One thing that i love about travelling to different countries is to see animals in their wild and natural habitat. Now, when we go away we do sometimes end up going to visit zoos and aquariums, however there is nothing better then seeing animals in the wild.

One of the animals that i am desperate to see in the wild is the brown grizzly bear – they are such a beautiful creature and to see them in the wild in Canada is on the top of my bucket list – but more about that another time.

One of the animals that I always make an effort to see is whales in the wild. They are such a beautiful gentle giant and seeing them in the sea is such a beautiful sight to see.

The first time i ever saw whales in the wild was in Boston and I will never forget the feeling i had when they popped out of the see and you saw their tail fin.

whale in Boston

One of the best whale sight seeing excursions i have been on was in the Azores on the journey back from the Caribbean. We went on a cruise to the Caribbean and on the way back we did a stop at the island called Horta and one of the options was to do whale watching in the morning.

Now, on rough seas on a cruise chip and generally at sea, i get sea sick. However, the day we went to Horta the sea was really rough on the small boat that we were on to see the creatures. A lot of people were in the lower part of the deck being sick however, i was ok, i walked with the boat movements and was able to ignore the feeling of sea sickness.

whale watching in Horta

The best thing about the whales in Horta was that one of them was the biggest mammal to walk the whole of the world, the Blue Whale. Whilst, the whale didn’t show much of his body, it was still amazing to see the length of the creature and the fins etc.  Also in Horta, the dolphins saw our boat and decided to jump along the side of the boat and the rhythms that it was making.

The last time I saw whales and dolphins in the wild was Christmas Eve of 2015 in Madeira. We decided to make Christmas that little bit special by spending the day at sea on a catamaran looking for one of the most beautiful animals on earth. We saw loads of whales and dolphins of many varieties including a very rare dolphin.

whale watching in Madeira

When we were in the Caribbean before we went whale watching, we did a variation of trips that also lead to seeing animals in their wild habitats. We went in the sea in Barbados and swam with the sea turtles and we went kayaking in the mangroves in Antigua and saw upside down jellyfish, sea cucumbers and rays in their natural habitat.

There is nothing more lovely then seeing animals in the wild, i am one of those people that loves seeing rabbits or deers pop out of the woods in the wild. It is the best way of seeing animals.