Mirissa and whales tour introduction:
Mirissa is on the south coastal beach area in Sri Lanka. And it is small tourist town. During the season the beach is full for foreigners. From Colombo airport to Mirissa Harbour is around 177km’s and driving time by taxi is around 3 and ½ hours more or less and depends on which time you drive. From Colombo City, the distance is 150km and driving time is around 3 hours and depends with traffic situation.
Mirissa is one of the best places in the world to spot “Blue Whales”. As the whales watching tours start from morning, it is better recommended to stay in Mirissa or near by beach before day. It will be not so comfortable to come from Colombo and do the whales watching tour, because too much of driving time and feels tried.
What you can see on this whale watching tour:
- Mainly try to see Blue Whales.
- You can see dolphins too.
- Possible whales’ types can be seen are, Killer whales, Sperm whales, Bride whales and Pigmy killer whales.
- Possible dolphin types can be seen are, Spinner dolphins, Bottled nosed dolphins and Riso dolphins
- Additionally, sometimes can see flying fish and tuna fish and turtles as other marine species.
- You cannot see all of them at one whale watching tour. Mostly possible to see one whale type and one dolphin type. And according to Mirissa whales watching tour operators, they guarantee above 90% possibility to show whales. And some operators provide refund of 50% of ticket price or next day free whales watching tour in the case you were not possible to spot whales. These policies vary for different operators. So, you better check about this before your tour.
Whales watching tours start times from Mirissa:
- Some whales’ operators start little early, like 6:30am from Mirissa.
- Some whales’ operators start around 7:00am.
- Anyway, you better arrive to Mirissa Fisheries Harbor around 6:15am, because there will be traffic on the narrow road from Mirissa main road to harbor and rushing everyone to enter to the harbor on the last moment. And Fisheries Harbor is busy with local fisherman as they did fishing in the night time and they arrive to harbor in the early morning. So, the harbor is crowded with local fisherman selling their fish, loading fish to lorries, tuck-tuck and bikes. If you go there early, you can make photos of this local fisherman stuff and this can be additional experience for you.
Breakfast:
Whales operators provide you the breakfast packets. Some operators have good variety, and some offer less variety. And they provide you some snacks or tea/coffee too. If you so concern about breakfast, better check with your operator what they offer.
Duration and end time of whales tour:
- Normally, whales operators go in the deep sea until you see the whales. During the season time, somedays, you can see whales just after leaving the port, like after 30mins-1 hour and if you see the dolphins too then they will come back sooner. Before they return, ask you it is enough and whether you are ok to return. If you were ok, they return to harbor. So, the earliest you can come back is around 10:00am.
- If you not see the whale sooner, then you will go to deep sea until you see whales. It is said that after noon time, whales not coming to the sea surface. So, you sail until pass the noon time, and still you didn’t see whales, then they will return. Because after noon time, whales not coming to surface and no use going further. And by this time, you also tired and you will definitely like to return. And such situation, you will arrive to harbor around 2:30pm more or less.
- Above 2 situations are rare. Most of time, you will arrive to harbour around 12:00noon more or less. So, in general, you can consider that whales tour will be around 4-5 hours.
Price for the whale watching tour is around US$35 per person. For kids they have ½ rate.
Whales watching and season/off-season for Mirissa:
- Whales watching season for Mirissa is from starting of November to end of April each year. And this time is the season for south beach of Sri Lanka. And this time it full of foreigners in Mirissa area. From May to October, it is off season for Mirissa. But during this time too, whale watching tours operate and whales’ operators have the guarantee to show whales.
- If you do the whales watching tour on the season time, it is calm sea and it is more convenient compared to off season.
- If you do the whales watching tour on off season time, it is rough sea and it is little difficult feeling and if you not tolerate for sea-sick, then this tour makes you sick while on the whales’ tour.
- The whales tour operators give you pills for sea sick. But I have no idea what extent these pills can stop sea sick.
- So, above are the main difference of the season-time and off-season time whales watching tours in Mirissa.
*** If you need any further information about whales tour, please ask me and I would be very happy to help you.
