rizzo's dolphins, seemed to be keeping their distance. After looking for dolphins, we headed to where the other whale watching tour boats were, and sure enough, there were a few humpback whales around. Okay, so here's my honest review. Maybe it was just the day itself, but as far as the whales, I found the experience to be a bit underwhelming. They were pretty far away and I totally get that boats aren't allowed to get closer than 300 feet. If a whale decides to swim up to the boat, that's a different story, and you'd be really lucky if that happened. I wasn't expecting that exactly, but I think I expected a slightly closer encounter. This isn't meant to be a knock on the tour companies. I really think it depends on the day and just luck. Would I go again? Of course. Overall, it was still a great experience and we saw whales, dolphins, sea otters, and other marine life. I hope you enjoyed this review. While I tend to highlight the best of on this channel, the fact is that sometimes adventures don't always live up to the expectation and that's okay. On this channel, I share lots of outdoor adventures in Northern California, the Eastern Sierras, and Lake Tahoe, so if that's something you're interested in, go ahead and hit that subscribe button. See you in the next one.