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Swim with the Whales - Aqua Adventures - Departs Southport

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Join us for an incredibly unique experience swimming with Humpback whales! We depart from the Gold Coast on a specifically tailored Whale Swim tour to deliver you the experience of a lifetime.

Join us for an incredibly unique experience swimming with Humpback whales! We depart from the Gold Coast on a specifically tailored Whale Swim tour to deliver you the experience of a lifetime.

Highlights

  • Once in a lifetime opportunity to swim with these 15+ meters, 30+ tonnes, magnificent Humpback Whales.
  • A unique experience where humpbacks choose to swim with you.
  • Incredible photo opportunities.
  • Whale sightings guaranteed*

Join us for an incredibly unique experience swimming out in the deep blue with the amazing 15+ meters and 30+ tonnes, humpback whales. These amazing creatures have an incredible sense of their surroundings and undeniable personalities and moods, hence why they are called ‘gentle giants’. They love to swim up close but never touch a person or vessel. Everything that happens during this experience is at the whale's discretion, they choose to swim with you. You may also see and experience close encounters with other marine life such as dolphins. We guarantee this experience will stay with you for a lifetime!

Our vessels are tailored to suit a whale swim adventure.

Important: Swimming with whales takes many factors to come together in order to achieve a safe experience for both you and the whales. In the event of no whales being spotted we will invite you back for a return trip at no charge provided it is within the same season.

Observer tickets: if you would like to bring a passenger along who would not like to take part in the whale swim you can arrange this directly with Aqua Adventures after booking. Cost will be between $65 and $109 depending on the vessel used on the day. Subject to availability.

Approximate Itinerary

  • 7:45am – Meet us at Southport use the toilets and get ready.
  • 7:50am – Safety brief, put on wetsuits.
  • 8:00am – Depart marina and cruise through the Broadwater.
  • 8:15am – Enter the open ocean to find and watch the whales.
  • 10:00am – Commence return cruise to the Marina whilst watching whales.
  • 11:00am – Arrive back at our Southport Jetty.
Whale Swimmer $249.00

What's included

  • All snorkel gear and wetsuits included.
  • Up to 3h* return whale swim / whale watching watching cruise.
  • Whale sightings guaranteed*

Duration

  • Allow approximately 3 hours for the whole experience

Location

  • Aqua Adventures Centre
  • 95 Marine Parade
  • Southport QLD 4215
  • Australia

Restrictions

  • Minimum age: 10

Child Friendly

  • This experience welcomes families with children.

Notes

  • Participant :

    -Good and strong swimming ability.

    -Generally fit and healthy.

    Notes:

    -All of our tours must reach a minimum of 4 participants to depart

    -Our minimum return trip duration is 2 hours however, if we dont find whales initially, we will extend the tour duration to up to 3 hours. If whales are not spotted on a designated whale watch tour between the months of June to September, each passenger will be entitled to a stand-by ticket enabling them to return on another subsequent tour date subject to availability as per our online calendar.

Authenticated Reviews & PhotosAll of our reviews are from people who have booked and paid for this activity thru Bookme

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Showing all 1 authenticated Bookme reviews

bevc from New Zealand wrote on 12 August 2022

An expensive boat trip

This was supposed to be the highlight of our holiday; something we had saved hard to do. We were very disappointed. We know that there is a chance we wouldn't get to swim with whales but the way the boat zooned around looking for them without any equipment to find them (they just headed towards other boats) didn't give us much chance of finding them. The skipper was on his phone making personal calls for a large amount of the trip. Everybody got soaking wet too; we had wet suits on but the others didn't and came away with their clothes dripping - we weren't warned of this. We were also freezing as we were not given splash jackets. We eventually got to see a whale with a calve so wasn't able to swim with them (I understand that). The skipper was pretty keen to get us back after that. The one good thing about the trip was the young woman giving out facts and information about the whales; friendly, polite and very knowledgeable - thank you. We saw and experienced more whales from the land in Byron Bay than we did on this trip (and that's free). I have been on many whale watching trips around the world before and this was the worse one ever. I emailed the owner to see if we could have a partial refund due to us spending twice as much as the other passengers for the same experience but got no reply. Definitely not a way to run a business. Very, very disappointed.

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This award identifies a business with a high level of professionalism, a keen awareness of the impact it has on the environment and a commitment to a customer centric approach.

This award is evidence of a sophisticated tourism business that consistently exceeds visitor expectations. Their proactive leadership and management ensure the business's focus on continuously improving their economic, social and environmental performance to create genuine, constantly evolving and sustainable tourism experiences.

This award recognises the best sustainable tourism businesses in New Zealand. It denotes exceptional customer experiences at the heart of everything the company does. This business is leading the way in making the New Zealand tourism industry a world class sustainable visitor destination.

When you see the Qualmark logo, your activity of choice is endorsed by New Zealand Tourism's official quality assurance organisation and backed by leaders in the industry. It's your trusted guide to iconic activities and experiences that are awarded for their exceptionally high level of quality, safety and sustainability.

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