Small Group Boat Tour
Captain Brad Wheeler takes six people at a time out among the islands for whales and otters, and from late July into September adds bays where bears come down to feed on salmon..
By Greg Peters, editor · Updated October 2026 · Ratings checked October 19, 2026
#5 Top rated · ranked 5 of 18 Sitka excursions
Captain Brad Wheeler takes six people at a time out among the islands for whales and otters, and from late July into September adds bays where bears come down to feed on salmon.
Tour details
Times and policies from viator.com, tripadvisor.com, getyourguide.com, checked October 19, 2026. They change; the booking page has the final word.
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How we ranked it
We checked every Sitka tour on this list on October 19, 2026, reading the star rating and review count shown on its own Viator, Tripadvisor and GetYourGuide product pages rather than any operator-wide score. Viator's totals already include Tripadvisor reviews, so for each tour we keep the larger single-site count instead of adding the two together. Tours then fall into three bands: Top rated (4.9 or better on at least 120 reviews, or 4.8 on at least 350), Highly rated (4.7 or better) and Popular. Within a band, the tour with more reviews ranks higher, so a long record counts for more than a handful of perfect scores. Many of these trips meet at Harrigan Centennial Hall downtown, which since 2025 means reserving a seat on the free dock shuttle first. No operator paid to be included, and the review links go straight to the booking sites.
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