The Original
& The Best
Whale Watching
A day on the water designed to maximise your experience. With 2 deck levels and only a maximum of 30 guests you have plenty of room to move around. External viewing from all around the boat on both levels. Friendly, experienced crew, our guides are marine biologists. Great food all day and a 6 hour tour allowing us the luxury of time to work with these magnificent animals and observe all kinds of behaviours.
Did you know Humpback Whales come to Cleveland Bay specifically to give birth? Did you know those mums and calves stay in the same relative area for about 2 weeks as the calf becomes strong enough to start the long migration back to
We get up close under the Cape Cleveland Lighthouse, where many turtles feed, we may also encounter dolphins, sea eagles, sea snakes or even the shy dugong. We travel the “Humpback Highway” with the wind and swell (if any) to make the day smooth and comfortable for all.
$175
$145
$95
$40
Verified Thoroughly enjoyed by everyone :) We are a support company and our clients were looking for a whale watching tour.Our clients thoroughly enjoyed the tour and had an excellent day watching all the whales. Dave and his Staff were very accomodating and we thank them for the wonderful experience.From the team at Rising Star Supports Ltd Pty Kat B02/09/2024Verified Fantastic views, even better crew! Views were amazing, crew was even better! We had a fantastic time and would highly recommend to anyone looking to both whale watch and sight see. Sophie C26/08/2024Verified Excellent day lots of whales. We had a fabulous day, didn’t actually believe we would see whales out there but Saw at least 16, mostly mothers with calves and the captain got as close as he could without disturbing them. So we were exceptionally happy with our trip. Nice fresh fruit and lunch was great. Was overall an excellent relaxing day ! Deborah B22/08/2024Verified Bloody awesome whale watching tour!! It was a truly amazing experience, perfect weather, the water was like glass. It was so exciting when two beautiful whales came and played at the boat, gave us all a wonderful show, so special. The food and service was second to none. So glad Dave convinced me to come with my broken collarbone, I felt very safe for the whole trip. Couldn't have picked a better day to go on our first whale watching experience. I highly recommend this tour to everyone. Mary A15/08/2024Verified Breath taking!! What an incredibly breath taking experience. We saw 22 whales and were lucky enough to have a couple of extra curious whales that were playfully people watching and swimming around the boat. I’m a Townsville local and am recommending Townsville Whale Watching to everyone I know. Very reasonably priced, especially for the yummy food which was generously provided throughout the day. The Crew were all extremely friendly. Do yourself a favour and book this tour! 🐳 will definitely be back again. Thank you so much. Jess N15/08/2024Verified Wonderful whale watching Boat crew were amazing, especially Frankie. Food was delicious and plentiful. Saw heaps of whales and dolphins. Whole experience was unforgettable KathE5908/08/2024Verified Don’t book this tour find another operator. For $330 for two adults, this was an expensive day out. We didn't feel it was worth the money.Website says "marine biologist led whale watching tour" and promises a talk of some kind by said marine biologist during the tour. Also states “All our skippers and guides are Marine Biologists whose passion is to share their extensive knowledge of the GBR and marine diversity with you.” No talk was heard or seen. There was no commentary at all! Not even an announcement of any kind when we were watching the turtles at the Cape. In fact quite a few of us were confused as to why we stopped. There were certainly no guides on board. Website says "A wonderful day on the water around the sheltered bays of Magnetic Island offering magnificent scenery" we went straight past M.I. lunch according to their website should have been in the sheltered Horseshoe Bay, it wasn't we didn’t go anywhere near Horseshoe bay lunch was served way past MI.Website says "potential for spotting wildlife like Snub-fin Dolphin, Bottlenose Dolphin, Seabirds including Osprey and Sea Eagles, Dugong and Turtles and the chance to get you up close and personal with some of the most magnificent animals on our planet, the Humpback Whale." We realise that they have no control over wildlife and where they are, but we saw a turtle outside of the initial Cape area and two spots where we saw Dolphins. Even then, there was no announcement or acknowledgment of any form of marine life. If we hadn't spotted it ourselves, we wouldn't have seen anything.Website says "delicious fresh lunch and snacks". Whilst there was a bowl of fruit on the table, and a staff member offered us sliced fruit and deep fried vegetarian spring rolls for morning tea and afternoon tea was defrosted muffins. Lunch was DIY salad and cold meat wraps. A bit lack lustre especially as we were told we had a cook onboard. We were also stunned that smoking was allowed on the boat during the tour. It was the staff smoking within 2m of where passengers were sitting and eating. The smoke smell lingered around the vessel. After six and a half hours on the water with no communication a cranky dog that snapped at everyone and barked excessively. When we finally returned to the marine where for the first time since the safety brief we were spoken to where the skipper thanked us for attending Townsville’s Dolphin and turtle tour apologised that we didn’t see any whales and told us how we could book again for half price.I think the business really should updated its website and remove the false advertising or actually deliver what its advertises. A little bit of communication with paying customers would go a long way, we thought we’d go out for the day and support a local business and hopefully see Townsville shine for those tourists onboard. Instead we were left embarrassed to admit we were locals. I wouldn’t recommend this tour to anyone which is really sad for Townsville we didn’t have high expectations but we did have some. Communication or delivering on what was advertised were two expectations we did have. Kellie D23/07/2024Verified Family The crew was very friendly the food was lovely you could ask them anything they were lovely with the 5 grandchildren an they made you feel welcome all the time so happy we went Dianne M21/07/2024Verified Fantastic day out on the water! We had a wonderful day whale watching, turtle spotting and we we saw some dolphins too. The crew were friendly, helpful and informative. The boat was spacious enough to move around freely and the food offered was freshly prepared on board and tasty. I have recommended this tour to friends and family and I can't wait to go again. What a wonderful way to spend a day. Loved it! Dazndiddy27/08/2023Verified Love this Tour What a great day out, terrific crew, very knowledgeable and helpful, the food was awesome, fresh baked muffins on a rolling boat, pretty amazing.And then there were the whales, how amazing to see these gorgeous creatures in their natural habitat, we got to see mum and bub frolicking and bub learning to be a whale, having a great time., and that was just one sighting.Highly recommend this tour. Tanya H26/08/2023