Where can I swim with dolphins in Australia?

There are several options if you want to swim with dolphins in Australia. Destinations with dolphin swimming cruises include Adelaide, Kangaroo Island, Rockingham, Bunbury, the Mornington Peninsula near Melbourne and Port Stephens near Sydney.

Complete guide to swimming with dolphins in Australia

There are dozens of places where you can see dolphins in Australia, but only a select few where you can get in the water with them. Dolphin-watching boat tour operators require special licences to operate swimming with dolphins experiences, and the criteria are stringent. There are rules on how close the boats are allowed to get, and touching the dolphins is strictly prohibited. However, the following operators have passed the tests. Australia Travel Questions believes this to be a complete list of Australian dolphin swimming operators at the time of publishing. Please email or contact via Facebook, if any others are missing.

Swimming with dolphins in South Australia

Perhaps the easiest place to swim with dolphins in Australia is Adelaide, where Temptation Sailing operates early morning dolphin-swimming cruises from the marina in beachside Glenelg.

Elsewhere in South Australia, the Kangaroo Island Ocean Safari has less of an emphasis on the dolphins and more on the seals. Departing from Penneshaw, the two hour snorkelling safari is honest in saying the animals seen each day are different. But they get in for a swim with the dolphins if they see them. Competing Kangaroo Island dolphin swim operator Kangaroo Island Marine Adventures has a longer three hour tour. This dolphin cruise guarantees sightings, and puts more of a focus on swimming with Flipper and pals. The Kangaroo Island ferry leaves from Cape Jervis on the Fleurieu Peninsula.

Swim with dolphins in Australia: Victoria

Near Melbourne, there are two options, both operating from Sorrento on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula. Moonraker Dolphin Swims lets small groups of ten slide into the water with the dolphin pods of Port Phillip Bay. There’s also a good chance of seeing weedy sea dragons and seals, with the tours operating between October and May. Polperro Dolphin Swims is a competing Mornington Peninsula dolphin swim operation departing from the same location.

It’s also possible to go swimming with seals from Sorrento, which is where the Queenscliff ferry departs from.

Dolphin swims in Western Australia

In Western Australia, Perth Wildlife Encounters runs dolphin-swimming trips from Rockingham, about 45 minutes drive south of Perth. Approximately 200 dolphins live around Rockingham’s bays and islands – it usually takes between 20 minutes and an hour for the crew to locate them. If you don’t get to see the dolphins, you’re allowed to try again another day for free.

Between November and May, it’s also possible to swim with dolphins in Koombana Bay, Bunbury. This is further from Perth – a 170km drive south. But it’s also home to the long-standing, informative Dolphin Discovery Centre, which runs the tours. This makes it a lot more educational than most dolphin-swimming tours.

Swim with dolphins in Australia: New South Wales

Port Stephens, around two-and-a-half north of Sydney is well-known for its dolphin-watching cruises. Bottlenose dolphins like to hang out in the sheltered waters of the bay. But Dolphin Swim Australia operates a five hour Port Stephens dolphin swimming tour that allows visitors to get in the water. Participants hang on to a rope that is pulled by the boat. This allows them to keep pace with inquisitive dolphins that swim alongside.

The major snag is that these tours leave from d’Albora Marina at 5am – it’s not possible to do this as a day trip from Sydney, and you’ll have to stay in or around Nelson Bay.

Swimming with captive dolphins is really not the same thing. But should you choose to so, the experience is available at the Dolphin Marine Conservation Park in Coffs Harbour. The same applies at Seaworld on Queensland’s Gold Coast.

Other dolphin encounters in Australia

It’s not quite swimming with dolphins, but in Byron Bay, New South Wales, you can go kayaking with dolphins. Cape Byron Kayaks and Go Sea Kayak Byron Bay offer tours. Epic Ocean Adventures does something very similar in Rainbow Beach, Queensland. The same applies to Dolphin Sanctuary Kayak Tours around Garden Island near Adelaide. If in Melbourne, Sea Kayak Australia’s dolphin kayaking tour on Port Phillip Bay from the beach at Sorrento is the best bet.

There are also opportunities to hand-feed wild dolphins from the beach at Monkey Mia in Shark Bay, Western Australia. This is similar at the Tangalooma Resort on Moreton Island near Brisbane in Queensland, where you can also snorkel around shipwrecks. A lesser-known option for wild dolphin feeding is at the Barnacles Dolphin Centre in Tin Can Bay, three hours north of Brisbane.