Whale Watching Near Taylor, PA in June
The nearest whale watching to Taylor, PA in June is a coastal day trip: six operators sailing from Belmar, Cape May and Wildwood Crest in New Jersey, and from Sheepshead Bay in Brooklyn. Belmar and Brooklyn are the shorter drives at roughly two and a half hours, and Bill McKim's Jersey Shore Whale Watch in Belmar is the only one that promises a whale rather than any marine mammal.
The choice comes down to the drive against the fare. The Cape May and Wildwood Crest boats, about three and three quarter hours away, post flat adult fares of $50 to $55 and guarantee a whale or dolphin. The two Belmar operators set prices by date, and American Princess Cruises in Brooklyn charges a flat $69 for a 3.5-hour trip.
Our picks
- When it has to be a whale: Bill McKim's Jersey Shore Whale Watch. No whales means a free trip back (with a $20 processing fee), and the operator's own logs from 2018 to 2025 put its whale sighting rate at 95%.
- Most June departure times: Royal Miss Belmar. Two boats share the schedule, sailing daily after May 20, with a 9:30 AM run added Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from early June.
- Kids who want the science: Cape May Whale Watch & Research Center. A marine biologist and research interns are on every American Star sailing, with a touch tank and plankton stations, for a $50 adult fare.
- Humpbacks with a skyline: American Princess Cruises. The boat runs out toward Ambrose Channel at the mouth of New York Harbor, and its 2026 June sailings left at noon four days a week.
At a glance
| Option | Adult ticket | Address | Departure port | Trip length | Sailing season | Sighting guarantee | Boat |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| $55source | 1218 Wilson Dr, Cape May, NJ 08204source | Cape May, NJsource | 3 hourssource | May to Octobersource | Whale or dolphin guaranteedsource | Cape May Whale Watchersource | |
| $50source | 1231 Rt 109, Cape May, NJ 08204source | Cape May, NJsource | 3 hourssource | Whale or dolphin guaranteedsource | American Starsource | ||
| $50source | 6200 Park Boulevard, Wildwood Crest, NJ 08260source | Wildwood Crest, NJsource | 3 hourssource | Whale or dolphin guaranteedsource | Atlantic Starsource | ||
| 905 NJ-35, Belmar, NJ 07719source | Belmar, NJsource | 3 to 4 hourssource | April to Decembersource | Whale sighting guaranteedsource | Big Red Jersey Girlsource | ||
| 905 NJ-35 Belmar, NJ 07719source | Belmar, NJsource | 3 hourssource | From April 15, daily after May 20source | No guaranteesource | Royal Miss Belmar and Miss Belmar Princesssource | ||
| $69source | Pier 8, Emmons Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11235source | Brooklyn, NYsource | 3.5 hourssource | April 11 to December 6source | American Princesssource |
What a sighting guarantee actually covers
Three of the New Jersey boats guarantee a whale or a dolphin: Cape May Whale Watcher, the Cape May Whale Watch & Research Center and Starlight Fleet's The Big One. Dolphins are close and almost routine in the Cape May Inlet on Starlight's way out, so a dolphin pod alone can satisfy that promise.
Bill McKim's is the exception, a whale or a free return trip. Royal Miss Belmar makes no promise and says plainly that wild animals can't be guaranteed. American Princess cites a 95%+ mammal sighting record but advertises no free return, so its guarantee cell is empty.
Belmar, Brooklyn or the Cape May boats
Both Belmar operators leave the same dock at 905 NJ-35, so look for the boat name at the marina: the Big Red Jersey Girl for Bill McKim's, the Royal Miss Belmar or Miss Belmar Princess for the other. Neither posts a flat fare, and Bill McKim's trips run 3 to 4 hours.
The longer drive south buys fixed prices. Cape May Whale Watcher, at $55, carries up to 405 passengers across two decks and sails at 1:00 PM. The Research Center's American Star leaves at 1:30 PM for $50, and Starlight's 100-foot Atlantic Star holds 150 people, with a hot dog and soda included in its $50 fare.
Is June too early for whales
Every boat here sails in June, but it is early in the Jersey Shore season. Humpback feeding peaks from July through September, and Seastreak, the best-known New Jersey whale watch, didn't sail until July in 2026. Seastreak is the first place to look if your trip slips into summer.
Two of the Cape May County operators, Starlight Fleet and the Research Center, publish no season dates at all. Check their booking calendars for June sailings before you plan the drive around them.
The options in detail
Cape May Whale Watcher
The largest and most amenity-heavy boat on this list: two decks of viewing space, heated and air-conditioned cabins, a full snack bar with beer and wine, ADA boarding ramps, and free parking at Miss Chris Marina. Captain Jeff Stewart's family has run these trips since 1993, and the three-hour "big trip" works both Delaware Bay and the Atlantic, where sightings often come within ten miles of shore. The vessel is inspected for up to 405 passengers, so it is the least intimate option here but also the steadiest ride and the easiest to get onto at short notice. The whale and dolphin cruise sails at 1:00 PM from May through October.
Cape May Whale Watch & Research Center
The science-first choice. Founded in 1987 as Cape May's original eco-tour operation, it puts a marine biologist and undergraduate research interns on every sailing of the American Star, with a hands-on touch tank and plankton stations that keep children busy between sightings. The three-hour Whale, Dolphin & Bird Watch runs 3 to 15 miles offshore looking for humpback, fin, minke and the critically endangered right whale, and the trip doubles as data collection for the center's own research. It leaves at 1:30 PM from South Jersey Marina, about 100 feet from the Lobster House sign on Route 109. The one gap: the site publishes no season window, so confirm June dates on the booking calendar before you plan around it.
Starlight Fleet: The Big One
Wildwood Crest's fleet has been running trips for over 50 years, and "The Big One" is its three-hour whale, dolphin and bird trip aboard the 100-foot Atlantic Star. It starts inshore through Sunset Lake and the Cape May Inlet, where dolphins are close and almost routine, then pushes 12 to 14 miles offshore for whales, with a marine biologist narrating and a touch tank and plankton lab on board. The boat holds 150 passengers, a good deal smaller than the Cape May ships a few miles south, and a hot dog and soda come with the ticket. Marine mammal sightings are guaranteed or the next trip is free, but the site does not state which months the trip runs.
Bill McKim's Jersey Shore Whale Watch
The only trip here whose guarantee is about whales specifically rather than any marine mammal: no whales, come back free. Trips run three to four hours out of Belmar Marina aboard the Big Red Jersey Girl, with live naturalist narration and indoor and outdoor viewing, and the company puts its whale sighting rate at 95% based on its own trip logs from 2018 to 2025. The season runs April through December, so June sits comfortably inside it. Two things to know: the return trip carries a $20 processing fee, and there is no flat published fare, since prices are set per date in the booking calendar.
Royal Miss Belmar
The busiest schedule on the list, because two boats share it: the Royal Miss Belmar sails afternoons from mid-April and daily from late May, the Miss Belmar Princess adds a late-afternoon trip from the end of May, and a 9:30 AM run is added on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from early June through Labor Day weekend. That makes it the easiest option to fit around a drive from out of state. A professional naturalist is on every trip, and there is a three-hour tour and a shorter 2.5-hour one. It is also the one operator that promises nothing: it says plainly that sightings of wild animals can never be guaranteed, and fares change by date rather than sitting at a published rate.
American Princess Cruises
The New York option, and the only one where the whales surface against a city skyline. The American Princess leaves Pier 8 in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, and runs about three and a half hours out toward Ambrose Channel at the mouth of New York Harbor, where humpbacks feed on bunker through the summer. The 2026 season ran April 11 to December 6, with June departures on Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays at noon plus Saturday sunset sailings, and prices are flat and clearly posted rather than varying by date. It is in its seventeenth year of full-time whale watching and cites a 95%+ mammal sighting record, but unlike the New Jersey boats it advertises no free return trip if nothing turns up.
How we researched this
The question named no state, and of the towns called Taylor, only the one near Scranton is a reasonable drive from a whale. Taylor, MI and Taylor, TX have no whale watching within any distance you would call near. From there, the list is every boat running scheduled public whale watching trips in June within a day trip of Taylor, PA. Seastreak was left out for starting in July, and Montauk's boats for a drive of five hours or more. Point Pleasant Whale Watch now lists only a four-hour trip and private charters, with no season we could confirm. Ocean Explorer and the SS Miss Belmar are the same Belmar fleet as the Royal Miss Belmar, so they share its row, and dolphin-only cruises such as Atlantic City Cruises are not whale watches.
Adult fares are each operator's flat published fare, and Bill McKim's and Royal Miss Belmar are empty because both price each date separately. Starlight's and the Research Center's season cells are empty because neither site states one; their lines about how often dolphins turn up describe sightings, not sailing dates. Addresses are the operators' own, since a common roundup had two Cape May dock numbers wrong. As of September 2026, those two operators' June 2027 calendars were not yet open, so treat the schedules here as the 2026 pattern.