Whale Watching in Colombia: A Guide to Nuquí and Bahía Solano

Between July and October, humpback whales that spent the southern summer feeding off Antarctica arrive in the warm shallows of Colombia’s Pacific coast to mate and to calve. They come close to shore, they stay for months, and they bring their newborns with them. It is one of the great wildlife spectacles in the Americas, and ‘almost’ nobody outside Colombia has heard of it. Probably for the best…

Our whale season news post covers the season itself: the government guidance issued for it, the rules boats have to follow, and what each government’s travel advice says. This guide is the other half, the practical one. Where to base yourself, how to actually get there, what a package includes, what it costs, and what you do with the hours you are not on a boat.

The Two Towns

Almost everyone who does this trip does it from one of two places in Chocó, and they are more different than a map suggests.

Nuquí is the smaller and the more remote-feeling of the two. The town itself is modest; the point of it is the string of beaches south along the coast, above all Guachalito, where most of the good lodges sit. You do not stay in Nuquí so much as pass through it. Boats leave from the Muelle Turístico, a five-minute walk from the airstrip, and it is a twenty to forty minute ride down the coast to the lodges depending on where you are going and how the sea is behaving. There is a daily public boat and there are private transfers, and most lodges arrange yours as part of the booking.

Bahía Solano is bigger, has more of a working-town feel, and has the thing Nuquí does not: proximity to Utría National Natural Park, the sheltered inlet that is the single most important place on this coast for watching whales without harassing them. Utría’s calm, narrow ensenada is where mothers bring calves, and it is close enough to Bahía Solano to be a day trip. Some Bahía Solano lodges are reached by road, like El Almejal about forty minutes south, and others by boat, like the lodges around Punta Huina roughly twenty minutes from the port.

If the whales are the whole reason you are going, Bahía Solano and Utría is the stronger base. If you want the whales plus empty beach, rainforest, and thermal springs, Nuquí and the Guachalito strip is the better week.

Getting There

There is no road. This is the single most important planning fact about both towns, and it shapes everything else.

Satena and Clicair fly small propeller aircraft to both from Medellín’s Olaya Herrera airport, which is inside the city rather than out at José María Córdova where international flights land. Budget properly for that transfer if you are connecting; they are two different airports on opposite sides of Medellín. The flight is about an hour. Satena’s site accepts international cards, which makes it the easier of the two to book from abroad.

Nuquí’s airstrip is Reyes Murillo. Bahía Solano’s is José Celestino Mutis. Both are small, and both are weather-dependent in one of the wettest inhabited places on earth. Flights on this coast are canceled or delayed regularly, and the aircraft are small enough that a cancellation is not easily absorbed. Do not book an international connection for the same day you fly back out. Leave a night in Medellín.

Baggage allowances on these aircraft are tighter than you are used to. Check yours before you pack, and expect to be weighed along with your bag.

What a Trip Actually Costs

Because the lodges are small and remote and the supply chain is a boat, this is not a destination where you pay for a room and then buy the rest as you go. Most visits are sold as multi-night packages covering transfers from the airstrip, the room, all meals, and a daily outing.

For the 2026 season, Colombian operators advertised Nuquí packages at around COP 2,450,000 (about USD 790) per person for a stay of several nights, with deposits of a few hundred thousand pesos to hold a place and the balance payable in installments. What that number covers varies a lot between lodges, so read the inclusions rather than comparing headline prices.

If you are staying somewhere that sells outings separately, a whale watching trip runs about COP 140,000 to 180,000 (about USD 45 to 58) per person, usually a half day. Longer outings that combine whales with the Utría ensenada, Playa Blanca, and Morromico, with lunch included, sit at the upper end of that.

Utría park charges its own entry, quoted by operators for the 2026 season at COP 20,500 for Colombian nationals and COP 58,000 for foreign visitors. Park fees are set annually and are collected separately from your tour, so carry it in cash and confirm the current figure with your operator when you book.

Two more budget notes. Flights are on top of all of the above. And bring cash. Card acceptance is limited, ATMs are scarce and unreliable, and there is no realistic way to fix a shortfall once you are on the coast. Our cost of traveling in Colombia breakdown puts these figures in context against the rest of the country, and our guide to money in Colombia covers why the wallet apps everyone else uses will not work for you.

What You Do Besides Look at Whales

A well-run week here is not four days of sitting in a boat.

Utría National Natural Park. The ensenada is the headline, but the park also has mangrove boardwalks and rainforest trail, and it is one of the better places on the coast to be shown the ecosystem rather than just floated through it.
Termales and El Valle. South of Nuquí, the thermal pools at Termales are the standard half day. El Valle, near Bahía Solano, has the long beach, the sea turtle work in season, and the best surf on this stretch.
Waterfalls and rivers. The Río Jovi near Nuquí is the usual trip, upriver by boat and then on foot.
Birdwatching. The Chocó biogeographic region is one of the most endemic-rich places on the planet. If birds are your thing, say so when you book; the lodges know exactly who to put you with.
Doing very little. This is a legitimate answer. The beaches are enormous and empty, the rain is warm, and the lodges are built for hammock time.

For where this sits against the rest of the country’s wildlife, our nature and wildlife page has the wider picture, and our beaches and islands page covers the coasts that are easier to reach.

Watching Responsibly, Which Here Is Not Optional

Colombia issued joint government guidance for the 2026 season aimed squarely at boats harassing animals during the months they are most vulnerable. The core rules are simple and worth knowing before you are on the water, because you are the one paying the operator:

Boats keep a minimum distance of 200 meters from the whales.
No feeding, and no attempts to attract the animals’ attention.
Authorized outing schedules are observed rather than treated as guidance.
No single-use plastics.

Book with operators that work with the territorial communities rather than around them. On this coast the lodges and boats are substantially run by Afro-Colombian and Emberá communities, and the money either stays in Chocó or it does not. If your captain starts closing on an animal, say something.

What the Advisories Say

Chocó carries a restrictive travel advisory, and the whale towns are a named exception with a condition attached.

The UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office advises against all but essential travel to Chocó Department, “except for the department capital Quibdó, the whale-watching towns of Nuquí and Bahía Solano and the tourist site of Capurganá.” It attaches an explicit condition to those towns: “If you intend to travel to the whale-watching towns of Bahia Solano and Nuqui, only do so by air and do not travel inland or along the coast out of town.”

Canada’s advisory takes the same shape, placing Chocó under avoid-all-travel with Bahía Solano, Capurganá, and Nuquí listed as exceptions where it advises avoiding non-essential travel instead.

This is unrelated to the August 2026 earthquake and predates it. Advisories change, so read the FCDO Colombia regional risks page and your own government’s current guidance close to your dates, alongside our Colombia safety guidelines.

The practical reading is that the way both governments carve out these towns happens to be the way essentially everyone visits them anyway: fly in, stay on the coastal strip your lodge sits on, fly out. There is no road to tempt you inland.

After the Earthquake

The August 10, 2026 earthquake had its epicenter in Chocó, near San José del Palmar, inland and to the southeast. The Pacific coastal towns came through it differently from the interior of the department: Nuquí, Bahía Solano, and Juradó have reported no serious damage to lodges or airstrips, and the governor of Chocó has publicly asked travelers to keep their whale season bookings rather than canceling.

The reason that request carries weight is arithmetic. Around 60 percent of Nuquí’s annual visitors arrive during the four-month whale season. In a department that was already the poorest in Colombia before an earthquake hit it, a canceled season is not a soft loss. Our September recovery update covers where the wider region stands.

Confirm current conditions with your lodge when you book. That is ordinary practice for this coast in any year.

When to Go, and What to Expect

The season runs July into October, with August and September the peak. Operators report very high sighting rates in those weeks, and mothers with calves are most reliably close to shore. Those are also the months the lodges fill, so book months rather than weeks ahead.

Set your expectations on two things. This is one of the wettest places on earth, so rain is part of the trip in every month and the light is often flat and gray; bring a dry bag and stop expecting postcard skies. And these are wild animals in open water. Most people who go out in peak weeks see whales, frequently at close range. Nobody can sell you a breach.

If you are still shaping the wider trip, our guide to the best time to visit Colombia covers how the Pacific season fits against the rest of the country’s weather.

Prices and logistics checked September 2026. Fares, park fees, and schedules on this coast change frequently, so confirm with your operator.

Sources

Frequently Asked Questions

When is the best time to see whales in Colombia?

The humpback season on the Colombian Pacific runs from roughly July into October, and August and September are the peak, when mothers with calves are most reliably close to shore. Those are also the two months when lodges fill, so book well ahead. Operators advertise very high sighting rates in peak weeks, but these are wild animals and nobody can promise you a breach.

How do you get to Nuquí and Bahía Solano?

By air only. There is no road connection to either town. Satena and Clicair fly small propeller aircraft from Medellín's Olaya Herrera airport, which sits inside the city rather than at José María Córdova, and the flight takes about an hour. Weather cancellations are common on this coast, so do not book a tight onward connection on your return day.

How much does a whale watching trip to Chocó cost?

Most visits are sold as multi-night lodge packages covering transfers, room, all meals, and daily outings, and Colombian operators advertised around COP 2,450,000 per person for the 2026 season. A single whale watching outing booked through a lodge runs closer to COP 140,000 to 180,000 per person. Flights are extra, and Utría park charges its own entry fee.

Do I need to worry about travel advisories for Chocó?

Read them before you book. The UK FCDO advises against all but essential travel to Chocó with named exceptions that include Nuquí and Bahía Solano, on the explicit condition that you arrive by air and do not travel inland or along the coast out of town. Canada's advisory takes the same shape. That is a real constraint on how you move, not a formality, and it is separate from anything to do with the August 2026 earthquake.

Whale Watching on Colombia's Pacific Coast: Nuquí and Bahía Solano