Every winter more than a thousand humpback whales cross the Atlantic to Samaná Bay to mate and to calve. They have been doing it long enough that the Taíno painted them on the cave walls at Los Haitises, and Columbus wrote them into his ship’s log.
The season is fixed and enforced: 15 January to 25 March, with licensed boats and rules about how close they may approach. What you see is males throwing themselves out of the water in display, and mothers moving slowly with calves that were born a few weeks earlier.
The half-day trip goes out and comes back. The full-day version adds Cayo Levantado afterwards, with lunch on the island and time on the beach.
Whale watching Samaná runs every day inside the season, from 15 January to 25 March, and you can leave from Samaná or from Las Terrenas.
