Benagil Cave Tour: Dolphin Watching & Marine Life

Embark on a thrilling 2.5-hour Benagil Caves Guided Boat Tour, where you can watch dolphins, explore stunning rock formations, and swim in crystal-clear waters.

Duration: 2 hours, 30 minutes
Cancellation: 1 day learn more
Highlights
  • 4FH9+V7 Portimão - Enjoy a 2 in 1 boat tour departing from Portimão and lasting up to 2.5 hours. Explore the Algarve coastline and the mesmerizing rock formations, desert beaches and enter the famous Benagil cave. Feel the excitement as you cruise through open waters, searching for dolphins in their natural habitat!

You’ll have the opportunity to explore up to 5-6 caves (depending on tide levels) that dot the coastline, including the breathtaking Benagil Cave. The experienced and multilingual crew will ensure your safety and provide you with fascinating insights into the history, secrets and geology of the stunning rock formations along the way.

As you venture out into the open sea, keep your eyes peeled for the dolphins as they may play and swim around the boat. Although this tour depends on Nature, it is a team effort with other companies equally accredited by the ICNF (Institute for the Conservation of Nature and Forests), thus maximizing the possibilities of sighting.

The most sighted species are the “Common Dolphin” (Delphinus delphis) and the “Bottlenose Dolphin” (Tursiops truncatus). The live guide will interpret the species observed and their behavior and you can even open a species guide on your phone.

For Bird enthusiasts, you can observe various species such as the “Northern Gannet” (Morus bassanus), “European Shag” (Phalacrocorax aristotelis) and the “Peregrine Falcon” (Falco peregrinus).

Before returning to Portimão, you can jump off the boat and swim at a beautiful and tranquil bay, which is chosen on the day based on the sea and weather conditions.

Get ready for an experience of a life time and unforgetable memories!

What's Included
  • Complimentary bottled water
Additional Information

A service of excellence within the maritime tourist area, with a family team passionate about the sea.

Tour of 2h30 with the main objective of the client to enjoy his experience to the fullest.

Learn about the marine species sighted, from a guide app and multilingual guide.

Venture out into open sea and keep eyes peeled searching for cetaceans.

Experience an unforgettable moment as dolphins may play and swim around the boat.

Travel into the heart of Benagil Cave and many other stunning rock formations.

Enjoy swimming in the blue sea and crystalline water at a tranquil bay.

We are fully licensed (AOC/27/2023) and trained for a responsible Cetaceans observation. We follow local legislation & code of conduct to ensure that our activity has the least possible impact, preserving the well-being of dolphins and the integrity of the ecosystem. Wild dolphin can’t be summoned or controlled in nature, but we have 98% success rate in sightings.

Pet Friendly - Our mascot comes on board on most tours. If you have any objections, or want to bring a pet, please contact us.

Location
Restaurante Vista Rio - Hotel Riverside
Cross the railway line, go straight ahead and you have parking on your right side. Or, proceed to the cobbled street, and you find parking on your left side (this area is busier and may be full). Then, walk about 30m to the boarding pier, in front of the restaurant. Wait there for a crew member.
Cancellation Policy

For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.

Customer Ratings
4.9
(92 Ratings)
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Kneiselv
Jul 28, 2024
Who loves nature: Once, and again:-) NEMO Team, you are the best - We, my wife, me and our 11-year-old daughter booked ourselves for this trip because the nature-oriented appealed to us, and not a halli-galli. The time was brought forward at short notice due to the rising wind, which was superbly organized by Ana, the biologist. She later said she wanted passengers to really enjoy the tour and not freeze wet. In dolphin watching we were very lucky and we were able to observe a large herd while Ana was able to tell us so much exciting about the marine world. Their great respect for the dolphins jumped on us and we got angry with other boats that drove too quickly into the dolphin herd to then drive away after a few photos. So it was no surprise that the dolphins knew "our" boat and even accompanied us with jumps on the way back. Afterwards, Ana and Francesco (replacing Ana's husband, who injured himself 2 days earlier while freeing a dolphin from an old fishing net) took a lot of time at the caves because the wind was less rapid than expected. As a result, we saw many breathtakingly beautiful caves, past which other boats passed. Full of all the wonderful impressions we returned after 3 h, grateful for an unforgettable experience, and yes, only thanks to the reviews I chose the Nemo, and yes, if I come back here, it is the Nemo again. THANK YOU Nemo team, and fast recovery to Captain Nemo. And please keep it up:-)
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Daytrip45943047186
Jul 24, 2024
Dolphin watching - The truth is that we have loved the experience, the very pleasant trip and Anne charming Apart from the dolphins we have seen many of the caves of the Algarve
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Climber36206022516
Jul 21, 2024
Team Captain Pedro and Biologist Ana Fantastic! Visits to the Cave and Dolphins ⁇ of the Best! Excellent experience - The views were fantastic! We visited some of the best caves and the most beautiful and old! 😊 during the trip we were able to see Dolphins ⁇ which was excellent! But none of this would be possible without an excellent team! Captain Pedro and Biologist Ana were fantastic! Very attentive and very polite and helpful! To Repeat on the holiday next year 2025 😊💪
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Wolferen
Jul 21, 2024
Beautiful experience - Fantastic experience with good Guide/biologist. Small scale and therefore fun! Seen dolphins and then caves. Was great!
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Siret_m
Jul 13, 2024
I liked that the tour... - I liked that the tour took place in a small group, it was very personal and the team was professional. Highly recommend.
Review provided by Viator
Conduto
Jul 9, 2024
A perfect day ♥️ - An unforgettable day, life in our ocean is beautiful ♥️, Pedro and Ana are the perfect partners, shared their wisdom and respect for our waters with a lot of affection
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Lindeyloo21
Jul 2, 2024
Amazing trip - Wow, wow, wow. This trip was amazing. Seeing the dolphins out in their natural habitat was awe inspiring. The caves were beautiful and the whole trip with so few people in the boat was brilliant. Cannot rate this trip enough.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Brendamcpherson10
Jun 24, 2024
Blessed with wildlife - We are a family of 9. We choose this tour and company because of the positive reviews and the addition of a marine biologist. Booking was easy. Instructions detailed and accurate. Boat very comfortable. Now comes the WOW factor. If we could award 10 stars we would have. Our captain and biologist made this so memorable for us by taking the time to locate the dolphins respecting their environment. We must have seen more than 30 dolphins swimming around our boat…feeding in a large group and then playing within touching distance of us. We felt truly honoured to be so close and really speechless by the encounter. The word amazing is regularly used but warranted on this occasion. The skill and knowledge of the team shone through. We were given additional time to enjoy the dolphins. On the way back we encountered a moonfish which was a rare sighting. We couldn’t believe it. Obviously Dolphins aren’t guaranteed however I have researched many companies and feel this is and was the best option so would highly highly recommend. A member of our party will be tagging photos to the site.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
A8789nfrosek
Jun 23, 2024
Best experience ever - This was one of our favorite experiences while on our vacation. We arrived a bit late as we couldn't find the dirt road to get to the marina but we were able to find parking on the street. They called us and made sure we were still coming but we arrived as the boat was about to leave. The captain and Ana are the best guides. They not only gave very detailed information about the landmarks, safety in the open sea, how to spot dolphins and the amazing Benagil caves, they went beyond the time limit-over an hour and a half. We saw an amazing amount of dophins and they even took us to a secret cave where no other boats go and allowed us to swim into the cave. Will never forget this experience and I would recommend them.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
615karstenn
Jul 11, 2024
We saw tuna, dolohins, a dolohin baby and a minke wale. We had a great tour. - We saw tuna, dolohins, a dolohin baby and a minke wale. We had a great tour. We also had a great tour off the caves and beaches.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
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up to 15 guests
1 Adult
September 2024
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