If there’s one thing you need to do while in this Australian city, it’s a Sydney whale watching experience.
Whether it’s a paid tour or a free day on a coastal viewpoint, it’s worth it to see these majestic mammals as they migrate past the coast every year.
But exactly where can you go whale watching in Sydney?
Anywhere would be a simple answer.
Find a high coastal viewpoint, gather your patience and you’re likely to see them.
If you want a more accurate chance though, here are our suggestions on the best places to see whales near Sydney.
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Free Sydney Whale Watching Locations
With Sydney being located so close to the coast, you won’t be surprised to find out there are a lot of free whale watching spots in Sydney. Here are some of our favourites:
Royal National Park
Just an hour’s drive from Sydney CBD it makes a great day trip on its own, but in whale season there’s even more reason to go.
Providence point lookout is the official point to see them from but just by simply walking the coastal track, you’ll have plenty of opportunities to see them from here.
We headed here the day after our paid whale watching tour (we’ll talk about that next!), armed with the knowledge of what to look out for we were confident we would see them, but we were also prepared for a wait.
Picnic packed, camera in hand, we headed to the coast walk and got comfy on one of the cliff out-hangs.
We needn’t have worried about waiting. I don’t know how we always end up so lucky.
Within minutes we thought we saw the tell-tale signs of whales. ‘Poofs’ in the distance.
It couldn’t be, could it? We’d only just arrived, nobody’s that lucky.
Are they?
Seems we are.
Over the next hour, we watched as this whale and her calf cruised south, heading back home to the Antarctic.
Boy did they put on a show too. They breached constantly, one after the other, barely diving down before they were in the air again.
We spent the entire day walking the coast track, stopping at every outcrop available to see if we could spot energetic whales and each time we did.
They’d barrel roll and splash their fluke almost like they were waving.
Of course, they were miles and miles off the coast, if it hadn’t been for my new camera lens, there’s no way we’d have been able to capture the moment like we did.
However, just seeing them right there in front of us was amazing.
On the walk back to the car we decided to have one last stop at Providence point, the sun was setting now and the sea had calmed a little.
It was our last chance of the day to get a look at the humpbacks as they migrate… we saw at least four. They were still breaching and showing off as we left or we could have stayed there all night watching them.
More Free Sydney Whale Watching Locations
During our time in Australia, it felt like whenever we were on the coast, we saw whales. Here are a few other places around Sydney that you’re almost guaranteed to spot them if you’re there during the migration
Barrenjoey Lighthouse
We were here out of season for the whales but the views from the top are so good, it would be hard not to see whales from here!
To get to the viewpoint & lighthouse, you need to start at Palm Beach and walk the Barrenjoey track for 1km. This is an easy to moderate walk that takes roughly 30 minutes each way.
If you fancy a challenge, take the smugglers track for a bit more of a climb. It takes a bit longer, and is more difficult in summer but you’ll feel more accomplished when you reach the top.
Think you recognise palm beach from somewhere? Well that’s because Home and Away is filmed here, so Palm Beach is also known as Summer’s Bay.
North Head
If you’re in the Manly area for any reason during the whales migration, you’re pretty close to one of the best free whale watching spots in Sydney!
You’ll have to pay to park here, but once you’re in the national park you can walk all along the coastline to increase your chances of seeing the whales. The North Fort and Fairfax Lookout loop takes about an hour to complete.
South Head
Fancy taking a drive (or bus/train) to the South of Sydney? Then Sydney South Head is another great free whale watching location with ample other things to do while you’re there.
From walking tracks and secluded beaches, to historic lighthouses and scenic viewpoints, South Head is a great place to look for whales while also escaping the crowds.
Paid Sydney Whale Watching Experience;
Go Whale Watching Sydney
The following is our review of Go Whale Watching Sydney, plus our experience out on the water. We paid for our and all of our opinions are our own. This is not sponsored content:
We were pretty dubious about doing a whale tour at first.
It can be an expensive trip when there’s no guarantee that you’ll actually see whales. Well, we don’t regret our decision to go with ‘Go whale watching Sydney’.
The crew were fantastic with finding whales for us and their knowledge made it an educational experience too. They were even making sure that the children on board had a front-row seat!
We booked our tickets for the lunchtime tour online which meant we actually got 50% off, making our tickets just $35 each! Bargain!!
No need to worry about booking weeks in advance either, they can usually squeeze you on a trip up to 30 minutes before they set off.
Our tour was 2 3/4 hours long, from the moment we left the harbour and entered open waters we were on the lookout for humpback whales.
They explained the tell-tale signs that we were looking for as well as reassuring us that they’d seen a lot of active whales on their earlier tour, which means we were in for a good chance of spotting them.
We didn’t have to wait long. Within minutes of being in the open waters we saw the first signs of whale activity quite a distance ahead of us. I can’t describe how that felt. It might have only been a blowhole poof, but that was my first sighting of a wild humpback.
Something we didn’t think would actually happen.
As we got close it was clear there was more than one, a mother and calf were slowly cruising the coastline, diving for 10 minutes then taking a breath and displaying their tails for us before they head back down.
Was she teaching her calf how to put on a show? With each dive, it felt like they were waving to us. Then we spotted more whales on the other side of us. Bigger, a bit more active. Still beautiful.
We didn’t see any whales breaching on this trip, but we did see around 5 maybe 6 individuals, as well as a fur seal and a small pod of dolphins!
All were happy to have us coasting along with them. Even if our tickets had been the full price we certainly got our money’s worth!
Other Whale Watching Tours In Sydney
While we were really happy with our Go Whale Watching Tour, we know several others who have taken trips out with other companies and been equally as happy.
Since every tour offers something different, here are a few of your other choices:
Sydney Harbour Attractions
This company offers all sorts of water activities from whale watching to jet boating.
For their whale tour, you’ll get 2 hours 45 minutes out on the water. Their boats look spacious, and they offer free tea & coffee while you cruise too.
You can book your tickets with them here!
Sydney Princess Cruises
We actually looked at this boat company before choosing to go with Go Whale Watching. They seemed to be one of the most popular tours, but GWW had an offer running at the time which made them cheaper.
They offer a 4 hour whale watching tour that includes lunch or breakfast depending on your tour time.
You can book your tickets with them here!
Fantasea Cruising Sydney
This company offers slightly smaller groups on board their catamaran boats.
It’s a 3 hour cruise, with no food on offer but they will provide free drinks.
At the time of updating this post, these seem to be the most expensive for what they offer but for smaller groups? You might see the value in that
You can book your tickets here
Barefoot Whale Watching
This company offers a couple of different whale watching opportunities, but the one we liked the look of the most is their 3 hour sunset whale watching tour. Hope on board their boat and watch the sunset over the ocean, with Sydney behind you and *hopefully* see some incredible whale activity too.
They also offer a 3 hour tour throughout the day, with both of these having a professional photographer on board.
Sydney Harbour Tall Ships
Finally, for a truly unique experience with only a few other people, why not hop on a traditional sailing ship to look for whales in Sydney?
Experience the ocean like the first explorers, and look out for the giant ocean mammals from the deck.
Tours last for 4 hours and have a warm lunch included.
You can book tickets here!
How To Spot Whales
When looking for whales in Sydney, you’re going to need to know exactly what you’re looking for. Especially if you’re at one of the free locations without a whale expert!
These key giveaways have been how we’ve managed to spot whales all along the East Coast:
Look For The ‘Poof’
When whales come up to breath, they ‘poof’ a pillar of water into the air from their blowholes.
From the boat, this can be really obvious, or sometimes just look like mist floating along the top of the water.
From land, it can be a little bit trickier to spot unless they’re closer to short but either way, this is a sure sign that there’s a whale nearby and a more obvious sign might follow;
Look For A Tail Slap
The tail of a whale is referred to as the Fluke.
This will often follow a poof of water as they dive back down. If the tail isn’t obvious, look for unnatural breaks in the water – easier on a calm day.
Look For Breaching
This is the most obvious sign of whale activity because it is literally a whale jumping out of the water.
Since whales have to preserve their energy during the migration, it isn’t a common or guaranteed thing to see.
Humpback whales, however, are the clown of the ocean so if they sense a boat nearby it’s common for them to start to show off. Especially juveniles.
We’ve only ever seen whales breaching a handful of times.
Look For Unusual Wave Patterns/Breaks
Sometimes whale activity isn’t obvious. If you look out at sea, watch out for anything unusual. Like a weird break where the water isn’t rough, or even birds/fish congregating together.
We’ve seen quite a few whales after one of us said ‘huh, that looked like a weird wave’ whilst at a viewpoint.
Best Time For Whale Watching In Sydney
Of course, whales are in the ocean all year around and you might be lucky enough to see an orca or other type of whale in Sydney during the ‘off’ season.
However, you’re most likely to see Humpback whales between June and November.
This is when they migrate past Australia’s east coast to the great barrier reef, where they give birth before heading back to the Antarctic for the rest of the year.
According to our guide, mid-August is the best time for seeing pregnant, slower, female humpbacks heading North. It’s also not unusual to see baby whales during this time too, when the early mothers start heading back south.
These 5 months give locals and tourists alike the perfect opportunity to see whales from Sydney, and if you’re heading up the East Coast during this time there’s a strong chance you’ll continue to see them too!
Other Marine Wildlife In Sydney
It’s not just humpbacks that use Australia’s east coast as a motorway. There are heaps of others too!
- Minke whales
- Fur seal
- Common dolphin
- False killer whales
- Bottlenose dolphin
- Orca
- Southern Right Whales (Read here about where we saw these in the wild!)
Have you seen humpbacks or any other whale in the wild? We’d love to know where! Join our Facebook group and share your experience in Australia and beyond!
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