We had to leave by 5am on the Sunday, so we had to pack up the tent with the help of our flashlights and hope that both the car and the van would work. Thankfully, it all worked according to plan and we headed off to our last stop of the weekend, Hervey Bay. Hervey Bay is a small coastal town that is mostly famous for its whale watching and its ferry to Fraser Island. Our destination of the day was whale watching!

We quickly took some of the best seats on the boat and then we waited. It was a lovely day out on the water and we cruised along Fraser Island for about an hour before spotting the first whale. Everyone on the boat was running around to get the best spot as the whales were circling around the boat.

We even had a couple of dolphins swimming along with our boat for a few minutes. I’m really happy to have been able to see them so close. They were just 1.5-2 meters above me! There’s plenty of spots round Australia where you can see the dolphins, but it’s normally from a distance so it was good to see them so close.

Look at the size difference between the dolphin and the whale! The whales are absolutely massive!


It was a perfect condition for whale watching and I think that October is normally a really good month.  The whale watching was organized by The Spirit of Hervey Bay and lasted between 8:30-14:30. It was more than enough time to see all the whales that we wanted. It even felt a little repetitive at the end, but we were also very lucky to come across a lot of whales. There’s no need to go on a longer tour than that.

The adult price was $110 (weekend) and includes coffee/tea, cake and a buffet lunch. The lunch was pretty poor with cold salads, breads and some cold chicken if you were lucky. It’s enough to fill you over for the moment, but I will recommend that you bring your own snacks and drinks.

Me and V didn’t really have any thoughts to do whale watching in Australia, but one of our flatmates suggested it and we went with it. It was a very nice experience and I’m very happy to have done it. It’s something that I’ll recommend to other travelers if you are in the area.

There’s currently really cheap offers on groupon/similar sites for whale watching if you can go during Monday and Friday instead of the weekend. Most of the tour also offers a 100% refund if you can’t see any whales.