Swim With Whales

The adventure

In Vava'u, the boat drifts quietly and the guide slips in first to check the whale is calm. Then it's your turn. You lower yourself into impossibly clear blue water, and below you, motionless, is a humpback mother the size of a bus, with her calf resting just above her head.

After a few minutes the calf rises to breathe, curious, rolling to look at you with one dark eye before nuzzling back down to its mother. Somewhere out of sight a male is singing, and underwater you don't just hear it, you feel it buzzing through your body. Humpbacks travel thousands of kilometres from Antarctica's feeding grounds to these warm waters to give birth and mate. Being invited, for a moment, into that part of their lives is humbling in a way that watching from a boat can't match.

Why it’s epic

Humpbacks can grow to around 16 metres long and weigh over 30 tonnes.
Tonga is one of the few countries where swimming with humpbacks is permitted, with mothers and calves resting in sheltered water.
Males sing complex songs that can last for 20 minutes and be heard for kilometres.
On the Silver Bank, a protected sanctuary north of the Dominican Republic, you can spend a week on a liveaboard among the whales.

What it is

In a few places it's possible to swim with humpback whales.

How to do it

Vava'u in Tonga (July to October) and the Silver Bank in the Dominican Republic (January to April) are best known.

Top tip

Choose licensed operators that follow the local rules.

Need to know

Tonga's season is roughly July to October; the Silver Bank runs from January to April and is reached by boat from Puerto Plata.
Group sizes in the water are strictly limited and the whale sets the pace, so some swims last minutes and others are cancelled.
You need to be comfortable snorkelling in open ocean with swell and some current.

Make it happen

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Why it’s on my list

Just seeing whales in the wild is in an incredible experience, the sheer size of them often amazes everyone – I am still amazed and I have seen whales on many occasions.

I want to go one step closer and get into their environment, really understand them, and be in their presence – of course in a way that does not upset the animals or interfere with them.