Mar 19, 2024
Had a great time if you get sea sick take some dramine before you go. Cynthia and Captain Rafael are fantastic, - Fantastic tour! Cynthia the biologist was very knowledgeable and captain Rafael is an excellent captain. The ride can be a bit choppy but I had tons of fun. 10/10 would do again. It was toward the end of the season and I still saw 5 whales! Cynthia was also gave information on other animals like the dolphins, various birds and fish we saw from the boat.
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Mar 15, 2024
Best experience ever! - We had an amazing time today with Charlie and Michael!!! They went above and beyond to make sure we saw the whales and gave us lots of information! The tour was very pleasurable, I definitely recommend it 100% next time we’re in town, we’re making sure we do it again!
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Mar 4, 2024
Amazing day! - We absolutely loved our trip with Ecotours. From the beginning to end they were great to work with. Easy to communicate with while booking. Super friendly staff. We did the whale watching tour and were not disappointed. We loved their emphasis on the whales safety and their commitment to whale research. Our biologist Cynthia was very informative and friendly. Our captain Alejandro gave us a smooth ride and was very quick to get us to every whale we saw before any other boat would get there. We got very lucky on our day. We saw a large pod of dolphins that came right up to the boat, saw soooo many whales, one that even breached multiple times, and they even took extra time to check out a 10 foot manta ray on our way back to the dock. Perfect day all around. We’re actually booking another tour with them later in the week we loved it so much.
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Feb 18, 2024
Humpback heaven - An incredible afternoon filled with humpback sightings. We saw two moms, one with one calf and one with e with twins, we watched them frolicking around for 30 minutes then all of a sudden one mom with her calf started breeching right behind us, we had to move to get out of the way. After watching the calf breeching for another 20-30 minutes it must have gotten tired out. We then wend across the bay and found a female with 4 males in courtship mode. A magical day!
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Feb 16, 2024
Super experience - One of the best experiences.
The guide Cintia and captain Gabriel did an excellent job! Super fun and interesting.
We live about 10-15 whales
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Feb 13, 2024
Highlight of our vacation! - Excellent adventure! Knowledgeable biologists accompanied us on the 4 hour tour. We saw several whales soon after launching the boat and then had the rare and exciting experience of seeing 5-7 very active whales in a group and followed them around the bay for a good portion of the trip. Kudos to the crew who took time to care for a young man struggling with seasickness! Parents - Please be prepare your littles for a very bumpy ride!
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Feb 7, 2024
Haven't stopped smiling - Watching a mum teaching her baby to breach was spectacular. Fantastic tour with very knowledgeable guide. Highly recommended
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Feb 1, 2024
Great tour - We booked a private whale-watching tour with Michael as our biologist and Gabriel as our driver. The 5 of us couldn't be more pleased. We saw more whales and dolphins than we could count in the expert hands of these 2 pros. Also loved hearing the whales singing by using the hydrophone. Perfect trip. We have used this company before and will again. We wouldn't think of using anyone else. And they run great birding tours too!
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Jan 30, 2024
Go see the whales with Ecotours!! - What a great morning watching the whales in Banderas Bay with Michael and Alejandro! We went into the adventure with no expectations other than a nice boat ride, but we were rewarded with an amazing display of whales & dolphins surfacing, playing and fighting - and the most amazing few minutes of listening to the whales' songs.
Michael is obviously dedicated to conservation and the science behind it. Alejandro was a soft spoken man that did a fantastic job of keeping us safe and making sure that everyone had the views of the whales they wanted. They are a great team that made us feel welcome and comfortable throughout the trip.
If you're going to Puerto Vallarta, you should spend a few hours on this tour!
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Feb 10, 2024
Great experience - recommended! - We booked two activities through this company. Their communication via email and WhatsApp was excellent, with timely and informative answers.
WHALE WATCHING - 9am (couldn't find the 9am listed on TA for the review, so picked the 1pm)
We thoroughly enjoyed our morning whale watching tour in late January. Cynthia was our guide and her personality and commitment to the research and animals was noticeable. Captain Gabby supported the efforts with his navigational expertise as captain and helped with the hydrophone so we could hear the whale songs.
As noted on other reviews, the tour starts with a brief video in the office where you learn some stats about the whales and the research organizations they work with. We then start the tour through the marina and out to find the whales. We spotted the first ones about 20 minutes into the tour.
The hydrophone experience was really special. We could hear with clarity the different types of noises being projected. What was even more amazing is when Gabby shut down the boat motor and we could even hear the song above water!
They provided some granola bars and soft drinks about midway through the tour. The tour was sufficient time for watching, and we started and ended on time. (9am started video in office and back to the pier around 12:30pm)
We REALLY appreciated that the boat only takes up to 12 people. For our tour on a Tuesday morning, only 8 people had booked, but it turned out the last couple never arrived. So we had only 6 of us guests to the guide and captain. It was totally comfortable and I highly recommend EcoTours Vallarta.
SCUBA
My husband also booked 2 scuba tours through EcoTours. They seem to contract with Twin Dolphins, which wasn’t obvious on the website. The website (at the time) had shown prices, however, there was a notation that to book scuba you must confirm and reserve direct through the company. I’m not sure why prices were posted if they were no longer valid. Regardless, Twin Dolphins provided a good-quality scuba experience and his two days of diving went well.
We’ll post a separate review of that experience under Twin Dolphins.
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