13 Aug 2025
We were excited to book a whale-watching tour with Arraial Viagens.. The website showed epic whale sightings and dramatic ocean views. What we got was a boat ride to the nearby beaches…,with loud party music but without even an attempt to find a whale.
Instead of heading out to sea, the boat anchored a few minutes from shore. When we asked the crew what happened to the whale tour, they casually mentioned we’d been put on the beach tour. Surprise!
We texted the agency who told us, after we were already stranded on the wrong tour, that whale-watching “wasn’t possible today.” You’d think they might’ve mentioned that before taking our money. To add insult to whale-less injury, other misled passengers that booked the whale watching tour that day with the same company were offered a 50% refund. Us? A lot of excuses on that we might accidentally stumble upon a whale and just today the boat did no good to a place where they are sometimes spotted. We were offered an opportunity for another tour. This was rather ironic since we would have loved to be on another tour and could have actually been on a real whale watching tour if we would not have booked the tour with this company and planned our travels around it.
To top it all off, when we returned to shore and tried to sort this out with the agency, we found the office conveniently closed. Not a single person to speak to. It’s almost like they didn’t want to face their unhappy customers.
So in short we lost our money, a full day of our trip and missed the chance to go on a real whale tour — because we booked a tour with this company.
Of course, wildlife isn’t guaranteed. But here’s a wild idea: at least try to look for whales if that’s what you're selling. Arraial Viagens did not. Avoid this company unless you enjoy being scammed and lied to with a scenic view.