Friday Harbor

Description: Friday Harbor is a town on San Juan Island. We visited the small town twice in the 90's as part of a whale watching tour. Friday Harbor is served from several towns on the mainland. We came here once from Bellingham and once from Port Townsend. 

Our rating: During one of our visits, we had the opportunity to stroll around the town a bit. Friday Harbor is a nice village directly at the ocean. Since it lives from tourism, among other things, there are also numerous stores and restaurants We enjoyed discovering the place a little. If you like to be by the ocean and like these coastal towns, you will surely like it here very much. The location in the San Juan Islands alone is great.

The reason for our visit were whale watching tours. We were especially interested in the resident orcas. To observe these marine mammals in the wild was a great experience.

Seeing the animals in their natural environment made us even more aware of the miserable and unworthy conditions under which the orcas have to live in captivity. At the latest after these experiences here in Pudget Sound, a visit to a facility with marine mammals is no longer an option for us.

Another tip about whale watching: In our experience, the tour operators know exactly where the orcas are. There are spotters on the islands, so that it is actually always known whether it is possible to see orcas on the day in question. Of course, the tourists are not told before the start that the orcas may be too far away for the tour, but if you ask actively, you actually already get an honest information. Possibly the demand saves one a disappointment, so that one does not sail for hours over the ocean and does not get to see an orca afterwards