Puerto Vallarta opens Whale-Watching Season along Mexico’s Pacific Coast

A number of tour operators and hotels are offering packages for tourists to view thousands of California gray whales that abandon the freezing waters of the Bering Sea near Alaska each November for the warm waters of the Baja peninsula in Mexico’s pacific coast, the Travel Weekly magazine reports.

The peak time for whale-watching is January through early April, after the calves are born. During these months, boat excursions are available all along the Baja coast for tourists to view the whales. Lindblad´s Special Expeditions (www.expeditions.com) offers nine-day cruises featuring whale-watching at Magdalena Bay.

For its part, Los Cabos-based Pronatur/Pro-Tours (www.rissalena.com) provides three-hour whale-watching tours. Each winter, humpback whales also migrate south from their arctic feeding grounds to breed and rear their young in the warm, protected waters of the Bahia de Banderas in Puerto Vallarta.

Tours are available to view these magnificent creatures, as well as wild dolphins and a variety of other exotic sea mammals. Visit www.vallartawhales.com or www.vallarta-adventures.com.

To help nature lovers, the Presidente Intercontinental Puerto Vallarta Resort is offering a Whale Watching Experience package, which includes a whale-watching tour for two on Banderas Bay with an English-speaking tour guide, three nights in a deluxe room, daily breakfast and private check-in.

The package costs $707, double, with additional nights priced at $189. The package is available now through March 31. Visit the resort chain´s Web site, www.ichotelsgroup.com