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In this edition of a head to head men’s fragrance match up, we have the ever popular Nautica Voyage vs. Voyage Sport, it’s later released flanker fragrance. Does Sport carry on the Voyage name and surpass the original or does it flop completely?
Which smells better? Does Voyage Sport have good performance? Read below for my full take on these two inexpensive colognes.
Tale of the Tape
Nautica Voyage
Notes include: apple, musk, cedar, lotus, amber, mimosa, and oak moss
Click here to try: Nautica Voyage Eau de Toilette Spray for Men, 3.4 oz
Read my original review: Nautica Voyage Review
Nautica Voyage Sport
Notes include: sea spray accord, citrus zest, coriander, palm leaves, green peppercorn, apple, Brazil wood, vetiver
Click here to try: NAUTICA Voyage Sport Eau de Toilette Spray, 3.4 Fluid Ounce
Read my review: Voyage Sport
Opening
The original Voyage has a rather cold, crisp aroma that you would usually associated with a chilled cucumber. The composition opens with apple, mimosa, and musk notes.
The musk is pretty prominent and Voyage has a green/floral undertone of dewy oak moss, lotus, and that mimosa. The opening is actually my least favorite part of the fragrance, but it does get better.
Voyage Sport, doesn’t do itself any favors in the head to head, with its own opening. It’s kind of messy and runs together. What I get is citrus notes, musk, and some of that familiar alcohol smell from cheaper colognes.
It settles down after a few minutes and the citrus is joined by spice of coriander and green peppercorn. It has some salt water oceanic elements, spice, and that citrus zest.
Which is better? Even if it isn’t my favorite, I’ll take the original Voyage over sport in the one. It’s just much more pleasant and well done, than Sport, which takes a while to work itself out.
Edge: Voyage
Projection
Nautica Voyage isn’t a beast in terms of sillage, it’s moderate, but performs well overall for a scent of this category and price. Meanwhile, Sport is just mediocre.
On me, it’s pretty much just a skin scent, and doesn’t project at all. Shame. This has happened with a lot of the Voyage flankers, I wish that they could have some kind of close to equal performance.
Edge: Voyage
Longevity
At its absolute best the original Voyage nets me about 7 hours of wear. Usually it’ll be between 5-7 hours. Sport, goes 3-4 hours on my skin and doesn’t project.
Again, that disparity in performance. This is why the original Voyage is such a good value play.
Edge: Voyage
Versatility
Nautica Voyage is a daytime casual or school wear cologne for spring/summer. It’s a light daily wear, that you don’t have to put much thought into, as it is safe a non-offensive.
Voyage Sport aims to hit the same notes as its predecessor. No real advantage as to when either should be worn.
Edge: Push
Overall Scent
To me, this isn’t even really much of a contest at all. Voyage is much better than Sport is, on every level. I actually kind of like how Voyage Sport smells when it dries down, but its performance was just lacking.
It could have been a nice aquatic variant of the original, but just couldn’t get its act together.
Voyage still has its unique blend versus most anything else out in the market. Particularly, at this price point.
I like Voyage’s freshness, slightly aquatic vibe, and use of floral notes. Even if, that opening act isn’t great. For what it costs, Nautica Voyage has always been a steal. It’s one of the top cheap scents for guys. Most of its flanker follow-ups, really fail to deliver on the standard it set.
If Voyage Sport, had better performance, it would honestly be a solid cheapie. I really liked what they were going for, but it’s just poor execution. There were some interesting things going on there.
Even if that were the case, I still think that Voyage smells better, and since it does have good performance it is the clear winner.
Winner: Nautica Voyage
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Best Men’s Colognes started back in 2013, as a way to share my learning experiences with different fragrances, as I dove head first into the hobby. Since then, I have written hundreds of reviews and other pages about perfumes and colognes.