Freighter Travel Passenger Berths: Can You Still Sail on a Cargo Ship?

The romantic version of freighter travel, where you buy a cabin on a working container ship and cross an ocean with eleven other people, is mostly gone. Most of the articles saying otherwise were written before 2020 and nobody took them down.

So the honest answer to the freighter travel passenger question is a heavily qualified yes. Cargo ships that carry paying passengers still exist, but almost none of them are the deep-sea box boats people picture, and the ones that survive are working island supply ships rather than slow-travel novelties.

My quick take

If your dream is Rotterdam to Singapore on a 400 meter container ship with a bunk near the officers, I would let that one go. The handful of lines that still list it quote so rarely, and cancel so often, that planning a trip around it is a way to waste a year.

What I would do instead is chase the real thing under a different name. Passenger-cargo ships on island routes deliver exactly the experience people want from freighters: cargo work in the hold, a small passenger list, ports no cruise ship calls at, and a schedule that bends to the weather.

The thing I would not do is send deposits to a broker for a sailing more than six months out on a genuine cargo ship. Freighter schedules are commercial documents, not promises, and your cabin is the first thing that disappears when the charterer changes the rotation.

The quick facts

• The twelve rule: a ship carrying more than twelve passengers is legally a passenger ship. EU Directive 2009/45/EC puts it in exactly those words, and the same threshold runs through international convention practice, which is why cargo ships cap out at twelve berths.
• Why that matters: crossing twelve triggers a different certification, survey and crewing regime. No operator will rebuild a container ship to passenger standards for thirteen fares.
• Port security: the ISPS Code has been mandatory under SOLAS chapter XI-2 since 1 July 2004, according to the International Maritime Organization. Container terminals are restricted areas, and every passenger movement through one needs an escort and paperwork.
• No doctor: under EU Directive 92/29/EEC, a vessel only has to carry a doctor if it has a crew of 100 or more and sails international voyages of more than three days. A freighter carries around twenty people, so there is no doctor and no infirmary worth the name.
• What you will be asked for: a fitness-to-travel certificate signed by a doctor is standard, as is medical insurance with evacuation and repatriation cover. Pitcairn, for one, sets a hard floor of US$500,000 of medevac cover.
• Age limits: most operators of genuine cargo berths apply an upper age cut-off, frequently in the seventies, and the exact number varies by ship and insurer. Ask before you plan, because it is not usually negotiable.
• Schedules: there is no arrival guarantee, no compensation for a missed connection, and no obligation to call at any advertised port. Build a week of slack into whatever you book at the far end.
• Meals: you eat what the crew eats, at the officers’ sitting, at fixed times. There is no menu and no dietary accommodation beyond what the cook already has in the freezer.

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Why the freighter travel passenger berth mostly vanished

The common explanation is that lines dropped passengers during the pandemic and never bothered to restart. That is true as far as it goes, but it skips the reasons the restart never happened.

The first is crew. A cargo ship’s officers are certificated to run a cargo ship, and the moment fare-paying civilians are aboard, the company inherits duties around safety familiarization, muster, and care of people who cannot help themselves in an emergency.

The second is insurance. Protection and indemnity cover for passengers is priced and underwritten separately from cargo liability, and a single medical evacuation from mid-ocean can cost more than a year of fares.

The third is the terminal. Since the ISPS Code came in, a container terminal is a controlled security zone with gate procedures designed for truck drivers and stevedores, not for a retired couple with suitcases wanting to walk to town.

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What actually still exists

The category that survived is the passenger-cargo ship on a route where the cargo is the point. These are ships that exist because an island needs flour, fuel and building materials, and the passengers ride along in the space left over.

French Polynesia has the best-known example. The Aranui is a 126 meter ship, around 413 feet, under the French flag, carrying about 230 passengers in 103 cabins alongside roughly 1,226 tons of freight, which makes it a certified passenger ship rather than a freighter with spare bunks.

The second surviving category is the coastal and short-sea run. Quebec’s Lower North Shore is served by the Bella Desgagnes, which Relais Nordik describes as the official transporter of vehicles and merchandise for Anticosti Island and the coast, running Rimouski to Blanc-Sablon with twelve possible stopovers.

Norway’s coastal route is the same idea at a larger scale. The Norwegian Coastal Express has run since 1893 and still works a Bergen to Kirkenes round trip of 34 ports in twelve days, with local passengers hopping on for a single leg.

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The rules that never went away

A doctor-signed fitness certificate is standard because there is nobody aboard qualified to manage a deteriorating passenger. The master’s realistic options are a diversion, a helicopter if you are close enough to a coast, or several days of first aid by radio.

Insurance is the requirement people underestimate, and deviation cover is the half that standard travel policies do not touch. Pitcairn Islands Tourism makes medical insurance compulsory and requires evacuation cover of at least US$500,000, which tells you what a serious diversion costs.

Upper age limits exist for the same reason, and they are set by underwriters rather than by the shipping company being unkind. They are usually a firm number rather than a case-by-case judgment, so establish it before you get attached to the idea.

And you will eat with the officers, at their times, in their mess. People either love this part or discover on day three that they have nothing to say to a second engineer at 07:00.

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The passages I would actually look at

These are the routes where the cargo is genuine and the passenger side is real enough to book. Roughly in order of how close each gets to the old freighter experience.

• Pitcairn on the Silver Supporter: the supply ship runs from Rikitea in Mangareva, with a final ocean crossing of about 32 hours. Pitcairn Islands Tourism quotes NZ$6,000 per person return from Mangareva, excluding airfares and landing fees.
• The Marquesas on the Aranui: twelve-day round trips out of Tahiti, with cargo worked at every island and passengers landed by boat. It is the most comfortable version of this idea and the easiest to book from abroad.
• Quebec’s Lower North Shore: Rimouski to Blanc-Sablon on the Bella Desgagnes, calling at communities the road does not reach. Cabins are limited and the winter version is a very different trip from the summer one.
• The Norwegian coast, port to port: book a single leg rather than the full twelve-day loop and you are traveling with commuters and freight. Buying it as a cruise costs several times as much for the same water.
• Chilean Patagonia by cargo ferry: the Puerto Montt to Puerto Natales run through the fjords is a working freight service that sells passenger space. Expect functional accommodation and a schedule that answers to weather in the Golfo de Penas.
• Greenland’s west coast: the coastal ship between settlements carries locals, luggage and tourists in the same lounges. It is transport first, which is exactly the point.
• Short-sea ro-ro in the Mediterranean and the Atlantic: car and freight carriers have historically sold a small number of cabins. I could not verify current passenger availability from an operator’s own site while writing this, so treat any listing you find as a quote request rather than a schedule.

Fun fact: the most famous passenger-carrying working ship of all, the Royal Mail Ship St Helena, was made redundant by an airport, and the St Helena Government records that commercial flights from Johannesburg began on 14 October 2017. The island’s own travel guidance now lists sea arrivals as cruise ships and yachts only, with no scheduled passenger sailing at all.

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How I would actually decide

Start by working out which part of the fantasy you are chasing. If it is the ocean and the boredom, a repositioning crossing on a proper ship gives you eight sea days for less money and with a doctor aboard.

If it is the cargo, the derricks and the islands, then a passenger-cargo ship is your answer and you should stop looking at container lines entirely. That is a different vacation from a crossing and it is the one most freighter romantics actually want.

If it is specifically the twelve-passenger cargo ship, get a written answer from an operator about a named ship and a named month before booking flights. The action I would take today is duller: ask your GP the price of a fitness-to-travel certificate, and ask your insurer in writing whether the policy covers repatriation from a ship at sea.

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A realistic word on accessibility

This is the area where I would be bluntest. Genuine cargo ships are close to unusable if you have limited mobility, and no operator will pretend otherwise.

Accommodation is reached by steep internal stairs, doorways have coamings you step over, and elevators either do not exist or serve two decks out of seven. Gangways at cargo berths are steeper than cruise gangways and are set by the tide and the freeboard, not by anyone’s comfort.

The passenger-cargo ships are better but still not equivalent to a cruise ship. Landings at small islands are often made by open boat or barge, and being lifted between a moving boat and a jetty is a real physical requirement rather than a formality.

The coastal services are the workable end of the range, because they berth at proper quays with ramps for vehicles. If step-free access matters, the Norwegian and Quebec routes are the ones to look at, and I would still confirm the specific ship rather than the brochure.

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When to go, and the weather

Weather matters more here than on a cruise, because a working ship will sit and wait for a berth or a swell in a way a cruise itinerary cannot. Your schedule risk peaks exactly when the seas are worst.

In French Polynesia the ships run year-round, with air temperatures typically around 26 to 30 Celsius, roughly 79 to 86 Fahrenheit. The wetter, stickier months run from November to April, and that is also the cyclone window in the South Pacific.

On the Quebec North Shore and in Greenland the season shapes everything, with summer sailings in long daylight and winter sailings through ice and dark. Summer highs of 15 to 20 Celsius, around 59 to 68 Fahrenheit, sit alongside winter conditions well below freezing.

Northern Norway runs all year and is milder than its latitude suggests, but the winter coastal weather between Bodo and Kirkenes is genuinely rough. If you are prone to seasickness, take the southern legs in summer and treat the Barents Sea in February as a separate life choice.

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Quick answers

Can you still travel by container ship as a passenger?
Very rarely, and not reliably enough to plan around. Most major container lines stopped carrying passengers around 2020 and have not resumed, for insurance, crewing and terminal security reasons.

Why do freighters only take twelve passengers?
Because carrying more than twelve makes a ship a passenger ship in law, with a completely different certification and survey regime. EU Directive 2009/45/EC states the threshold in exactly those terms.

Is there a doctor on a freighter?
No. A doctor is only legally required on vessels with a crew of 100 or more on international voyages over three days, and a freighter carries about twenty people.

Is freighter travel cheaper than cruising?
Almost never, once you count positioning flights and the open-jaw airfare at the far end. The daily rate looks reasonable and the total trip usually does not.

What happens if the ship changes its schedule?
You absorb it. There is no arrival guarantee, no obligation to call at an advertised port, and no compensation for the connection you miss.

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The last word

Freighter travel did not die so much as get quietly reclassified. The voyages that mattered are still sailing, but they are sold as island supply runs and coastal services rather than as cargo-ship adventures.

If the Pacific version is what you are after, my guide to the Aranui and the Marquesas run is the place to start, and the wider French Polynesia cruise ports overview explains how the islands connect. Both are more useful than another decade-old freighter listing.

If what you actually want is the long empty crossing, read my comparison of a transatlantic crossing against a repositioning cruise first. And if you want the working-ship feeling at the cheapest possible price, the Navimag run through the Chilean fjords delivers it with the paint smell included.

The last true mail ship passage, to Jamestown on St Helena, ended because the island got an airport and the world got faster. That is the whole story of freighter travel in one sentence, and the ships that are left survive because there is still something in the hold that has to get there.