When comparing whale watching tours, it is most important to know about the differences among the various lagoons, and the total number of hours a day in a boat seeing the whales, and the number of days in the water. Many companies offer itineraries traveling to see sites and towns that have nothing to do with whale watching, and they disguise the real amount of hours a day, or the number of days seeing whales. When you examine closely, you find that most companies offer you 1 and a half hour tours on the aboard the boat a day, compared to our much longer and comprehensive tours which increases the chances of seeing and touching many more whales.
The main differences between the 3 lagoons on the Pacific side of the Baja Peninsula.
Scammons Lagoon (six hours driving time one way north of Loreto )is the largest of the lagoons, and it is the first lagoon that the whales arrive at, and also it is the lagoon that has the largest number of whales. However, it is the widest and the deepest of all the lagoons, and this characteristic create the least desired and difficult conditions to see the whales. The depth of the lagoon enables the whales to spend the majority of the time under the water, and with less interaction on the surface which is the case on Magdalena Bay,(where we offer our whale watching tours). Also, because Scammons lagoon is much wider than the other lagoons, often windy conditions similar to open sea create choppy seas and wet rides, and the end result is that you end up seeing whales and from further away, and very seldom you get an opportunity to get within touching distance.
San Ignacio Lagoon (Six hours driving distance. Three and a half hours driving time one way, north of Loreto to the town of San Ignacio, plus 2 and half hours dirt road drive) is the second lagoon that the whales arrive at, also a deep and a wide lagoon(with similar conditions to Scammons Lagoon). The lagoon is located 2 and a half hours drive away (one way, 5 hours round trip)from the little town of San Ignacio, on a very difficult dirt road. There is no tourist infrastructure on the lagoon(no hotels, restaurants, toilets, showers) It is the most famous lagoon because it was the lagoon that Jacques Cousteau made the first documentary about the Gray Whales of Baja Peninsula, and expose to the world this magnificent yearly whale migration, and to this Day remain famous. The majority of tour companies operating there offer flights from San Diego to the Lagoon, on a World War II DC3 airplane, or small charter 6 passenger planes. Also, it is the lagoon that has the most amount of visitors in ratio to boats allowed at any given observation period of time, and therefore any of the companies that offer whale watching tours out of San Ignacio is restricted to a maximum of one and half hours boat tour, so that the other boats or companies that are waiting stand by can take the waiting tourists on their limited turn.
Magdalena Bay is the southern most Lagoon. There are 2 areas in the Lagoon that one can see the whales. The fishing towns of Lopez Mateos(one and a half hours driving time from Loreto), and San Carlos (Two hours driving time from Loreto). We are the only company in Loreto that operates in San Carlos, which is a little further away, however, it offer the most ideal conditions of any of the lagoons to be found in the Baja Peninsula. Out of San Carlos the bay is the Narrowest and also the shallowest. At the main whale watching observation area out of San Carlos, the depth is around 20 feet, which means that you get to see the whales on the surface the entire time that you are on the water(this past 2006 season, we touched the whales every Day). In addition, as a part of our whale watching tour, we incorporate a tour through the mangroves where you can see many migratory birds ( such as Osprey, Red tailed Hawk, American Kestrel, Crested Caracara, Yellow-Crowned Night-Heron, Great Blue Heron, Little Blue Heron, Tricolor Heron, Black Crowned Night-Heron, Great Egret, Snowy Egret, Reddish Egret, White Ibis, Magnificient Frigate Bird, and several dozens other rare birds.), and we finish the tour with a visit to Isla de Pato, a bird refuge where you can see millions of birds, and incredible experience of a lifetime.
Click below for information on specific tours and whales.
Blue & Fin Whale Tours
Grey Whale Tours
Main differences between various tours and Baja Outpost
Many tours offered by other companies requires traveling half of the time, and when you compare the total number of hours spent whale watching, you will see a significant difference when compared to what Baja Outpost has to offer.
The duration of our whale watching tours are 7 hours a day for the Blue whales, and 5 hours a day for the gray whales. This means a lot of time aboard our boats seeing and in most days touching the whales. Most of the other companies offer you in their literature or web sites, large textual paragraphs providing a lot of information and making it sound very elaborate, however the bottom line, they offer you 1 tour a day, each of the tours between one to one and a half hours in length. What this means to you in practical terms is that in each of the sorties with the other companies, you will have to wait about 20 minutes to half an hour from the dock until you will intercept the first whale, so if you do the math, discounting the travel time to and from the whale watching area, you will at best, see whales for 1 hour a day--compared to our tours that will offer you significantly more interaction with the whales and opportunities to touch whales. In fact one Day of whale watching with us will offer you as much time on the water as the equivalent of 3 days of whale watching with any other company.
We are the only whale watching tour company that I know that you can participate in 2 different whale watching tours during your vacation, the Blue Whale Tour (offered in the Sea of Cortez) and the Gray whale tour(offered in the pacific lagoon), as well as incorporating additional activities such as kayaking, horse back riding or mule riding, cave painting tours, snorkeling, scuba diving, mountain biking.
There is so much flexibility with our tours, not only in regards to the open dates offered, which you can choose the arrival and departure dates, however, once here, you may choose to spend more days seeing a different whale watching tour, other than what you had reserved for in advance(subjected to space availability on the boats). One of the reasons that we are able to offer so much, is because we exist beyond a virtual web site, such is the case with the overwhelming majority of other alternatives. We have an Eco Center and a Bed & Breakfast, with a real location, with trained personnel that can communicate with you not only in English, however in Spanish, French, Italian, and Portuguese. We own and operate boats, kayaks, vehicles and other equipment. Furthermore, up in the Sierra de La Giganta we own and operate a working ranch with horses, mules, goats and cows, all managed by local experienced personnel. You see, Baja Outpost is in a unique position, capable to handle all of the logistics necessary to provide you with a guaranteed successful vacation--from the beginning till the end we have control of all of the aspects involved. While we are here year around with a physical presence, many other companies are nothing more than a seasonal intermediary agent with a web site.