People who know me in person, know that the bottlenose dolphin has been my favorite animal since I was a child. They have something majestic about them, and the way they move into the water is just breathtaking.
Sadly, the only place I had ever seen them, is behind the glass of a dolphinarium or on TV. Can you imagine the joy I felt when I discovered we were able to book ‘dolphin watching’ tours close to our holiday-home in Monchique?
We set out to investigate, and after a while, we discovered that a lot of the tours organized in the Portimao area are a total waste of money. They don’t leave the coastline, so the chance of spotting dolphins isn’t all that high. Some tours even lure the dolphins to the boat with fish, to make them visible for tourists. Hmmmm .. This isn’t what I wanted.
Luckily, a bit of intensive google-research proved to be worthwhile. We booked a 3h ‘Wildlife Explorer’-tour at ‘Wildwatch‘ in Ferragudo. This small family business turned out to be famous in the region because of it’s respect for nature and the high-quality of tours they offer. It is run by a marine biologist that knows the pods of dolphins in the area and treats the animals with the respect they deserve, while giving people the best dolphin-experience ever!
We set out at 10 o’clock in the morning in the port of Ferragudo in a red 9 meter RIB and made way for the Atlantic.
And it was – without a doubt – the best dolphin experience you could ever imagine. We came so close – you could have touched them, but obviously you don’t pet a wild animal – to these animals, without scaring them. They even greeted us by doing some tricks and showing of their jumping skills!
On our tour, we spotted differend pods of wild dolphins, a pod of striped dolphins and a family of bottlenose dolphins. We even got caught up in a dolphin-sardine-hunting-frenzy. Breathtaking! Click on the photo’s below to enlarge.
More about ‘Whale Watching Algarve’:
- Adress: Rua da Infante Santo 73, 8400-247 Ferragudo – Portugal
- Telephone: +351 282 422 373
- Price: 65 euro for an adult, children pay 45 euros
- Website: www.wildwatch.pt
My Out of Office 
nice blog 😉
I am a skipper at wildwatch
put your post on http://ferragudo.be/ on page more if you dont mind
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Please do! Hope some people love it, so they book a tour with you guys! Definitely coming back when we have the chance!
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This looks amazing! I’ve been “swimming” with dolphins in an enclosed environment long ago, but seeing them out in the ocean is so much more magical!
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Dolphins are such adorable, friendly creatures that you just can’t get enough of them.Watching a dolphin jumping freely in open waters in it’s own habitat is the best thing ever!
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Yeah, can’t describe the feeling when seeing them jump up out of joy, not because they we’re taught to!
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I too experienced a Dolphin watching session in Goa. But I could see them only from a distance never close. This program seems like a good opportunity to watch closer.
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Woow. This sounds quite interesting. I have gone on a dolphin watching tour in the lagoons of brackish Chilika lake in India. But they were the Irrawaddy dolphins with a stout nose, not the bottle-nosed ones.
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I didn’t know this kind of dolphin! How cool are those!?! Never seen such kind of dolphin from up close!
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This is actually my dream, to watch dolphins in their natural habitat. Not the ones who are trained, but just to see them swim and maybe circle in the air as I sit on the boat. You experience sounds amazing to me.
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It’s really amazing! Going to a zoo will never be the same for me now!
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I haven’t experience dolphin watching but there is a similar activity here in the Philippines (Cebu or Sorsogon) where you get to have a close look with whale sharks. Though i’m afraid of deep waters (which I still have to conquer), I really want to experience such and tick it off my bucket list! 😀
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Yeah, I saw that on the internet about the whale sharks! Looks amazing! I hope you conquer your fears (I did to, by exploring an Ice Cave in Iceland with tight corridors, while being claustrophobic) and have an awesome time exploring!
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I had a chance to do the same last year. I kept seeing them for long and long swimming and doing all kinds of stunts. Haha.! What a lovely day it was! Majestic 😀
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Yeah, it’s the best memory I have from my visit in the Algarve! Definitely going back someday! It was awesome to be accompanied by marine biologist, who knew the colonies and their habitats!
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Wooowww… I’m happy that a childhood dream came true in a compassionate and humane way in meeting and watching dolphins for you Laura… Hope we can spread the same message to respect and protect wildlife and learn to be contented even just watching them from afar…
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Thank you for your kind words Louiela!
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You were lucky to be able to not only spot but almost watch the dolphins live in action – dive and dance and splash. We once went on a river cruise to spot dolphins but they never even poked their nose out of water 😛
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Oh, that’s a bummer.. I have a very cool movie while being on the water with a jumping dolphin, but it seems I can’t upload it anywhere in a free wordpress-theme. I wish I could show you. I hope you have more luck on a next trip!
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