Swimming with Whales in Vava'u

Wondering what the current cost of whale swimming is (day tours) and how busy things are or might be in mid August. Have heard you probably don't need to book ahead, but things may be busier than usual with the coronation taking place. Had a bit of a look online but most sites seem to focus on multi day tours without mentioning prices for day tours. Any recent experiences or info on operators and prices would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

I know it is a while ago (2002), but then itw as $80-90 depending on the operator (and a bit more if lunch was included - Whalesong). So if it was around $130 now it wouldn't surprise me (maybe a bit more with fuel costs).

Prices start at about $150- $200 a day. At the airport look out for the whales in the wild 10% off voucher (I heard good things about this company while I was out there). Check before you book that the operator is licensed to swim with whales- some can only look, and not all make it clear. I'm afraid I didn't take a tour and can't recommend a company, but if Dive Vava'u's operation is on a par with their diving, they are worth checking out.

i highly reccomend http://www.swimwithgiants.com/pages/main.html from my experience. We tried 3 companies and this was the best. it was about $t200, maybe a little over that.
i also went on dive vava'u which wasn't great.
and the other one was whalesong which was a slow boat.

its kind of hard to get info on whats out there and prices.
ask around when you arrive in tonga for reccomendations and tips.

things to ask are the price, length of the day, and if lunch is supplied.
try and have plenty of time there to get yourself organised and be prepared to go out several times- they are wild animals and you might not have sucess on the 1st go!

For anyone looking for whale watching in Tonga there is an operators website: www.tongawhalewatch.com
It has a list of all the current whale watch operators and links to their websites so you can get their current information. Pricing for day trips varies from about 200TOP to 350TOP.