Nuku'alofa: where you can swim with humpback whales

Capital of the only Polynesian kingdom never colonized, Nuku'alofa is one of the world's few places where it is possible to swim alongside humpback whales.

The center, gateway to swim alongside humpback whales, can be comfortably visited by taxi or local minibus.

The Royal Palace of Tonga, a Victorian wooden residence built in 1867, remains the symbol of the world's oldest continuous monarchy.

A few steps away, the Talamahu market, the city's main covered market, sells kava root, tropical fruit and traditional Tongan crafts.

Continuing along the coast you reach the Blowholes of Houma, where the ocean crashes against fossil coral formations creating water jets several metres high.

Far offshore, guided tours allow you to swim alongside humpback whales that migrate to Tonga's warm waters annually to give birth.

Tonga remains the only Polynesian country to never have been formally colonized by a foreign power, maintaining continuously its own monarchy from the nineteenth century to today.

Swimming with humpback whales, permitted in Tonga unlike many other countries that prohibit close contact with these cetaceans, attracts snorkeling enthusiasts from around the world every year between July and October.