Unknown to quite a big number of the thousands upon thousands of visitors who tour Sydney annually, the city is also one of the places where one can get the opportunity to see some of the world’s biggest animals – the dolphins and whales. And if you are an animal lover – or generally a lover of nature – and happen to see either of these animals on your tour of Sydney, such a sighting can easily prove to be one of the major highlights of your tour here.

If you however want to make the sighting of dolphins and whales more than an accidental part of your Sydney tour, the place to visit are the city’s Manly beaches – where both these animals are frequently sighted. As it turns out, Whales are members of the same biological family as dolphins, and the two groups of animals often accompany each other.

If you, for instance, happen to be in and around the Manly waters in the colder months of the year, your chances of sighting a dolphin are indeed very high as they tend to move along the ocean’s shoreline in these months in their search for food, and you can get to see them then. When they really feel like it, whales can even be spotted surfing the waves on Manly’s waters.

Some of the dolphin species to be seen in Sydney include the bottlenose dolphin – which is about 4 meters long, the common dolphin – which can grow to be between 2 and 2.5 meters long, and which is the dolphin species most likely to be sighted surfing on the waves. The Humpback Whale – which can grow to almost 20 meters is the largest whale one can see and it tends to be most migratory, making it less common to sight for someone observing from the beaches. Another whale species to be found in Sydney’s waters at various times is the false killer whale – which grows to between five and six meters –and which while considered a modest sized whale (and the commonest in Sydney’s waters), can still make a fantastic sight.

Unlike whales that tend to be perpetually on the move, some species of dolphins have been seen to hang around the same place for a considerable period of time – and for this reason, dolphins are seen at almost any time of the year in some sections of Manly’s waters.

The specific place in the Manly beaches one is likely to see both whales and dolphins is at the section called North Steyne – which is actually the section at the center of Manly’s ocean beach.

History has it that when the British first made it to Sydney, whales could be frequently be sighted at the Sydney Harbor – which has now been pretty much swallowed by the city’s development to the extend that the whales might find the environment here a bit too choky for them.

Alongside whales and dolphins, Sydney also makes a good place to watch other fantastic sea creatures – including seals, albatross, sharks and squid.