Helsinski Hop On Hop Bus/Boat Tours

[NewtoCruising2011]

There are two Helsinki Hop On Hop Off Bus/Boat Tours. One has red buses. The other has blue buses. Any advice as to which is preferable?

 

Thanks!

[eandj]

Go over to the EUROPE ports of call board. Northern/Baltic threads are full of all kinds of hints and info from other cruisers and resident experts.

[NewtoCruising2011]

Thank you for this advice!

[Jonza]

There are two HoHo bus operators in Helsinki: CityTour and Strömma. CityTour uses red buses and also uses the REDBuses brand in some of their marketing. Strömma runs green buses under the Open Top Tours brand. As far as i know there are no blue HoHo:s, but pretty much all the public buses are blue.

 

There are no HoHo boats in Helsinki, but both HoHo bus companies sell a ticket combining the bus with a sightseeing boat ride lasting approximately 1.5 hours.

 

Here are some details:

 

CityTour - REDBuses - red

• Website: http://www.citytour.fi/
  
• Price for HoHo bus: 25 € (kids 0-14 free)
  
• Price for HoHo bus + boat tour: 35 €
  
• Frequency of buses: 10-16 every 30 minutes
  
• Frequency of boats: 11-19 once per hour
  

 

 

Strömma - Open Top Tours - green

• Website: http://www.stromma.fi/en/
  
• Price for HoHo bus: 27 € (kids 0-6 free, 7-16 13 €)
  
• Price for HoHo bus + boat tour: 39 €
  
• Frequency of buses: 10-16 every 30-45 minutes
  
• Frequency of boats: 10:30-18:30 once per hour
  

 

Basically the offers are very similar. The HoHo buses run to pretty much the same attractions, but take slightly different routes (maps available on websites). Strömma has also the map of the boat route on their website where CityTour does not. CityTour has an optional buffet on their boat where as Strömma has a small cafe.

[cleo30]

We just used Stromma for 3 cities- Copenhagen Stockholm and Helsinki. we got a 20% discount on each of the bookings. it was pretty good except for Copenhagen which was haphazard and really a waste of time. For Helsinki it was a good tour covering most of the highlights and giving a good 'fee'of the city.We also bought tickets for a scenic boat tour at the last minute in Helsinki for 10 euro each i think . the ride lasted about 1.5 hours and was beautiful. There was a cafe onboard to buy snacks and drinks.