Offshore Blue Adventures — Attraction in San Diego

Top experience for us in San Diego. I have to recommend this to ANYONE and EVERYONE who comes to San Diego. I was lucky to do a similar experience in Hawaii but my time here in San Diego just surpassed that. From my phone calls to the lovely owner to understand what is a good time to go to the actual captain who's wealth of knowledge and fun attitude put our time on the ocean at the top of my list.

I will say this... this is all about observing nature. So sometimes nature may bless you with whale sights and a thousands of dolphins doing handstands. Other times, it may give you the beautiful blue sea and the occasional sighting of the common "foilus balloonisicus" aka... terrible foil balloons released and dropped into the ocean as garbage. We got pretty lucky on our adventure.

To start ... this is a true adventure. You will sit in a smaller boat that is meant to go fast and keep up with dolphins. We got a private tour ... yeah lucky. No one else book the time we asked for. For those who have a sore back or get sea sick easily... this might be the boat for you. Our captain moved the boat swiftly and smoothly but its still riding quickly over the waves in search of the wonderful animals.

As I mentioned, the owner and captain are 10++/5. They're always pleasant, happy, willing to accommodate, follow up, and probably do a handstand if you asked. Ok maybe not but they're great. We learned SO SOOOOO much about dolphins as we were riding with them and watching them as they were beside us.

We got to have these dolphins within a foot of our boot as we sped with them. Our first sighting was adorable as we say a calf and mom swimming gently. It was a fairly small pod with only 5 dolphins swimming casually about. What was mind blowing was that we encountered a stampede. I had no idea this was a real thing but let me tell you that if you have this, enjoy... every... minute.

On the horizon, you'll see tons of light flickering off what it seems a flurry of random water splashes in these small bursts. Soon you'll realize that you're staring at HUNDREDs of dolphins who are all swimming at top speeds across the ocean waves. It was amazing as we joined in and followed along with them. Within seconds the dolphins would start 'playing' with us by swimming right under our helm and surface right beside us and dive under again to swim left then right of us. It was completely amazing to see these incredible animals up close. We did this easily for a better part of 90 minutes.

We didn't get to see any whales that day but honestly being so close to the dolphins and in that massive stampede was a complete highlight of my trip to San Diego thanks to the careful and wonderful service and mother nature showing us the playful nature of...

Cici was wonderful and very knowledgable about the marine wildlife. She also earned all of my respect when she spotted something in the water and took the time to drive the boat over and pull a deflated balloon with string attached out of the water, explaining how dangerous it was to the wildlife. You could tell how well liked and respected she was by all of the other boat captains in the area as they shared sighting locations and small talk/banter on the radio. I would very highly recommend Cici (Offshore Blue Adventures) for an amazing and personal experience. We saw a few hundred common dolphins, a few sea lions, a flying fish, blue whale, and humpback on our 4 hour morning excursion. I was alone on this trip, so went out with a few others that she had booked for the day, one other single person and a family of four. She was very good with the children, talking with them and keeping them involved. I will definitely choose Cici to take my sons (currently 9 and 11 years old) out on their first ever excursion when we visit the San Diego area in the coming years! This was my first experience on a small inflatable speed boat, I believe properly referred to as a rigid hulled inflatable boat (the type the coast guard uses). I asked her why she chose that style boat over a hard body, and she explained it was lighter and therefore faster and more stable... what I noticed was the comfort! It glided over the water/waves and I felt much more secure than any other smaller boat I have ever been on before, and provided a much better 360 degree view than you could ever get on a larger vessel. This was an amazing experience and so much more than I feel could be provided on a larger commercial boat... and for the lowest price I could find...

Have you ever witnessed a pod of 1,000 dolphins? It's one of the most breathtaking things I have ever seen. My Boyfriend and I went for a whale watching tour with Offshore Blue Adventures, right from the get-go I could tell our tour guide knew what she was doing, she even went so far as to have gloves available for everyone on the boat. How's that for looking after your customers?? As soon as we left the doc our tour began. CiCi was very knowledgeable about the ocean life, landscape and even the jets flying overhead. We saw our first 2 Grey Whales within about 20 minutes. We spent a while watching them, then our guide stared discussing their behavior, she said they seemed to be shy and likely wanted to be left alone. I really like that she concerned with the animals as much as with our group. She clearly has a deep love and respect of the ocean. From there we headed to look at another group of whales. Our guide was just an absolute doll the entire time, and man, can she drive a boat! We spent a while looking at some more whales then she got a message on the radio of huge pod of dolphins, that fast the group decided we wanted to see that and took off in that direction. That's the great part of being on a small boat, you can go wherever the heck you want! As we got near the pod of dolphins the came right in up to the boat. It was amazing!! For the next thirty minutes we motored around with an estimated THOUSAND DOLPHINS. They leaped in the air, jumped and did flips, just thousands of them dancing around out boat. I will never ever forget the amazing experience. If you want to do an ocean tour Offshore Blue Adventures is hands down the...