Whale watching - Scotland

[John Fenna]

OK - I will do the joke about coming from Wales and wanting to go to Scotland to watch Wales - in all its permutations - first so as not to clog the thread....
Seriously - my long suffering Wife needs a break and has always wanted to go Whale watching.
Although fit for a pensioner (she will maim me if she sees that!) my beloved is not a realy rufty tufty outdoorsy type, we have limitted finances and limmitted time available for the project (thanks to work commitments and her aging mother...) so we are thinking of Scotland as an accessible location for reasonably priced Whale watching.
Does anyone have any experience of Scotish Whale watching, the companies to go with/avoid, good locations, best times to go for the best chances of getting a good viewing?
I have done a bit of surfing on the web, - but there is a lot of contradictory info out there!
Please help as I would like to give my wife the holiday of a lifetime - she deserves one as she has not had a real holiday in at least 25 years and has put up with me for even longer!
Thanks in advance.
John

 

[Shewie]

I went watching Minke whales up near Skye somewhere but I cant think of the company, I`ll have a look on the web and see if I can find it.
It was a last minute offer from somebody who couldn`t make it at SWMBOs work, a great day out for sure.


Rich

 

[JonnyP]

My fav whale joke John...

Where do you find out the weight of a whale....?

At a whale weigh station....







:theyareon

I went to Mull once and would highly recommend it for wildlife. We only saw poipoise (sp?) , otters and seals in the sea there, but its meant to be a good place to base to see whales...

 

[fred gordon]

John, I can only speak for the NE of Scotland but try some of these;

www.north58.co.uk

www.puffincruises.com

www.macduff-aquarium.org.uk

www.dolphintripsavoch.co.uk

If they don't know they will know a man who does.

 

[Labrador]

Hi John,
I know it's further than you were looking, but how about Nova Scotia? Cheap (relatively) charter flights from Gatwick, a good exchange rate & everything else Canada has to offer. Have a look at the Canadian Affair website (no association, my good lady wife uses them to book our holidays to Canada).

 

[andy_e]

Was sure I'd seen something similar before, and a quick Google threw up this link ...

http://www.seescotlanddifferently.co.uk/wildlife-holidays/24/

... looks quite good to me.


(NB: Usual no connection disclaimer)

 

[Bodge]

Hi John, Here is the link for the boat that me and my mates from our dive club use for diving trips. http://www.northernlight-uk.com/
I can't praise Mark and his crew enough. Mark is ex military and very knowledgable. The food and accommodation are second to none, The Hjalmar Bjørge is a fantastic vessel. And if Lyndsay gets the fiddle out it's the icing on the cake.

Cost wise, not the cheapest but by far the best boat I've been on in the 12-13 years I've been going up there.

The Hjalmar Bjørge has great, dry, heated cabins and electric flush loos on deck and below.

Bodge

 

[John Fenna]

Thanks for the replies so far - keep em coming folks - especially those that you have personal experience of!

 

[ilovemybed]

<Shaking off the dust to prove I'm still about, and reply to a topic close to my heart....>

Hi John,
A friend of mine runs a small company doing whale watching trips out of Tobermory on the isle of Mull. They're a great bunch, and I think Mull is one of the most amazing places in the world. The lads grew up on the island, they really give a toss. It's still a family business too.

Their website is www.sealifesurveys.com but they're not that great at updating it so I'd recommend giving them a call.

They're busy refitting the boat this winter so it should be spick and span for the new season (April to October). They do 2 kinds of trips (or they used to - the new boat might mean they have shuggled up the schedule for the new season).

Actually, I guess this advice stands for any whalewatching trip off the west coast, not just theirs... Go for the longer tour. I know it's more expensive but the shorter tours, by definition, don't go so far out to sea and the chances of seeing whales is much depleted. You'll still see porpoises and seals and things but likely not Minkes.

They're really closely associated with the Hebridean Whale and Dolphin Trust and report all their sightings to IFAW - they're not just jumping on the ecotourism bandwagon.
The BBC use them regularly - I know Bill Oddie, 'Cwis' Packham and a few others have chartered them for filming.

In the past couple of years they've also seen Orca, Fin whales and Bottlenose whales (like the one that went to London to see the Queen...)

You can also see sea eagles on the island - the guys at SLS can point you in the right direction; they've been involved a bit with that for a while too.

Oh, and the two skippers are part time coxwains on the lifeboat too, so you know they're up to par...

Really recommend it. Was lucky enough to spend a week with them when they had a liveaboard. We saw minkes every day, basking sharks, porpoises, loads of seabirds and even stopped on the cairns of Coll where there's a seal colony. Best week of my life!!

Hope that helps...
Neil