Helsinki boat tours reviewed
One thing has to sit in front of all six of these reviews. The ferry to Suomenlinna is not on this page, because it is not a tour. It is a tram that floats: run by HSL as part of the city’s public transport, 15 minutes across, every day of the year, paid for with an ordinary AB ticket. Nobody here can sell it to you and nobody should. What is reviewed below are the six things you can book — four sightseeing boats, a combined bus and boat ticket, and a ferry to Estonia — and five of the six do not land anywhere at all.
The six bookings, reviewed
Helsinki Archipelago: Sightseeing Boat Tour
The one most visitors should take, and the one I sent people to from the kiosk most often. It leaves from Market Square, goes out through the channels and comes back to the same quay.
1 hr 30, no landingRead the full review ›
Helsinki: Evening Archipelago Cruise
The longest loop and the lowest rating on this site, across nearly six hundred reviews. There is a reason for both, and in June there is a second reason nobody warns you about.
2 hrs 30, bar on boardRead the full review ›
Helsinki: Archipelago RIB Boat Tour with BBQ Lunch and Sauna
The opposite of a sightseeing loop. A speed boat, life jackets, an island landing, a snack lunch and a public sauna. Twenty-nine reviews, which is a small sample and I will say so twice.
3 hrs 30, lunch and saunaRead the full review ›
Helsinki: Private Boat Tour
Up to six people, a certified skipper, a canopy and closed weather protection. Two different routes with two different meeting points, which is the detail that trips people up.
1–1.5 hrs, your group onlyRead the full review ›
Helsinki: Hop-On Hop-Off Bus & Archipelago Cruise
Two products on one ticket. The boat sails three times a day and the bus stops at four in the afternoon, and your whole day has to be built around those numbers.
Valid one day, bus and boatRead the full review ›
From Helsinki: Return Day Trip Ferry Ticket to Tallinn
Two thousand seven hundred reviews, by a wide margin the best-evidenced thing on this site. It is also not a boat tour of Helsinki, and it leaves from the other side of town.
11–14 hrs, return crossingRead the full review ›How I would use this page
Start by deciding what you want the water to do for you, because these six do very different jobs. If you want to look at Helsinki from the sea for an hour and a half and then get on with your day, that is the archipelago loop. If you want to be out until the light goes soft, that is the evening cruise, with the caveat I put in its review. If you want to get off the boat and into a sauna, the RIB is the only one of the four sightseeing products that lands anywhere. If you want a whole day and another country, that is the ferry to Tallinn, and it is a ferry, not a cruise.
If you have not yet worked out which of those you are, go to which boat tour to choose first and come back. It is a table of situations rather than a ranking, and it will save you reading six pages.
What the ratings do not tell you
They do not tell you the size of the sample. A perfect score on twenty-two reviews and a 4.8 on two thousand seven hundred are not the same statement, and on this page you have both. Where the count is small I say so in the first paragraph of the review rather than leaving it in a footnote.
They do not tell you the season. The sightseeing fleet runs roughly May to September. The bus-and-boat ticket runs 2 May to 30 September and not a day either side. A 4.4 in July is not an offer in November, and if you are planning a late-autumn trip the honest page is boat tours in winter, which tells you that the Suomenlinna ferry and the international ships are what is left.
And they do not tell you the single thing that causes most of the disappointment I watched from the kiosk: a sightseeing boat does not land. It goes out through the channels and brings you back to the quay you left from. People book one expecting to be dropped at Suomenlinna, and are still expecting it when the boat turns. If landing on the fortress is what you came for, you want the public ferry, which is separate, cheaper and running right now.
Where to start
First time in Helsinki, one clear afternoon, no particular plan: read the archipelago cruise review. Travelling in June or July and hoping for a sunset: read the evening cruise review before you book anything, because the sun does not do what you think it does here. Travelling with a group of up to six who all want to talk to each other: the private boat review. Wanting Finland rather than a view of it: the RIB review. Short on time and covering the city on land too: the hop-on hop-off review. Willing to give up an entire day: the Tallinn day trip review.
Off a cruise ship with a sailing time to keep, read arriving on a cruise ship before any of them. The arithmetic there decides it, not the ratings. Everything else about going out on the water here is in the complete guide, and the full list of boats is on the tours page.
Read the departure point on your confirmation, not the name of the tour. Three of these six leave from Market Square, one from Café Marina Bay on Kanavaranta, one from a bus stop, and one from West Harbour Terminal 2 in Jätkäsaari. In nine summers on the quay, the wrong pier caused more missed boats than the weather ever did. Where the boats leave from has all of them.
Frequently asked questions
Which of these boats actually lands on an island?
Two. The RIB tour lands on an island for a snack lunch and a public sauna, and the Tallinn ferry lands in another country. The archipelago loop, the evening cruise, the private boat and the hop-on hop-off cruise all return to the quay they left from. See island hopping if you want to get off somewhere.
Is the Suomenlinna ferry reviewed here?
No, because it is not a tour and nobody sells it as one. It is run by HSL as part of the city’s public transport, leaves from the eastern side of Market Square in front of the Presidential Palace, takes 15 minutes and is covered by an ordinary AB ticket valid 90 minutes. It is explained on its own page.
Are these reviews independent?
Yes. I am not a boat operator, not a ferry line and not a guide. This site earns a commission on bookings made through its links, which is set out in full on the affiliate disclosure. It has not stopped me giving the lowest-rated boat on the site a review that says why.