All of our vessels now have small onboard washrooms! The 12pm is warmer than the 5pm. On the 5pm the sunset is awesome!

2020 Half Day tour cost: Adults - $139 cdn + 5% tax = $145.95CDN Children 2-12 years old - $99 + 5% tax = $103.95CDN

Hello Pete, Thanks for the inquiry! All of our vessels that we use for our Full Day Tours have a small onboard washroom. If you email us from our website we would be happy to email you and image of the onboard washroom. The benefit of the full day tour is it gives you more time on the water to spend with all the whales and wildlife of the Salish Sea. It enables us to travel to areas that other whale watching vessels don't go as we are looking for those intimate encounters with. Also often we have more than one group of whales within our range so the full day tour enables us to have multiple encounters with different groups of whales when possible. The full days also give us the opportunity to choose our scheduling time with the whales to ensure there are fewer boats viewing the whales while we are on scene with the whales and avoid the peak times when it gets busy with other boats viewing. We suggest planning on being on our boat for the full eight hours, the time goes quite quickly. There are some days when we do stop on a Canadian Gulf Island to stretch our legs etc but this is dictated by the whales locations and travel patterns as the whales we view can travel up to 100 miles in a 24 hour period. I hope this helps and feel free to email or call us if you have any further questions.

We went in August and the sea was very calm. The boats that Ocean EcoVentures uses are inflatable zodiac type boats with a rigid hull. These make for a very smooth ride. This part of the Salish Sea is protected and, in general pretty calm. I wouldn't expect sea sickness to be a problem.

It would depend on the time of year and weekends always get booked up quicker. We went in May and booked about a week before. There were three full boats on our trip. I would book as soon as you can if you want a particular date.

Bonjour! The main difference is how long you stay out. The full-day trip gives you a longer time to search for and be with wildlife. If I were you, I would book directly with Ocean Eco-ventures through their website, or call or email them. Tell them of your need for flexibility and stay in contact as you near Cowichan Bay. They are great people and will accommodate you if not fully-booked. Mid-September should be flexible. Bon voyage!

The Victoria Airport code is YYJ ; you can fly non-stop from San Francisco (SFO) on United or Air Canada or save some dough by stopping over in Seattle (SEA) with Delta. Then, as others said, no Lyft or Uber, but you can rent a car and the drive to Cowichan Bay is easy. Ocean EcoVentures is awesome. Have fun!

Hey Abigail-- so it's not too difficult, it's more of the timing and having the time. My husband and I initially thought this was a day trip but we turned it into an overnight excursion to Vancouver island-- which was well worth it!! From Vancouver mainland you drive south (about 35 min) to tsawwassen ferry terminal. It's then about an hour and 30 minute ferry to Swartz bay. Definitely look at the ferry schedule ahead of time and book a reservation. The ferry ride is gorgeous! From there we drove-- we had rented a car upon landing in Vancouver. It's probably an hour drive from Swartz bay to cowichan bay. If you can spare the time, definitely add a day and stay on vancouver island-- we opted for outside of the city at oak bay beach resort on the eastern coast- it was fabulous! If you can make it work, do this whale watching tour. It will exceed any expectations you have.

try another company.. this one is defintely not recommended..

HI Kathleen, Thanks for your enquiry. We actually have two zodiacs but we also have a fibreglass boat which also hold 12 people. That is the one we typically recommend for older people. We have taken many people before in their 80's and even last week had someone in their 90's with no problem whatsoever. We do have full body anti-exposure suits that we put people in but they are fairly easy to get into. We don't have seat belts but the boats are very secure and safe. In response to the comment Klaus left, he has been spreading false info and trying to attack us for the past few weeks. His tour was cancelled due to a mechanical issue, which is very rare. He was very hostile about the situation and has been ever since. He never took the trip with us.