San Diego Seal Tour

San Diego, United States

3.9

Open now

20 reviews

Contacts

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Telephone:
+1 619-298-8687
Website:
www.sealtours.com
Address:
500 Kettner Blvd, San Diego, CA, 92101
at Harbor Dr
Nearby public transportation stops & stations:
0.3 miSeaport Village
0.3 miConvention Center
0.5 miGaslamp Quarter
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Today

Today 10:30 am – 5:00 pm
Open now
Local time (San Diego) 2:55 PM Thursday, November 28, 2024

Business hours

Monday 10:30 am – 5:00 pm
Tuesday 10:30 am – 5:00 pm
Wednesday 10:30 am – 5:00 pm
Thursday 10:30 am – 5:00 pm
Friday 10:30 am – 5:00 pm
Saturday 10:30 am – 5:00 pm
Sunday 10:30 am – 5:00 pm

Description

Specialties

Take your seat on the San Diego Seal Tour – an adventure that tours you through the most interesting sights in the city, then heads straight into the big bay without missing a beat. On the Seal Tour, every seat is a good one; it’s an open air tour vehicle that allows all guests to enjoy the tour with amazing views. Our amphibious vehicles, driven by our experienced captains, are specially designed and built to be used on land and water; each one is Coast Guard approved and meets all passenger vehicle and department of transportation requirements to ensure the safety and comfort of everyone on board. Everyday, hundreds of adults and children are delighted with San Diego’s most unique sightseeing experience.

History

Established in 1990.

See the best of San Diego by land and sea on the Seals. Aboard the Hydra Terra’s, you will discover the birthplace of California and its rich history before splashing into San Diego Harbor for a totally different perspective of America’s Finest City. Get a close up view of North Island Naval Air Station, Aircraft Carrier Row and the beautiful downtown skyline. Along the way you might run into some locals as well, California sea lions. The name SEAL is a tribute to the Navy SEALS who train and are stationed here in San Diego. And, like in the Navy, the term SEAL, for us, is an acronym: SEa And Land. Plus, seals are cute! It’s interesting to note, however, that we see sea lions on our SEAL tour. Many people might also refer to this type of tour as San Diego Duck Tours because in many cities across the country that is what they are called. The format is very similar to Duck Tours, however we like to put our own unique spin on it.

Meet the Manager

Piper S.

Manager

Splash into San Diego’s most unique sightseeing adventure! Both tour bus and boat, the San Diego SEAL Tour journeys through San Diego by land AND sea. Our unique «Hydra-​Terra» amphibious vehicles are Coast Guard approved, ensuring you a safe, one of a kind experience.

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20 reviews of San Diego Seal Tour

No registration required
Place rating: 1
Carlsbad, CA
This tour is run by a company called Trusted Tours. They are not. I’m contacting the Better Business Bureau about them. I bought tickets for a 3:15 tour on my phone. I get down there with my family about 10 minutes before the tour is supposed to leave and they will not allow my family to board the bus. They said that they resold our tickets to someone else because we were not there 30 minutes ahead of time. Um, excuse me? I made a reservation online and I paid for the tickets! I went back and looked at the website. If you scroll all the way to the bottom in non-​bold print it says that if we were not there 30 minutes ahead of time they may resell our tickets. I was livid. My kids and I were completely stunned. Then, they wouldn’t give me my money back saying that they have a policy. Uh, yeah. A policy to STEAL FROM PEOPLE! I’m going round and round with them on the phone. Customer service is useless and just say there’s nothing they can do. So I’m taking it to Unilocal,the Better Business Bureau and possibly small claims court. This company is a scam. Do not give them your business.
Place rating: 5
Corona, CA
It’s a little spendy but the little the ones enjoyed it and it’s a great tour of the wonderful city. They
even waited for us a little extra while we were waiting to park. The tour guide was very informative. Tip: Expect to arrive 30 – 45 ahead of schedule as it took us forever to find a parking spot.
Place rating: 4
San Diego, CA
I’ve always wanted to go on one of the land boat type of tours so I signed my boyfriend and I up for a morning touring around parts of San Diego!
We were able to get there fairly early and found some parking across from the pick up area. The lady that was at the ticket booth was sweet and very informative. She let us know that we can park across from them and they’ll go ahead and validate our parking. We ended up buying coffee at a local shop and they were nice enough to validate our parking for us.
Our tour was led by First Mate Tracy and Captain Jim. Tracy was an amazing person! She was personable and made our tour fun, full with facts and jokes. When we finally got into the water and it was calm she walked throughout the bus handing hats to everyone and asking if we would all like for her to take pictures for us.
The tour was nice, but it was a bit hard to hear everything that our First Mate was saying. Being able to see seals up close and personal was nice too (the smell wasn’t the greatest though…). It’s a nice tour to take the kids on and I feel like it’d be something fun to share with out of town people.
Place rating: 4
Daly City, CA
We had a great day at the SEAL tour. My fiancé first saw this type of tour when we were looking for things to do in Seattle. They have DUCK tours there, which are a little smaller and are converted military vehicles. SEAL tours are larger. So, I booked plane tickets for the day and SEAL tour tickets.
Charlie was the captain and Jerry was the first mate. They were very entertaining and the tour went by, swimmingly (ha.ha) as we obtained some knowledge of the San Diego city.
There are a few things I’d comment on to improve the experience.
* Pass around the photos. We had the luxury of sitting up front, but for those in the back, no way they’d be able to see the pictures Jerry was talking about.
* The website said people could drive the SEAL but this was never offered. I’d address if people can or can’t in the beginning so those who read the website won’t have expectations
* Offer a coupon once in awhile. Forty a pop is pricy!
Besides, those things, it was a great, fun, time. Jerry even passed around chocolates for us. How nice! Also, some people below commented on driver safety. I found Charlie to be a very safe driver. I doubt he was the one mentioned in the other reviews as there are many DUCKs driving around.
Place rating: 1
El Cajon, CA
I can’t go any higher on stars because right when we started the tour the driver was driving to close the right and hit a tour bus and really scared us all. My kids were very excited prior to incident, it was our first time for all of us. We waited in the bus for 20minutes when we decided to get off and just get our money back. We literally just moved a few hundred feet. It really sucked because my kids were looking forward to it. The Operation Manager stopped by and was asking everyone if we were staying another day and offering them free trolley passes, but for those of us that didn’t have plans to stay were not offer anything. Not good customer service. We decided to get off and get our money back, which we did. My wife and kids didn’t feel safe anymore. Has a father I really wanted my kids to enjoy this trip and see the seal. Unfortunately I write this review for the lack of customer service they gave, and the lack of interest of them to keep us happy and still enjoy the trip.
Place rating: 4
Laguna Niguel, CA
Need more driver training The driver of the «boat» on Saturday, September 12 in the afternoon was dangerous. He came very close to hitting cyclists on multiple occasions. He did not appear to have a feel for the dimensions of the vehicle.
After I wrote a negative review based on unsafe driving the business responded and assured action. I Therefore upgraded my rating.
Place rating: 5
Daly City, CA
Capt T.O. Murphy and First Mate Tracy were awesome. My hubby and I are here on vacation and are so glad we took this tour. It was nice to tour and see some of the sights we want to visit. We had a great time and were very entertained by Tracy. I would definitely do this tour again great for families. The ladies at the ticket boot are vey nice too. Over all great must do!
Place rating: 4
Indianapolis, IN
Wanted to show our new Marine some of the sights. This was a good way to be able to do that. We had a great tour guide and driver. Learned some interesting tidbits and enjoyed getting out on the water.
Place rating: 4
Pittsburgh, PA
A friend of ours suggested checking out the San Diego Seal Tour, since we were visiting for the week and I decided to check it out. A little tip– if you order your tickets online, you save about $ 4 a ticket. If you buy them at the booth, they are $ 39 a ticket and they are $ 35.10 online. We ordered them online and didn’t print out tickets-​which wasn’t a problem at all. It is suggested that you arrive a half hour before your tour starts and I highly suggest this as well. You are given a card when you check in that has a number on it. This number shows what place in line you are when entering the boat. If you don’t check in until 5 minutes before the tour leaves, there is a good chance you won’t have a «window seat». We checked in about 20 minutes beforehand and had no problem getting a good seat. This tour is very similar to the «Just Ducky Tour» in Pittsburgh– it’s a land and water tour. Our tour guide and «captain» were very friendly and told us awesome tips and facts about San Diego as we drove along. The best part of the tour, of course, was being in the water. We spent a little under an hour on the water. There were some opportunities for pictures, but I honestly wish there could have been more. We also were able to get an AWESOME view of the sea lions on this tour– my favorite part of the entire experience.
Overall, $ 35-​$ 39 might seem a bit pricey for a 90 minute tour of San Diego, but it was worth it for us. We had a great time!
Place rating: 5
San Diego, CA
This tour was so fun! Our tour guides, Tracy and Jim, we’re awesome. It was longer than I thought, meaning it felt like a very long tour rather than feeling short. The 90 minute tour starts in Seaport Village (right by Harbor House), drives down Harbor Blvd past Spanish Landing and into the water. You’re in the boat for quite some time and go all the way out into the bay where you will see tons of seals. It’s worth the money for sure!
Place rating: 5
Scottsdale, AZ
Totally loved this tour today. Took my 4 year old with 2 grown ups and not only were the adults happy, my 4 yr old LOVED it (and it’s tough for him to keep his attention… he was captivated). Our guide, David, was spectacular… funny, knowledgeable and interesting. He was informed about both historical and current events and knew tons about the military as well.
I recommend the tour to anyone seeing SD for the first time or to someone who is local and wants to learn more about the history of SD. The land/​water mix made it that much more interesting.
We will recommend it to friends!
Place rating: 4
Overland Park, KS
My 10yo and I took this excursion and had a great time. Captain Wheels and First Mate Diego were in charge and kept it lively with humor, fun music interesting facts as we came across various San Diego buildings, ships, helicopters, etc. We were able to get close to seals (they were quite vocal — not sure if they were showing off or telling us to move along!), pelicans and other coastal birds. I was glad to read another Unilocalers tip to tie my hair back as it is quite breezy on the tour which felt great. It was a little pricey even after 10% online discount but well done, and we would do it again!
Place rating: 3
San Diego, CA
My 9 year old nephew was in town so we took this tour. It’s a 90 minute tour starting at Embarcadero through Pt. Loma and into the harbor! Amazing how you go straight from the street right into the water! My nephew was the first to spot a couple Dolphins! We also got to see a bunch of sea lions. We were also lucky enough to see a Missile Carrier pulling into port as well as a car carrier pulling out… it just dropped off 5000 vehicles (yes, it’s THAT big) to dealerships throughout town!
We got discount tickets but not sure if it would be worth the regular $ 44 price tag.
Place rating: 2
Tarzana, Los Angeles, CA
Very nice stuff but the tour itself NOT worth $ 39 per person. We were on the water for max 45 minutes… We sailed to where the seals sunned (which took about 15 mins) then watched the seals for maybe 10 minutes at most and sailed right back. That’s it. The 1st mate (Hollywood) was very nice and shared a few interesting facts and a bit of SD history but nothing extraordinary. Basically everything you see on this tour you can discover on your own.
I recommend it if you have a promo or want to spend a chill afternoon on the water. If you want to see marine mammals up close you are better off visiting La Jolla Beach.
Place rating: 5
Puyallup, WA
Awesome informative tour! Hit all the major points of this great city. Captain Merten ad 1st Mate Tracy were wonderful and friendly. Highly recommend this tour especially if Merten and Tracy are onboard!!! Five stars!
Place rating: 5
Simi Valley, CA
Very nice tour very informative information we ported in Sea Port Village & off we went nice ride through town with our tour guide pointing out points of intrest. But the most amazing part was when we went from four wheels to boat! It was so calming & relaxing only saw seals was hoping to see dolphins but no luck. But it is a seal tour. I would def recommend this tour to friends & family!
Place rating: 4
San Diego, CA
I loved the guide — Tracy. It’s a pretty uneventful tour — great if you want to have a lazy afternoon on the water.
Place rating: 5
Harrisburg, NC
We did this tour today and it was great. Wheels was our Captain and David our guide and they both did a great job. I was very impressed with the amount of information David gave out and being our first time in San Diego we learned so much we felt we knew more than our daughter who has lived here almost a year now. They are going to do the tour now just for the information!
My 5 year old loved seeing the seals and sea lions and I loved learning the military history of the San Diego area. If you are here visiting or new to the area this a must do! Thoroughly enjoyed it!
Place rating: 3
Elk Grove, CA
I was with a couple of friends who wanted to take this tour. It was $ 39 per person and the tour lasts about 90 minutes, 30 on land and 60 in the water is what they tell you. It was more 45⁄45 in my opinion as it didn’t seem that we were in the water that long.
We took the tour that left from Seaport Village. If you want to go, I suggest you purchase your tickets ahead of time. We tried to buy our tickets about 30 minutes before the tour started and it was sold out… and this was on a Friday at 1:00 pm. They told us to hang out for a little bit and if some people don’t show up they could get us in. Lucky for us, there were some no shows. By the time the tour left there were still about 5 seats left.
Our driver was Captain Jim and First Mate was Tracy. They were decent but nothing special. I learned a little bit of history.
The tour took us along the water to Shelter island where we entered the water. It wasn’t anything that we could not see from land. We didnt go very far and got to see where the seals sunned themselves and then back to land. We did luck out and saw some dolphins. It was funny because the while tour group were pointing and taking pictures of the dolphins but the captain and first mate were clueless and did not even notice them since they were faced the other way and talking with each other.
I would have given this tour two stars but my companions, who have not been to San Diego before really liked it so I am bumping it up to three.
Place rating: 5
San Diego, CA
Love this tour its so fun a cheap and if ur a sd native and u buy our ticket at old town ticket station u get 2 people for 39 $ that’s a deal instead of 39per person so I advise u to go on this tour and its kid friendly