Dolphin watching in the Algarve, Portugal

Did you know that you can spot dolphins in the Algarve? As soon as I read about this, I knew that I had to book a dolphin tour. After a few researches, I opt for the company Wild Watch Algarve. They had a really good reputation on the internet and they offer you the possibility to do another dolphin tour when you don’t see any dolphins on your first trip. This is a really good offer because dolphins are wild animals and you can never be sure whether you find dolphins or not.

The dolphin tour starts from Ferragudo, a small town in the municipality of Lagoa. The town serves mainly as a bedroom community for Portimão. Luckily, it gets more popular due to tourists and of corse the dolphin tours. The head quarter of the company is really easy to find. Be sure to be on time, otherwise they will start without you. Don’t underestimate the traffic jam in the morning in the Algarve.

Now the adventure can start. A rigid inflatable boat will take you first slowly out of the port and then with a lot more speed out on the wide ocean. It is a really amazing feeling to almost fly over the water. If you book the tour, be sure to not get seasick. It can get quite rough on the boat when the captain is driving with high speed.

Before we saw the dolphins, we could spot a whale, who grabbed some fresh air, from a distance. Unfortunately my camera and I were not prepared for this and so I have no picture from the whale, which is really sad. Luckily the company filmed the whole trip and so the breathtaking whale is on the video.

During the whole trip we were looking for the whale again but we couldn’t find it anymore. Once a whale got some air, they can spend hours underwater without getting up to the surface.

After the whale, the captain decided to show us some dolphins because he got the information where we can spot them. So we were all really excited to finally see some dolphins. The last time we saw dolphins was in Gibraltar in 2014.

We could already spot them for far away and so everyone got up to be ready to take pictures. And then finally we arrived and the animals were simply amazing. I could spend hours just looking at the dolphins. The captain told us some very interesting dolphin stories. He said that some dolphins were sleeping but with their eyes open to let the other animals believe that they are awake.

There were also other boats following the group of dolphins. The captain had to anticipate where the group was diving. Luckily, he was a very good captain because he almost knew every time in which direction the dolphins were going. It was very amazing how the dolphins were swimming beside and with the boat. Dolphins are so beautiful animals and so smart.

After almost an hour with the bottlenose dolphins, the captain got another information of another group of dolphins very close to us. But he gave us the decision if we still want to observe the bottlenose dolphins or if we want to look for the other dolphins. Of course we all chose the other dolphins and let the bottlenose dolphins in peace.

The other group of dolphins were common dolphins. You can easily recognise them because of their lightly yellow color in front of their body. This sort of dolphins are different from the bottlenose dolphins because they don’t always stay in a group. It is not that easy to follow and even take photos of them. Normally in a group of dolphins, you can take a lot of pictures because there is always a dolphin coming out of water but if you want to photograph a single dolphin, it is quite difficult to know when he will pop up.

After spending almost again an hour with those beautiful species of animals, we had to say goodbye to the dolphins. On our way back to the port of Ferragudo, we passed a lot of the amazing cliffs of the Algarve. From the sea they even look more stunning as if you were standing on them looking at the sea.

As the final highlight of our dolphin watching tour, we drove high speed back to the port, which was an amazing feeling. For some people that might be too fast but I could have drove for hours like that.

All in one I really loved the whole trip. After the tour, they invite you to their office to have something to eat and drink. While you are recovering from this experience, the crew is showing the videos that they filmed during the trip. Almost a month after your tour, they will send you a link to your personal dolphin watch video, which is an amazing memory of your time with the dolphins.

Read next: How to spend one day in Gibraltar