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Dolphins aside the environmental experience is a raw outdoor experience, it’s not a walk in the zoo, it’s a safari.

You will be It’s exposed to the elements, way from from controlled environment, it’s wilderness.

Just to remember the more distracted guests, there will be cold and wind. The sun burns your skin. Ah and there will be waves too, we avoid it, but if dolphins are in the same direction of the waves there will be jumps, but if kids go to Disneyland you can do this.

We can compare the environmental experience as going on an chairlift to the top of a mountain 2000m high in summer (1000m in winter). The fear of heights is comparable to fear from waves or being away from the coast. Unlike the chairlift, if you jump off the boat won’t die from the fall but you’d be in big trouble.

All guests above 6yrs and in good health are welcome to our dolphin expeditions tours in Lisbon and we have most of the conditions to meet our guest’s needs. However in the absence of a request from the guests, we will proceed with the standard expedition’s module. Under customised conditions, we had guests from 6 months old to 85 years old, but the tour isn’t planned for ordinary people in these extremes.

Check the What to expect to adjust your expectations

Most of the restrains of the standard expedition modules are the boats. Guests that can’t do impact activities, like back problems and pregnant women (specially earlier stages) are the usual guests that are not recommended on the ocean tours. The rides are usually soft and upon request we can save the most comfortable seats. But we might encounter an unpredictable rough wave, that might deliver a stronger hit, these guests should keep to the river tour. We remind that the usual boats don’t have toilet and the tours can take up to 3 hours. If you have either of these issues, contact us before booking, to assess the conditions and we might arrange to go on a bigger boat.

We usually say that: all guests that are capable of being seated for 3h on a bus, are ready for the expedition! But we will go in detail on the ones that need adult supervision.

The standard boats are not adapted for motor incapacitated guests, it will depend on the disability degree and the capacity of the guest to adapt. Contact us before booking.

Guests with developmental disorders, like children, will need to be accompanied all the time by an responsible adult. And applies the “rule” if they are capable of being seated for 3h on a bus, are ready.

Children are very important guests! This experiences are safe for children if their movements are supervised. We have small size lifejackets and seats for short legged kids, but that’s it..

The tour isn’t planned for kids, ocean tours are long and keeping them entertained might be a problem. It’s like taking a kid to see a movie at the cinema that was made for an adult audience. Added to that, there is no shelter from the blazing sun and the unforgiving cold wind. Even if you’re coming in August, the ocean is cold (living in Canada or Sweden will not change that) their small bodies cooldown faster, we had to turn back twice in the summer 2023 because of hypothermic kids, they need extra clothing!

Ordinary children over 6 years old are mature enough and should have enough life experience to cope with these outdoor experiences. If your child is under 6yrs, they need to be extra-ordinary, we highly recommend that the kid has experience of being at Sea. In 2023 we had a 3 year old, but she was already sailing with the father on a small boats.. our tour can’t be worse than that! If no experience, in these cases the river tour is better suited or at least ensure you go on a windless day and have windy days out of the options.

So if you still think that they are capable, contact us before booking, to ensure that we go on a boat that takes guests younger than 6 and has small life-jackets available.

Check the What to expect to adjust your expectations

Pets are allowed under the standard conditions, always contact us before booking. The pets need to be socialized, well behaved and nails trimmed to avoid damaging the boat’s floats. We recommend that this is not their first time on a boat! If so you should keep on the river tour.

Check the What to expect to adjust your expectations

No. But usually tickets are sold with 50% refund, if there is a discount it means refund is optional, check it on booking.

We and everyone else, can not grantee the dolphins (not even the zoo does). Dolphins are completely wild animals and in most of the cases they are just visitors of the Lisbon area. We have no control over them, there are no GPS trackers on them, no spotters on land, we just rely on the crew knowledge and experience to find them. This basically is a safari on the Sea, with some possibility of not finding the dolphins (2% in 2023, 0% in 2024, 0% in 2025). Check the last tours with no dolphins.

In case of not finding the dolphins, we can ensure that before giving up looking, we will put extra effort and time in finding them. Doing so, the the costs of the trip will increase two times the average, resulting in the complete incapability of refunding the tickets. But everything else is still included, the sightseeing, the boat ride and the explanations.

This can feel unfair, but it isn’t. You don’t get any refund for a cloudy sunset tour, nor for a rainy summer vacations.. it’s weather/nature.

Check the booking, there will be days with refund included. Usually if the price is over 60€. And you can add full refund on your basket.

Usually you get a 50% refund, but check the booked day. A few years ago the full refund policy was the main reason for our unsuccessful tours. When dolphins are hard to find we were forced to give up from the search sooner, to avoid going too high on the fuel expenses. With no refund we can extend the search to 50 or even 60 miles an now our success rate for 2024 was 100%.

Check the booking, there will be days with 50% refund included. Usually if the price is over 60€ and you can add full refund on your basket.

This refund is only available when the tour goes as planned. It isn’t applied when:

• We have less than half of the boat‘s capacity booked
• The tour is not on our own boat, Rorqual
• The tour is on a date that we advised to change from, but the guest didn’t allowed a rebook
• A particular guest doesn’t see the dolphins

In case of case of change of plans that disable refunds, we’ll refund any refund fee

This can feel unfair, but it isn’t. You don’t get a refund for a cloudy sunset tour, nor for a rainy summer vacations.. it’s weather/nature.

We do not have 100% success overall, the true number is 98%. We missed the dolphins 22 times since 2017.

However for 2024 and 2025 we do have 100% success in all tours,  just not counting with cancelled tours.

How can we achieve that success when the other operators can’t? Easy, we don’t gamble. If the sea conditions aren’t good enough, we cancel the tour and don’t risk going out. While the other operators have a more comercial approach and still go in more adverse sea conditions.

Another reason is one tour per day. Without a second tour our schedule is dedicated to find the dolphins for you. Enabling delaying the arrival to put extra effort in finding the dolphins, some times we even refuel mid tour to keep looking for longer!

On average the expeditions are planned to be 2h long, but usually goes over. In case of being difficult to find the dolphins we can expand to 3h, in the ocean tour. We really prioritise finding the dolphins, in extreme cases it took more than 3h. Usually we manage to make a stop in a far away port, before heading back.

Yes, you will always depart from Lisbon. Rarely when conditions are not met for a reliable tour in Lisbon area, the boat might have to depart from the next ports on the alternative areas. There will be land transportation from the meeting point to the boat free of charge and it will take around 4h. But usually we just cancel it.

No, the usual boat is a speed boat, but we used to have a sailboat before the pandemic. Our experience is to meet the dolphins, the boat experience is secondary. In sailboats comfort comes first, meeting the dolphins is second, as looking for dolphins often require covering many miles and sailboats are very slow and very prompt to seasickness.

But we hope having in 2028 the option of a sailing dolphin tour. For now book with us to help that project to come true!

The used boats are the best type to prevent motion sickness (boats, not ships). However some guests are just too sensitive, specially during the dolphin observation. We have some of techniques to cope with seasickness, notify the crew as soon as possible. If you already know that you’re prompt to motion sickness, we have pills to be taken before departure.

Prevention pass through avoiding liquids during and 30 min before departure and definitely avoiding partying to late hours on the day before the experience.

The usual boat do not have shelter, yet. But we do have raincoats. When rain is forecasted, we will notify the guests and schedule a new date. Consistent and long lasting rain can be predictable with days in advance and we will not confirm expeditions under this type of rain. However we will confirm most of the expeditions under showers regime, this rain can last only for 5-10 minutes and usually can be avoided during the expedition by the crew.

We have an established limit around 2.5 m high waves to cancel the tours in Lisbon Bay and go for the river tour, or alternative areas but more likely schedule a new date. This is not due to safety reasons (the boats are safe), but due to low chances of dolphin spotting, increased chances of seasickness and poor comfort, for the motion and likelihood of getting very wet. Most of the uncomfortable waves where the Tagus river meets the Sea, when few guests (children) might find this environment overwhelming.

Read more about waves and sea states here and check our weekly updates to know the latest tours sea conditions. (check the video of Sea State 1 where swell is 2m high)

If the boat doesn’t depart, full cancellation.
Cancelations due to weather conditions or internal logistic problems will always be full refund and are free of deadlines.

Tours have a minimum booking number, which if not met there will be no tour and you’re rescheduled or fully refunded. Usually 5 is the minimum booking needed, but can be less depending of how close dolphins are.

Guests will get full refund if cancelled 24h before the experience.

Cancellations with less than 24h before the experience or no-shows, there will be no refund. However if we sell your places you’ll get a full refund.. yes, that means if you find us someone to replace you, you’ll get full refund.

Our expeditions aren’t commercial dolphin watching tours. We designed a true experience and our target costumers hope to hear more than they already know about dolphins and are looking for more than a transportation service to the dolphins.

Dolphins can present themselves in many ways, our behaviour around them is the one that shows the best results, but their mood is out of our control. Check our encounter rating, to know more how the dolphin encounters could go. And check the Sea States to know what to expect from the Sea (videos). Lastly scroll down and check our videos on Social Media.

We have 2 types of tours, standard route and no route.

• Standard route, we have a set of locations that we’ll visit, always looking for dolphins in between. These are more reliable, less exigent and more weather proof. 
• No route tours, we’ll travel where is more likely to find the dolphins and keep everyone as comfortable as possible. These maximizes the chances of finding dolphins, but are very dependant on good sea conditions, as we travel to open ocean.

Our no route expedition tours are divided in 4 main steps:

Travelling to the spotting areas, usually with a small briefing.
Dolphin searching where the guide will not speak and will be fully dedicated in looking for the dolphins.
Dolphin observation which by law are restricted to 30 minutes for each group. Additional information will be given regarding the species found and the behaviours that are being observed. If we find the dolphins soon, we might look for other groups, sightseeing the place or stop for a bath. If takes too long to find them, we will initiate the return soon after leaving the dolphins.
And travelling back, after leaving the spotting areas, the guide will deliver more scientific information like anatomy, behaviour and evolution (regardless of guest’s beliefs). He often will start with a pertinent question to trigger an interactive discussion before giving the answer (definitely will be a break on your vacations!). Meanwhile we usually approach the coast for some sightseeing.

We understand that some guests have the simple goal of just seeing dolphins. Or that disagree with the information given (like the evolution of the dolphins). We will stop giving the information upon request, but if there are other interested guests, we will not deprive them from the information.

This is a subject that ended too many times in fights at boarding time.

In an effort to preserve peace we have a seat reservation option on our booking. You can choose which rows are you booking, for an extra fee.

The front seats have free 180º view, while the others have less free view. Further you go back the wettest the seats are during travel under bad weather, but less bumpy they get. In summary, front are for the intrepid, the back for those seeking comfort as they are a single long seat and not a jokey seat like the others (the wet part will be solved very soon).

For those that don’t reserve the seats, common sense states the first to arrive get to choose first, but some say kids should go to the front… in any case the crew doesn’t participate in these ‘negotiations’ but we prioritize keeping the groups together.

The crew will intervene if the group is significantly different, as follows:

• If not fully booked, the front seats will stay unused, for weight balance
• We’ll avoid bigger guests to seat on the same side of the boat, for weight balance
• Bigger guests will go to the back, for weight balance
• Tall guests will go to the back, to avoid blocking the view from the ones on the back
• Small guests are prioritised to the front
• Poorly dressed kids will not go to the front, it’s too unsheltered from wind
• Very small guests will go to the back seat, which is the only one that isn’t jockey seat, and is lower for the shorter legs
• The back seat is prioritized to the disabled, elder, poor mobility or oversized guests