Hoonah whale tours: all six trips, side by side

Hoonah is a small place and the booking list is short, which makes this an easy market to read once somebody lays it out. Three listings take you onto the water to look for whales. Three stay closer to home: a bus that searches Chichagof Island for brown bears, a guided walk round the village that ends in a crab meal, and a four-hour run up old logging roads to a remote river for bears and Dolly Varden.

The first group is what people mean when they search for Hoonah whale tours. All three of those boats are three-hour trips and all three work the Icy Strait, the channel that runs past the village. What separates them is not the water — it is the price, the review history and one piece of equipment.

The second group matters because it is the same harbour, the same three-hour shape and, in two cases, less money. If somebody in your party has no interest in sitting on a boat, that is where they go instead, and nobody has to split the day badly to make it work.

Per hour, the three whale boats land at $89, $75 and $94.67. That is a narrow band, and it tells you the choice here is not really about money — the gap between the cheapest and the most expensive whale trip is $59 on a three-hour morning.

What you are buying with the extra is specific and checkable. The $267 listing adds drone film of the whales and brings the longest review history on the site with it. The $284 charter adds a small group and the right to swap whales for fishing when you book. The $225 cruise adds nothing to the base trip and charges the least for it, which is a perfectly good reason to take it.

The trips ashore break the pattern. The bear search is the cheapest thing here at $181, and the river trip is the most expensive at $550 — $137.50 an hour for four hours, more than any boat. Neither is a whale trip, so neither sets the floor price for the Hoonah whale tours on this page. That floor is $225.

If you want the strongest track record. Take the $267 whale watch. Its 158 reviews at 4.9 are the deepest evidence anyone here can show you, and the drone film is a souvenir no phone is going to match from a moving boat.

If you want the lowest price onto the water. The $225 cruise, with 105 reviews behind it at 4.8 and free cancellation stated on the listing. Remember it asks for at least four hours notice.

If you want a small group, or cannot decide between whales and fishing. The $284 charter is built for exactly that, and the booking asks you to pick. Go in knowing the rating rests on three reviews.

If somebody is not coming on the boat. Send them to the $181 bus round Chichagof Island or the $195 village tour with crab. Both run three hours, like the boats, so the group can meet again afterwards.

If you have four hours and want no crowd at all. The $550 river trip up the logging roads. It is new and unreviewed, which is the trade you are making.