RS Travel Guide recommends Netto-Bådene cruise over Stromma tours based on price. The Stromma tours' website offers reservations, whereas Netto seems to only offers reservations for larger groups. Could not find a way to make a reservation for 2 people.
Any problem walking up with no reservations and getting on a Netto tour? Looking for late morning 25 July tour. Would appreciate your experience with either of these companies.
We took a canal tour in September 2023, so I can’t say what the demand would be in late July, but I’ll share a bit about our experience. We opted for Netto based on Rick’s guidebook advice, but I don’t recall now whether it was because of price, demand and crowds, convenience of the departure dock, or other reasons. It seems to me the deciding factor might’ve been the size of boats, but I can’t say now for sure. I do believe the Stromma boats we saw seemed bigger (longer and/or wider), with more passengers, and had roofs, which looked more closed-in and affording less of a view.
We’d planned on catching a boat at what Rick said was Neto’s less/busy dock on the Holmens Kanal, adjacent to and immediately west of the Holmen Church. The small dock was there, but a note said boats weren’t operating from there at the time.
So we headed to what I think must be their “main” dock, on the Nyhavn canal. There was a bit of a line, and we got in it. I don’t remember now how or where we paid for the canal tour, whether it was while in line, or at the front of the line before boarding, or if one of us kept our place in the line while the other went to a payment spot. There wasn’t any big ticket office, of that I’m sure. And we hadn’t reserved anything ahead of time. The boat was roofless, but there was no chance of rain, and the sun wasn’t overwhelmingly hot.
The tour took us around sights and under very low bridges, plus a couple of very tight turns while navigating the canals, and a guide made live descriptions of what we were passing, in Danish and then English. There weren’t headphones, but little speakers attached to the gunnel (inside wall) of the boat.
The problem was some of the fellow passengers around us. Maybe you’d never get this, but we were in the right place at the wrong time. As we got to the front of the waiting line, with people behind us who were going to have to wait for the next boat, there were exactly 2 open seats left on the boat that was about to depart, in the next-to-very-back-row. We gladly climbed aboard, catching the boat without having to wait further.
Well, I’d seen that people in the vicinity of those open seats were partaking in adult beverages as we’d stood in the line above the canal, overlooking the boat. I figured maybe the boat sold beer onboard, but they’d brought their beer on for their own consumption. I figured they were just enjoying the nice weather and a chance for some refreshment during their tour. So there were 4 or 5 guys behind us to the right, and my guess is that this wasn’t their first round of the day. There were also 2 young women sitting immediately behind us, with wine glasses and more than one bottle of bubbly. They got louder and louder as they all continued to imbibe, with the girls uncorking a second bottle, and clinking glasses with a loud Danish “cheers” every couple of minutes. Both groups talked almost constantly, which made it nearly impossible to hear what the announcer guide was saying. It seemed like they were there just for a sailing party, not a guided sightseeing canal tour. Asking more than once for them to please let us hear the narration didn’t do much to quiet them down for long. Then the two groups started yakking between each other, and the volume continued to increase. I think one other passenger said something to them, but you can’t reason with a rude drunk. The tour was scenic, but the loud people around us diminished the quality of the tour. If you see people downing alcoholic drinks on your boat, find a different place to sit!
If you feel adventurous you can drive your own boat (https://goboat.dk/en), but you will have to provide your own commentary.
We enjoyed Stromma. I was surprised at how relaxing and enjoyable it was - it was not my pick for an activity. I’m glad I listened to my companion!
As far as deciding between the two companies, we ended up at the Stromma kiosk and I was too tired to walk further to Netto where we could have had a reduced price with the Copenhagen Card. If Netto still has offers for Card holders, I wonder if that might increase the walk-up traffic???
I don’t know the price difference, but peace of mind if you want a reserved spot on Stromma might be worth something to you. Individual choice - RS tends to emphasize budget. This may not be relevant for every traveler for every travel choice.
I was in Copenhagen last month and at the Nyhavn dock, Stromma accepted the Copenhagen card but Netto did not.
We had fun on this!
https://www.heycaptain.dk
Kim
