In January and February, shore counters on the Kohala coast log three to five times more humpbacks per 15-minute scan than on any other Big Island coast (Sanctuary Ocean Count, 2007 to 2026). Three Kohala lookouts are free: Lapakahi State Historical Park, Puʻukoholā Heiau and Kapaʻa Beach Park. Humpbacks are here from November through April, and by late March the island’s shore count is down to about a third of February’s.
Counters at Big Island sites saw no whale in 36 to 38% of 15-minute scans in January and February, but logged at least one on 85 to 88% of count mornings at a site. Plan on 30 to 60 minutes at a lookout, and aim for about 9:00 a.m., when the count peaks. Whale boats run out of Kailua-Kona from about mid-December to early April.
Table of contents
- Whale Watching FAQ
- Whale Watching Tours (including off-season tours)
- DIY whale watching from the shore, including best viewing locations
- Our 4 best whale watching tips
- About Humpback Whales
- And why do the whales come to Hawaiʻi?
There are no humpbacks in Hawaiian waters between June and October. A pelagic tour out of Kona still runs in those months, and the crew looks for pilot whales, sperm whales and beaked whales instead.
Whale watching FAQ
If we haven’t answered your whale watching question here, get in touch.
Q: What are the best places to go whale watching on the Big Island?
You can see most whales off the north-western coast of the Big Island. If you want to watch them from the shore we recommend these 3 viewing locations. For whale watching tours those departing from Kona are preferable.
Q: What is the best whale watching tour in Kona?
Whale watching tours differ most in the size of the vessel. Small boats give a more personal experience and more flexibility but have fewer amenities. We prefer the larger boats, such as Body Glove’s catamaran out of Kailua Pier, for the bathroom and shade on board.
Q: What is the best whale watching tour on the Kohala coast?
The closest whale watching tours to the Kohala resorts depart from Kawaihae harbor. Kohala Divers’ sunset whale watch sails from there, with a free shuttle from most Kohala Coast and Waikoloa resorts.
Q: What are the best months to go whale watching on Hawaiʻi?
The first whales arrive off the Big Island in late November, and numbers peak in January and February (month by month). By late March, the Big Island shore count is about a third of February’s, and the whales leave Hawaiʻi in late April and early May. January and February are the best months to see whales.
Q: What is the best time of day to go whale watching?
Morning, as far as the counts can tell: they run from 8:00 a.m. to about 12:15 p.m. and peak around 9:00 a.m., about 45% above the noon count, and 8:00 a.m. runs only about 25% above noon. The ocean is also usually calmest early in the day, and a calm surface makes spouts easier to spot.
Q: What is the best island to go whale watching?
Maui is the best island for whale watching tours, because more than half of all local whales prefer the calm, shallow Maui Nui basin between Maui, Lānaʻi, Molokaʻi and Kahoʻolawe.
Whale watching tours
Jump to:
- Tours on larger (pontoon or catamaran) style boats
- Tours on medium-sized vessels
- Tours on smaller (speed) boats
- Off-season tours (April to November)
Almost every Big Island whale watch leaves from Kailua-Kona and runs about two and a half hours. The boats vary in size and amenities more than in price; the tour cards list each one’s rate.
The tour season is shorter than the whale season. Boats put whale trips on sale around mid-December and stop in early April. Humpbacks are here from November through April, so a late-November or mid-April visitor can find them offshore and no boat going out to them. You can still watch from shore in those weeks.
Big boats are more comfortable; rafts get you closer to the water. A big pontoon boat or catamaran gives you a bathroom, shade, a bar and a hydrophone, and it moves slowly. A raft puts you at eye level with the whales and covers more water in the same time, and it bounces you around. A mid-size boat falls between the two.
Boat size doesn’t change how close you get: federal rules keep every vessel, raft or catamaran, at least 100 yards off a humpback.
Nearly every trip leaves from the Kona and Kohala side, from Kailua Pier, Honokōhau Harbor or Kawaihae. Most boats sail the Kona and Kohala coast, where the whales concentrate. Hilo whale trips run only January through April, with fewer sailings.
Tours on larger (pontoon-style or catamaran) boats
- Larger boats have more amenities such as toilets and a bar on board
- Larger boat often have better equipment such as hydrophones (to listen to the whales) and a whale cam on board.
- Larger boats often provide more shade.
- Pontoon boats and catamarans like Body Glove’s are more stable than small boats, so seasickness is less of an issue.
Our first suggestion is Body Glove’s 2.5-hour Whale Watch. It sails from Kailua Pier with a marine naturalist aboard and working hydrophones you can listen through, light snacks and drinks are included, and cancellation is free with 48 hours’ notice.
Check in at the Ilima Court Shopping Center on Kuakini Highway 30 minutes before departure, where the parking is free, then board at Kailua Pier.
Whale Watching Cruise from Kona
2.5 hour Whale Watching Excursion with free snacks, guaranteed whale sightings (or come again!), an on-board marine life naturalist, and underwater hydrophones so you can hear the whales sing.
from:
$140
What is a suggested tour?Our suggested tours are hand-picked tours that receive consistent good reviews, give back to the community, and work hard to minimize their impact on the environment. Read more about these tours on our website.Tours on medium-sized boats
The following small-group tour runs on a 46-foot Newton dive boat with seating and a private bathroom, and it takes 24 people at most. It is also one of the few whale watching cruises that sails at sunset, which puts the Kona and Kohala coastline in low golden light for the second half of the trip.
Sunset Whale Watching Cruise off the Kohala Coast
Combine a sunset cruise with whale watching and go in search of visiting humpback whales and resident spinner dolphins.
from:
$159
What is a suggested tour?Our suggested tours are hand-picked tours that receive consistent good reviews, give back to the community, and work hard to minimize their impact on the environment. Read more about these tours on our website.Tours on (often the fastest) small boats
- You sit low, at the whales’ own level. On a raft a spout is at eye height; on a catamaran you look down at it.
- The ride is faster, bumpier and wetter. A raft covers more water in the same two and a half hours.
- Skip it if anyone in your group has neck or back trouble, is pregnant, or would find climbing aboard from a pier difficult.
- Fewer facilities. There is less shelter and less room to move around than on a catamaran.
Body Glove’s Super-Raft is the same 2.5 hours out of Kailua Pier on a 41-foot rigid raft, leaving at 1:30 p.m. daily from December to April, and it does have seats, shade and a bathroom on board. It’s the one Kona whale trip that never goes out in the morning, when the water is usually calmer.
It carries a sighting guarantee: no whales, and you ride again free. The operator will not take children five and under, anyone pregnant, or anyone with regular neck or back pain, and boarding takes a bit of agility.
Super-Raft Speedboat Whale Watch
Unlike most rafts, this one has seating, shade, and a bathroom on board.
from:
$125
What is a suggested tour?Our suggested tours are hand-picked tours that receive consistent good reviews, give back to the community, and work hard to minimize their impact on the environment. Read more about these tours on our website.Keep a wrist strap on the camera. Our 6 whale watching tips cover what else to bring. The following video shows humpback whales playing in the waters of Oʻahu’s North Shore:
Off-season whale watching tours (April to November)
From April through November, Hawaiian Adventures Kona runs a 3 to 4 hour pelagic trip out of Honokōhau Harbor, far enough offshore to look for pilot whales, sperm whales, beaked whales, spotted dolphins and the occasional whale shark. It is the only whale trip on the island that runs in summer.
There is no child rate: the minimum age is 10, and the operator will not bend it. Going that far out means open ocean, so take something for seasickness the night before if you are prone to it.
The same operator runs a shorter humpback trip from December to March, 2.5 to 3 hours for $119, down to $99 booked more than 30 days out, with a minimum age of 8. They also publish a dated weekly log of what each trip saw.
Off-Season Whale Watching Tour (April–November / Big Island)
See whales in Hawaiʻi even after humpback season ends! Head far offshore to find rare open-ocean whales and other species.
from:
$129
What is a suggested tour?Our suggested tours are hand-picked tours that receive consistent good reviews, give back to the community, and work hard to minimize their impact on the environment. Read more about these tours on our website.Whale Watching Tours from Maui, Oʻahu, Kauaʻi, and Hilo
The warm, shallow water around the Hawaiian Islands is where a large share of the North Pacific humpback population spends the winter. They come to breed, calve and nurse rather than to feed.
You can also go whale watching from the other islands:
Oʻahu whale watching tours
Most whale sightings on Oʻahu take place along the eastern point of the island and all along the northern and western shores. During whale season you can watch for whales from the hike out to the Makapuʻu lighthouse.
Whale watching boats and cruises depart from harbors along Oʻahu’s southern and western (leeward) shores. Have a look at our guide to whale watching on Oʻahu for our recommendations.
Waikiki Whale Watch with a Sailing Catamaran
See humpback whales during their annual migration in the waters off Oʻahu from a catamaran on a whale-watching cruise from Waikiki. From the water you also see Honolulu and Diamond Head.
from:
$99
What is a suggested tour?Our suggested tours are hand-picked tours that receive consistent good reviews, give back to the community, and work hard to minimize their impact on the environment. Read more about these tours on our website.Maui whale watching tours
Maui has the densest whale water in the state. The shallow Maui Nui basin between Maui, Lānaʻi, Molokaʻi and Kahoʻolawe is where a large share of the Hawaiʻi population goes to breed and calve, and boats there spend less time traveling to find whales than boats anywhere else.
Check the harbor on your booking. Lāhainā Harbor was destroyed in the August 2023 fire. It reopened to limited commercial operations in December 2025 and has been filling back up since: eight companies held harbor access permits by June 2026, the Pacific Whale Foundation resumed sailing from Lāhainā on 1 June, and Atlantis Submarines was running five days a week there as of June 2026.
Sailings are daylight only, 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., because the harbor still has no power, and everything is pre-booked. Māʻalaea on the south shore remains the larger base, and some Kāʻanapali trips launch straight off the beach. Our Maui whale watching guide compares the boat tours and the best shore spots on Maui.
Saltwater Sail With the Whales on Maui
Maui is the place to see humpback whales! Set sail in the Hawaiian tradewinds and join the Captain and Crew in keeping a look out for humpback whales
from:
$90
What is a suggested tour?Our suggested tours are hand-picked tours that receive consistent good reviews, give back to the community, and work hard to minimize their impact on the environment. Read more about these tours on our website.Kauaʻi whale watching tours
Kauaʻi’s whale season overlaps with its Nāpali Coast boat season, so you can often do both on one boat trip.
You can also watch from land between December and May, at Poʻipū Beach, Kīlauea Lighthouse, Keālia Beach or Kapaʻa. The boats have the advantage on Kauaʻi though: most of the sailing and snorkeling cruises that run the Nāpali coast year-round shift their route toward the whales in season.
Our Kauaʻi whale watching guide names the shore lookouts and the charter boats that head out in season.
Whale watching tours from Hilo (Big Island)
Most sightings happen along the western coast, but humpbacks do come into Hilo Bay, and a Hilo trip runs against the green backdrop of the Hāmākua coast rather than the dry Kona lava.
Mālama Charters runs its whale trips out of Wailoa Harbor from January through April only, at 8:00 a.m. and 11:00 a.m., for ages 7 and up, and needs four people booked before a trip sails. It costs $125 to $139 per person. Book it on the Mālama Charters booking page.
Whale watching from shore: three free Kohala lookouts
From late November through April you can watch humpbacks from the Big Island’s shore for free, and the odds are best in January and February. Pick one lookout and stay 30 to 60 minutes. Counters see no whale in more than a third of 15-minute scans, but they see at least one on most mornings at a site.
Good to know: you can combine shore watching with volunteering. The Sanctuary Ocean Count runs shore-based whale counts that visitors can join.
A big spout of water at the surface is usually the first sign of a whale. This spout comes from a whale breathing out and in again and with binoculars you can pick one out two miles offshore. Keep watching that stretch of water once you spot one.
Watch from the Kohala coast: its count sites average 7.7 to 8.3 whales per 15-minute scan in January and February, and every other Big Island coast averages 2.3 or fewer, per the Ocean Count figures for 2007 to 2026 compiled from the sanctuary’s count results. The three free lookouts are Lapakahi State Historical Park, which has the highest average on the island, Puʻukoholā Heiau National Historic Site and Kapaʻa Beach Park.
South Kona is a poor place to watch from shore: the count sites at Hōnaunau and Hoʻokena average 0.4 to 0.5 whales per scan. Hilo Bay averages about 2.2, roughly a quarter of the Kohala figure. The three Kohala spots sit along Highway 270 from Kawaihae north. The map below shows every whale-count site on the island with the average number of whales seen per 15-minute scan, and the Google map under it pins the three lookouts for directions.
Average whales seen per 15-minute scan at every Big Island shore count site, 2007 to 2026; bigger dots and a redder coast mean more whales. The Kohala coast along Highway 270 is highest: Lapakahi 9.0, Puʻukoholā Heiau 7.7. South Kona and Puna average under 2. Gray is whale density at sea from the 1993 to 2003 aerial surveys. Compiled by sanctuaryoceancount.org from the sanctuary’s count results.
An average hides the odds. In January and February, only 4% of the sanctuary’s 15-minute scans on the Kohala coast came up empty, against about half of the scans on the Kona, Kaʻū and Hāmākua coasts and 59% on the Hilo and Puna side.
Share of 15-minute scans by the number of whales seen, for each Big Island coast in the January and February counts, 2007 to 2026. Kohala: 4% of scans empty; the other coasts: 50 to 59%. Compiled by sanctuaryoceancount.org from the sanctuary’s count results.
Puʻukoholā Heiau National Historic Site
Puʻukoholā Heiau sits on high ground with wide views over Kawaihae Harbor. The name means “hill of the whale” in Hawaiian.
You can spend about an hour at the Puʻukoholā Heiau site itself. It sits next to Spencer Beach Park, which has picnic tables, showers and a campground, so plan for half a day here.
The picnic tables at Spencer Beach Park sit right above the sand, facing the open water. Image credit: Google Street View.
Lapakahi State Historical Park
Lapakahi’s viewing spot sits about 100 feet up, high enough that you can scan a wide stretch of water, and it has the highest shore-count average on the island: 8.98 whales per 15-minute scan over 37 count mornings from 2007 to 2026. Lapakahi State Historical Park is on Highway 270 north of Kawaihae at mile marker 14. The viewing site is about 100 yards (90 m) past the gate, at the top of the hill, roughly half a mile back from the shoreline.
Aerial view of the Lapakahi State Historical Park. Image credit: Google Maps.
Kapaʻa Beach Park
Kapaʻa Beach Park is about two miles north of Lapakahi, at mile marker 16, and its viewing spot is about 20 feet lower. Unlike Lapakahi, it has shade, in covered picnic pavilions.
Follow Highway 270 north and turn left on the one-lane paved road just past mile marker 16 to get to Kapaʻa Beach Park. The viewing site is at the end of the road.
Ocean view and the covered picnic pavilion at the Kapaʻa beach park. Image credit: Google Street View.
Have a look at our humpback whale 101 for an identification chart of all possible humpback whale acrobatics such as the breach, the tail slap, the fluke up dive or the head lunge.
Volunteer for the Sanctuary Ocean Count
On a count Saturday in January, February or March you can spend half a day counting whales instead of just watching them.
The Sanctuary Ocean Count is a shore-based humpback count run by the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary, open to residents and visitors alike, from sites on Hawaiʻi Island, Oʻahu, Kauaʻi and, since 2024, Molokaʻi. Pacific Whale Foundation’s Great Whale Count covers Maui and Lānaʻi on the same dates. The Ocean Count began in 1996.
It runs three times a season, on the last Saturday of January, February and March, from 8:00 a.m. to about noon. Registration opens on the first Monday of each count’s month and closes around the middle of it, roughly two weeks ahead, and you register per person and per date. Places are limited and not every site runs every year, so do it the day registration opens. The official site is oceancount.org, and the sanctuary’s page is Ocean Count on hawaiihumpbackwhale.noaa.gov.
Three out of four mornings at the sanctuary’s Big Island count sites in January and February had a whale within the first three scans (8:00 to 9:15), and 87% had one by noon. In late March, only half had one by 9:15.
Share of count site-mornings on which at least one whale had been seen by the end of each 15-minute scan (scans run every half hour from 8:00), January and February counts (solid) against March (dashed), 2007 to 2026. Hawaiʻi Island sites. Compiled by sanctuaryoceancount.org from the sanctuary’s count results.
Whale Watching Tips
The tips on when and where to look draw on the Ocean Count shore data and a sanctuary aerial survey.
- Look for whales during humpback whale season
- What 30 years of shore counts show about when and where to look
- How to hear a humpback whale sing (with audio)
- Where do most whales hang out?
#1: When is whale watching season in Hawaiʻi?
The first whales reach the Big Island in late November, and numbers build until they peak in January and February. By the last Saturday of March the shore count is about a third of February’s, and the last whales leave Hawaiʻi in late April and early May. Month by month:
| Month | Probability of seeing whales |
|---|---|
| January | High |
| February | High |
| Early March | High |
| Late March | Medium |
| April | Medium (early April) to Low (late April) |
| May | Very low |
| June to October | None. The humpbacks are feeding in Alaska |
| November | Low |
| December | Medium (whale watching tours start mid-December) |
#2: What 30 years of shore counts show
Volunteers have counted whales from shore sites across the Hawaiian islands every year since 1996 for the Sanctuary Ocean Count. On each of the three 2025 count days, between 363 and 498 volunteers watched from 41 to 44 shore sites, figures that include Pacific Whale Foundation’s Great Whale Count on Maui and Lānaʻi.
What the count results for Big Island sites show, 2007 to 2026:
- The Kohala coast is by far the best place to see humpback whales. Its count sites average 7.7 to 8.3 whales per 15-minute scan in January and February, and every other coast averages 2.3 or fewer, so Kohala runs three to five times higher.
- January and February are the best months to see whales. By the last Saturday of March the island’s count is about a third of February’s. Kohala still has the highest count of any coast then, and the Hāmākua count drops too.
- Mid-morning beats noon. The count peaks around 9:00 a.m., about 45% above the noon scan, while 8:00 a.m. runs only about 25% above noon. The ocean is often calmer early in the day, and spouts are easier to see on a flat surface.
- Watch for longer than one 15-minute scan. In January and February, 36 to 38% of single 15-minute scans at Big Island count sites saw no whale, while 85 to 88% of mornings at a single site saw at least one. Plan on 30 to 60 minutes at a lookout.
A humpback whale breaches off the coast of Oʻahu. Photo Credits: NOAA’s National Ocean Service on Flickr. See also the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary, the Office of National Marine Sanctuaries and NOAA’s National Ocean Service. (Original source: NOS Image Gallery
#3: How to hear humpback whales sing
A boat with a hydrophone is the easy way to hear the whales. You can also do it yourself, with no equipment at all, because sound carries so well under water.
Song is a male behavior: the long, structured sequences you hear through a hydrophone come from lone males on the breeding grounds. Researchers have not settled what the song is for, and their findings do not support the idea that it attracts females. Whales sharing an area sing near-identical songs, whales from separate regions sing different ones, and the songs change from year to year.
You can listen to a 13-minute recording of Hawaiian humpback whales singing by playing the audio fragment below. To us they sound a bit like cows.
Because sound carries further under water than on land, you can hear these songs even if they are performed several miles off shore.
Listen to the whales while swimming
- Only try this in calm water with no surf and no current, with someone else, and only if you are a strong swimmer.
- Take a deep breath and swim to the bottom, dig your hands in the sand, or hold onto something under water like a rock (but be careful not to touch any corals).
- Clear your ears by closing your nose with your fingers and blowing air out of your nose. You should hear your ears “pop”.
- Listen for the song.
Listen to the whales while snorkeling
Snorkeling makes listening to the whale songs much easier, though there still have to be whales within a couple of miles of your snorkeling spot. If this is the case (for example, if you see a telltale white water spout off shore), try the following:
- Find a spot that is more than 5 ft deep and away from the surf. You preferably want deeper water or a sandy ocean floor.
- Take a deep breath of air, dive down to the ocean floor and hold onto something. You will be deep enough when you can remain with your head a few feet under water without breaking the surface.
- Clear your ears by closing your nose with your fingers and blowing air out of your nose. You should hear your ears “pop”.
- Listen for the song.
#4: Where can you see the most whales in Hawaiʻi?
On the map below, the dots and the colored strip along the coast are the shore counts from 2007 to 2026: how many whales volunteers see per 15-minute scan at each count site. The gray underneath is whale density at sea from aerial surveys flown between 1993 and 2003, in the waters where the boat tours sail. Use the dots to pick a shore lookout.
For the Big Island the survey’s densest water lies off the North Kona and Kohala districts, and the Kohala shore counts are the highest on the island.
If you would rather not take a boat, the Pololū valley lookout and a sunset picnic at Holoholokai Beach Park both put you high enough, and far enough north, to be looking at the right water. Access to the Waipiʻo valley floor is restricted under a county emergency rule, so check the current rules on our Waipiʻo page before planning anything there.
Whales seen per 15-minute scan at shore count sites, 2007 to 2026 (dots and colored coast), over whale density at sea from the 1993 to 2003 aerial surveys (gray). The month inset shows late March well below January and February on every island. The Maui panel is Pacific Whale Foundation’s Great Whale Count. Compiled by sanctuaryoceancount.org from the sanctuary’s count results; aerial survey data courtesy of Joseph R. Mobley Jr.
What to know about the whales themselves
Humpbacks (nā koholā) average about 45 feet and reach 60, and commercial whaling cut the species by more than 95 percent before the 1985 moratorium. The recovery here has been good enough that the Hawaiʻi population is no longer listed as endangered: NOAA split the species into fourteen distinct population segments in 2016 and concluded that the one wintering in Hawaiʻi did not warrant listing. Four segments elsewhere are still endangered, and one is threatened.
Protection has stayed the same. Every humpback in Hawaiian waters is still covered by the Marine Mammal Protection Act and by the sanctuary rules, including the 100-yard approach rule.
The Hawaiʻi count has dropped since 2013. A 2024 study of North Pacific humpbacks (Cheeseman and colleagues, Royal Society Open Science) estimates that about 18,700 whales wintered in Hawaiʻi in 2013 and about 12,300 in 2021, a drop of about a third. The authors say the 2014 to 2016 marine heatwave appeared to drive it.
Humpbacks often throw their whole 45-foot body clear of the water, and they slap their tails and pectoral fins on the surface too. The males also sing, at length and in structured phrases.
To Native Hawaiians the whale represents Kanaloa, the god of all ocean life.
The following trailer, filmed partly in Hawaiian waters, shows humpback whales up close as they communicate, sing, feed, play and care for their young.
Why the whales come to Hawaiʻi
Humpback whales migrate every year between the cool waters close to the poles and (sub)tropical waters. Whales belonging to the North Pacific population swim an average of 6,000 miles a year, and researchers have documented migrations of up to 16,000 miles a year, among the longest of any mammal.
They come for the same reason many of our other visitors do: to take a break.
Humpback Whales spend their summers feeding and building up fat reserves in the cool higher latitude waters and then spend cold winters in our warmer tropical waters to mate, give birth, and to raise their calves far from natural predators.
Because there is very little food for the whales in (sub)tropical oceans they instead fast during their Hawaiian vacations and live off their fat reserves. Warm, food-poor water holds few large predators that would take a calf.
Migration patterns of North Pacific humpback whales. More than half of the population spends their winter around Hawaiʻi. The data for this graph was gathered for the SPLASH (Structures of Populations -Levels of Abundance -Status of Humpbacks) project, image credits: NOAA.
Which trip to book, by month
If you’re here between January and early March, book a morning boat out of Kailua-Kona and keep a second morning free for Lapakahi or Puʻukoholā Heiau in case you see few whales from the boat. In late March the count is down to about a third of February’s, so plan on longer at the Kohala lookouts. In November, the first half of December or late April, few whale boats run: watch from the Kohala lookouts, and expect fewer whales than in January.
Between June and October the humpbacks are feeding up north. Take the pelagic trip out of Honokōhau if you want to be on the water, or come back in the winter.