Our top pick158 reviews
3 hHoonah: Icy Strait Whale Watch with Drone Filmography
★ 4.9 · 158 reviews
- 3h, Drone footage of the whales included
- Humpbacks, orca and sea lions
- Most booked
- Free cancellation
$267
Check availability→ 
Whale watching in Hoonah
A few hours on Icy Strait await with whale watching in Hoonah. We compared 6 tours from $225, with free cancellation, and a top trip rated 4.9 from 158 reviews. The fare includes film footage, giving you a record of the Icy Strait cruise.
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Whale tour$225
Today's lowest whale tour across all 6 tours
Average rating
All 6 tours47
345 verified reviews across 6 tours
Your time
Shortest to longest180min
Every tour on this page
runs about the same length
Free cancellation
Reserve now, pay later
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Everything you can book here
Six tours out of Hoonah, whales first
Three Hoonah whale watching tours head out into the Icy Strait, and three more trips leave from the same small port — brown bears on Chichagof Island, the village with a crab table, and a day on a remote river. Whales first, the rest after.
105 reviewsLowest whale price
3 hHoonah: Whale Watching Cruise
★ 4.8 · 105 reviews
- 3h, Out into the Icy Strait by boat
- Humpback whales feed here in summer
- 3 hours
- Free cancellation
$225
Check availability→ 
Three reviewsSmall group
3 hEar Mountain Charters tours: whale watching or fishing
★ 5.0 · 3 reviews
- 3h, Whale watching or fishing, your choice
- Small group
- Out into the Inside Passage
- Free cancellation
$284
Check availability→ 
69 reviewsBears, not whales
3 hHoonah: Chichagof Island Brown Bear Search
★ 4.2 · 69 reviews
- 3h, Bus tour of Chichagof Island
- Small group
- Cheapest here
- Free cancellation
$181
Check availability→ 
10 reviewsMeal included
3 hHoonah: Icy Strait Village Tour and Crab Feast
★ 4.4 · 10 reviews
- 3h, Guided village tour with a crab meal
- Freshly caught Alaskan crab
- 3 hours
- Free cancellation
$195
Check availability→ 
New activityLongest here
4 hIcy Strait Point: River Fishing & Bear Search Tour
- 4h, Old logging roads to a remote river
- Bear search and Dolly Varden fishing
- Longest tour here
- Free cancellation
$550
Check availability→ Two questions
Which Hoonah trip is yours?
Answer what matters most and the page picks one of the six.
See it before you pay for it
What three hours on the Icy Strait looks like
Filmed on the same water the tours use. Humpbacks feeding at the surface, orca moving through the strait, and — on the island behind the town — a brown bear on a salmon river. Watch first, book second.
Side by side
The whale cruise, the drone trip and the bear bus
Three listings, three different days, and the difference is easy to miss at the dock. Two of them go out on the water after whales, and one of those films them from a drone. The third stays on land, on the island road, looking for brown bears.
Swipe the table sideways →
| Hoonah: Whale Watching Cruise | TOP PICKHoonah: Icy Strait Whale Watch with Drone Filmography | Hoonah: Chichagof Island Brown Bear Search | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price per person | $225 | $267 | $181 |
| Total trip length | 3 hours | 3 hours | 3 hours |
| Where it goes | Out on the Icy Strait | Out on the Icy Strait | Across Chichagof Island by bus |
| What you look for | Humpback whales | Humpbacks, orca and sea lions | Brown bears |
| On the water | Yes, by boat | Yes, by boat | No, a road tour |
| Drone footage | Not in this listing | From the captain and drone pilot | Not in this listing |
| Rating | 4.8 · 105 | 4.9 · 158 | 4.2 · 69 |
| Best for | A straight whale trip | Whales, filmed from the air | Bears instead of whales |
| Check dates | Book this one→ | Check dates |
TOP PICK
Hoonah: Icy Strait Whale Watch with Drone Filmography
$267- Total trip length
- 3 hours
- Where it goes
- Out on the Icy Strait
- What you look for
- Humpbacks, orca and sea lions
- On the water
- Yes, by boat
- Drone footage
- From the captain and drone pilot
- Rating
- 4.9 · 158
- Best for
- Whales, filmed from the air
Live dates and prices on GetYourGuide
Hoonah: Whale Watching Cruise
$225- Total trip length
- 3 hours
- Where it goes
- Out on the Icy Strait
- What you look for
- Humpback whales
- On the water
- Yes, by boat
- Drone footage
- Not in this listing
- Rating
- 4.8 · 105
- Best for
- A straight whale trip
Hoonah: Chichagof Island Brown Bear Search
$181- Total trip length
- 3 hours
- Where it goes
- Across Chichagof Island by bus
- What you look for
- Brown bears
- On the water
- No, a road tour
- Drone footage
- Not in this listing
- Rating
- 4.2 · 69
- Best for
- Bears instead of whales
Verdict
Start with the drone whale watch
One listing carries most of the evidence here. The whale watch with drone filmography is rated 4.9 across 158 reviews, against 105 for the next boat, and it is the listing that sends a drone up over the whales. Ranked by reviews, those two are the best whale watching tours in Hoonah Alaska; at $225 the cruise is the lower price.
Check dates and availability→Before you book
Three boats after whales, three trips ashore
Three of the six listings head out into the Icy Strait after humpbacks, orca and sea lions, and each one runs 3 hours, from $225. The other three stay on land: a bus across Chichagof Island looking for brown bears at $181, a village tour with a crab feast at $195, and a run on old logging roads to a remote river at $550. Review counts and lengths sit in the table above.
Two-minute check
Which Hoonah tour fits your day?
Three things decide it: how long you have in the port, whether you want the water or the island, and what you want to bring home. Answer three questions before you pay.
How long is your day in Hoonah?Every tour on this page runs three hours or more
How are you on a small boat?Two of these three answers go out on open water
What do you actually want to see?This is the one question that decides the booking
Answer the three questions above
You’ll get the one that fits your answers, and the thing about it that catches people out.
Five ways to spend three hours
345 reviews across five Hoonah tours
Ratings are the operators’ own numbers on GetYourGuide, shown as published. We do not write reviews and we do not average other people’s into a score of our own.
4.7
★★★★★
Based on 345
verified reviews
5 ★82%
4 ★12%
3 ★3%
2 ★2%
1 ★1%
Five Hoonah listings with published reviews, rated on GetYourGuide.
Read all 345→🐋
Hoonah: Icy Strait Whale Watch with Drone Filmography
From $267 · 158 reviews
★★★★★
The whale trip that films the whales
Three hours out on the Icy Strait looking for humpback whales, orca and sea lions, with film footage of the whales shot by your captain and drone pilot. Rated 4.9 across 158 reviews, the largest review count of the six listings on this page.
🚤
Hoonah: Whale Watching Cruise
From $225 · 105 reviews
★★★★★
The plain three-hour whale cruise
A Hoonah whale watching cruise out into the waters near Glacier Bay and Icy Strait, where humpback whales feed each year before heading south for the winter. At $225 it is the cheapest whale trip here. Rated 4.8 across 105 reviews.
🐟
Ear Mountain Charters tours: whale watching or fishing
From $284 · 3 reviews
★★★★★
Whales or fishing, your choice
A small-group charter that runs as whale watching or as fishing, whichever you book, out into the Inside Passage and its ecosystem. The listing carries a 5.0 rating, but it rests on three reviews — read it as new rather than proven.
🐻
Hoonah: Chichagof Island Brown Bear Search
From $181 · 69 reviews
★★★★☆
Brown bears instead of whales, by bus
A bus tour across Chichagof Island looking for brown bears in their natural habitat; the listing points to the dense bear population on the island. Three hours on the road, no boat involved. Rated 4.2 across 69 reviews, the lowest of the five.
🦀
Hoonah: Icy Strait Village Tour and Crab Feast
From $195 · 10 reviews
★★★★☆
The village, and a crab dinner
A guided walk through the village with freshly caught Alaskan crab at the end: how people live and eat on a remote wilderness island. A meal is part of the listing. Rated 4.4 across ten reviews, so the sample is small.
What it really costs
What three hours cost here, and what changes the price
The listings at this dock sit close together, and what separates them is not the boat. It is what the trip is for: whales, bears, or a table of crab.
Swipe sideways →
| What you do | Price | What that buys | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| Whale cruise on the strait | $225 | Three hours on the water, looking for humpbacks | 3 hours |
| Whale watch with drone film | $267 | The same water, plus drone footage of the whales | 3 hours |
| Small-group charter | $284 | Whale watching or fishing, whichever you book | 3 hours |
| Brown bear search by bus | $181 | Chichagof Island by road, looking for bears | 3 hours |
| Village tour with crab | $195 | A guided village walk and an Alaskan crab meal | 3 hours |
| River fishing and bears | $550 | Old logging roads to a remote river | 4 hours |
Costs the listing doesn't show you
- The cheapest price here is not a boat. It is the $181 bear search by road. The cheapest trip that goes out looking for whales is $225.
- The drone is the gap in price. $267 against $225 buys you footage from the air, and nothing else on the listing changes: both are three hours.
- A 5.0 can sit on three reviews. The charter carries the highest score on this page and the least evidence behind it. Read the count first.
- The most expensive listing is unrated. The four-hour river fishing trip costs $550 and has no reviews at all yet, which is its own kind of price.
What is genuinely included
- Three hours on the Icy Strait on any of the whale trips
- Drone filmography of the whales — on one listing only
- A choice of whale watching or fishing on the charter
- A search by road across Chichagof Island on the bear trip
- Fresh Alaskan crab at the table on the village tour
- Dolly Varden fishing on the four-hour river trip
The honest answer
Is the drone trip worth the extra money?
$267 against $225, for three hours on the same strait — so the question is fair. What the higher price buys is the drone footage, and the most reviews of any listing sold at this dock.
What makes it worth it
- Three hours out on the Icy Strait, not a view of it from the shore
- Humpback whales, orca and sea lions are what these listings put in writing
- The drone trip hands you film of the whales, shot from the air
- The three whale trips each run three hours, short enough for a port call
- Prices are the operators’ own, shown here as published on GetYourGuide
Keep in mind
- Nobody promises whales: the listings say what they look for, not what you will see
- Ear Mountain Charters shows 5.0, but that rating rests on three reviews
- The $181 bear trip is a road tour, not a whale trip
- One listing, the river fishing and bear search, has no reviews at all yet
- Drone film is named in one listing only; the other five do not mention it
The trip, hour by hour
Three hours on the Icy Strait
Book before you arrive
The whale cruise listing asks you to book at least four hours ahead. Prices and departure times live on the listing itself, and they change with the season.
Down to the water
Your meeting point and time come with the booking. Hoonah is small, so nothing is far. Bring a warm layer: this is Southeast Alaska, on the water.
Out into the Icy Strait
The boat leaves the harbour for the Icy Strait, the channel beside Hoonah. This is the water the whale listings name, and where humpbacks feed through the summer.
Looking for whales
What the listings say they look for: humpback whales, orca and sea lions. None of them promises you will see any of the three, and this page will not either.
The drone goes up
On the drone listing your captain and drone pilot film the whales from the air, and that footage is part of what you paid for. On the other trips it is your own camera.
Back towards the harbour
The boat turns for Hoonah. Three hours is the length written into each of the three whale listings, so you know when the day ends before you book it.
The rest of the day
Back on land with time left over. The bear bus, the village tour with crab and the remote river trip are the other three listings in this port.
Reading the numbers
What 158 reviews and three reviews each tell you
The scores on this page look close together — 4.9, 4.8, 5.0 — and the counts behind them are not close at all. One trip has 158 reviews, the next has 105, and the charter has three. A fourth listing has none yet. Across all six there are 345 reviews, and more than two in five of them belong to the single trip that films from a drone. A high score on a thin count is not wrong, it is just new, and it is worth knowing which one you are looking at before you pay $225 or more for a morning on the water.
On the ground
What Hoonah actually looks like
The whales
Humpbacks feeding at the surface, mouths open.
The orca
Orca are on the list the whale listings name.
The boat
A small boat, snow on the mountains behind.
The bears
Chichagof Island, where the bus tour goes.
What it's like
Six tours leave Hoonah, and three of them look for whales
Hoonah is a village on Chichagof Island, and the water in front of it is the Icy Strait. Six tours on this page start from there. Three of them go looking for whales; the other three go after brown bears, a crab dinner or a river full of Dolly Varden. Knowing which is which before you pay is most of the work.
The three whale trips run three hours each. That is the one number that does not move between the listings, and it is worth holding on to, because almost everything else about them does. The boats, the prices and the number of people who have been on board and written about it afterwards are all different.
What the listings say you may see is humpback whales, orcas and sea lions. Nobody can promise a wild animal on a given morning, and we will not pretend otherwise. A page that tells you what the water will do before you are on it has stopped reading the listing.
One of the three whale trips includes drone filmography — a camera in the air over the strait, and footage of the whales afterwards. It is the most reviewed trip here by a wide margin: 4.9 across 158 reviews. At $267 it sits in the middle of the three, between the plain cruise at $225 and the charter at $284.
The plain cruise is the one most people mean when they ask about a boat here: three hours on the strait, $225, 4.8 from 105 reviews. The third whale option is a small charter that runs either whale watching or fishing, whichever you book. It shows 5.0, but that is from three reviews, which is a thin number to lean a decision on.
The other three tours are not about whales at all, and the cheapest listing on this page is one of them — the brown bear search, $181, three hours by road across Chichagof Island. The village tour adds fresh Alaskan crab at the table, and the four-hour river trip runs out on old logging roads to fish for Dolly Varden. It is the most expensive thing here, at $550, and it has no reviews yet.
While you're in Hoonah
The three tours here that are not about whales
Half the list has nothing to do with the boats. A three-hour search for brown bears across Chichagof Island, a walk around the village with Alaskan crab at the end of it, and a four-hour run out to a river to fish for Dolly Varden.
Practical
Plan the day in Hoonah
Four things decide how it goes: which of the six you book, how long you have in the port, what you take onto a three-hour boat, and whether you would rather be on the water or on the island road.
Whale watch with drone filming
Three hours on the strait with drone footage of the whales included. The most reviewed trip here: 4.9 from 158 reviews, $267.
The plain cruise
The same three hours without the camera in the air, $225. It holds 4.8 across 105 reviews, the second largest count on this page.
Whales or fishing, on a charter
A small charter that runs either way, three hours, $284. Its 5.0 comes from three reviews, so read it as new rather than proven.
All three are three hours
Length is the one thing the whale listings agree on. Compare them on price, on the drone footage and on how many people have reviewed them.
Brown bear search
Three hours by road across Chichagof Island looking for brown bears, $181, rated 4.2 from 69 reviews. It is the cheapest listing here.
Village tour and crab feast
Three hours: a guided look around the village on the Icy Strait, then fresh Alaskan crab at the table. $195, 4.4 from 10 reviews.
River fishing and bears
Four hours out on old logging roads to a remote river, fishing for Dolly Varden. $550, and no reviews on the listing yet.
They are not whale trips
Worth saying plainly, because the cheapest price on this page belongs to the bear search. The cheapest boat that looks for whales is $225.
Humpbacks, orcas, sea lions
That is what the whale listings name. They put it as what you may see, and we keep it that way here.
Wild animals, not a timetable
The listings name what you may see. Nobody can schedule a whale, and we do not write the day as though somebody could.
Drone footage is on one listing
Only the drone trip says it films you and the whales from the air. The other two boats make no such offer.
The charter lets you choose
Its listing is written as whale watching or fishing. You pick the version when you book it, not on the dock.
Read the review count, not just the score
The counts here run from 158 down to three, and one listing has none at all. A score means more the more people stand behind it.
Check the price against the product
The six listings run from $181 to $550, and the two ends are a bear trip and a fishing trip, not the boats that look for whales.
Three hours is the standard length
Five of the six run three hours; only the river fishing trip is longer, at four. Plan the rest of the day around that.
Dates come from the listing
Each listing carries its own calendar, and it is the only thing that knows what is open. We link straight to it.
Best time
When these tours run
Everything on this page is a summer-season listing out of Hoonah. What changes month to month is not the route but how much of the line-up is on sale.
Summer season
The tours run in the summer season
That is what the listings here are: summer-season trips out of Hoonah. We do not publish a month-by-month table, because nothing in these six listings supports one.
Three hours
Every whale trip is the same length
All three whale tours run three hours on the Icy Strait. The bear search is three hours too. Only the river fishing trip is longer, at four.
Six tours
The whole choice, in one list
Six listings, three of them whale trips. Between them they carry 345 reviews, and 158 of those sit on the one trip that films from a drone.
The calendar
Open dates live on the listing
We hold no dates and we do not know what is left. Each booking page shows its own calendar when you click through, and that is the honest answer.
Worth knowing
Six things the booking page does not say
01
All three whale trips run three hours. The listings differ on price, on the drone footage and on how many people have reviewed them — not on how long you are out.
02
The cheapest listing here is not a whale trip. It is the three-hour brown bear search at $181. The cheapest boat that goes looking for whales is $225.
03
Only one listing films from a drone. That trip carries 158 reviews at 4.9, more than any other on this page. The other two whale boats do not offer footage.
04
A 5.0 can rest on three reviews. The charter shows the highest score here and the thinnest evidence for it. New is not the same thing as proven.
05
One listing has no reviews at all. The four-hour river fishing trip is the most expensive thing on the page at $550 and nobody has rated it yet. Go in knowing that.
06
Review counts here run from 158 to zero. Read the number of reviews before the score: across the six listings there are 345 of them, and they are not spread evenly.
Round out the trip
Booked alongside
Go deeper
More on the whale tours that leave Hoonah
Common questions
Whale tours from Hoonah, answered
How long is a whale tour in Hoonah?
Three hours. All three whale listings on this page run the same length on the Icy Strait, and so does the brown bear search. The only longer trip here is the river fishing tour, at four hours.
How much do the whale tours cost?
Hoonah whale tours prices start at $225 for the three-hour cruise, $267 for the trip that films from a drone, and $284 for the charter. The bear, village and fishing trips sit at $181, $195 and $550.
Which tour has the most reviews?
The trip with drone filmography: 158 reviews at 4.9. The plain cruise is next with 105 at 4.8, and the charter shows 5.0 from three reviews. Across all six listings there are 345 reviews.
What might you see out on the water?
The listings name humpback whales, orcas and sea lions. We quote that as written and add nothing to it: a wild animal is not something anyone can put on a schedule.
What does the drone filming add?
One listing of the six includes drone filmography — footage of the whales and the boat shot from the air. The other two whale trips do not offer it, and the difference in price is $42.
Is there anything to book besides whales?
Three of the six listings: a brown bear search by road across Chichagof Island, a village tour with an Alaskan crab feast, and a four-hour river trip along old logging roads with Dolly Varden fishing.
Why does one tour show no rating?
The river fishing and bear search trip has no reviews on its listing yet, so we show none. The charter has three, which is why its 5.0 is quoted with the count attached rather than on its own.
One PDF · no account needed
Six tours out of Hoonah, on one page
Every listing we can book here, with its price, its length and the number of people who have reviewed it — the three whale trips first, then the bears, the crab and the river. Built from the listings and the same live prices as this page.
- All six listings, with price, length and review count
- What separates the three whale trips from each other
- What the listings say you may see, quoted as written
- The questions worth asking before you pick one
Check your inbox
The plan is on its way. If it isn't there in a minute, look in Promotions.
Why trust this page
How we put this together
Checked, not guessed
Lengths, prices and what each trip includes come from the live listings on GetYourGuide. Ratings are read off the same pages and updated with this one.
How we pick
All six tours we can book out of Hoonah are on this page, whale trips and the rest of them. Nobody pays to be featured here.
We show the thin numbers
One listing has three reviews and one has none. We say so beside the score instead of letting a 5.0 stand on its own.
No animal is promised
The listings say humpbacks, orcas and sea lions are what you may see. We quote that as written and add nothing to it.
The answer
Three hours on the Icy Strait. Pick the boat.
The trip that films from a drone is the one most people here have been on and written about afterwards — 158 reviews at 4.9, $267. If the footage is not the point, the plain three-hour cruise is $225 and holds 4.8 across 105 reviews.
Check dates and availability→ Three hours on the water · 345 reviews across six listings