A trip with a cargo ship was a long-cherished dream of mine and I’m really, really glad I did it 🙂 And I would defintely go again when time, money and destination match :).
The decision for this specific trip (from France on a French-flagged ship to French speaking islands and back) was a combination of coincidence (time, destination), choice for good food (French cuisine) and my „Why the heck not? It can’t be that bad“ mentality.
In the end this trip was defintely memorable ;).
But between fantastic highlights, interesting encounters and experiences, there were also pretty tough days. The biggest challenge being by far the language barrier.
I did learn French at school (2 long years) but never practiced, so my knowledge is basically non-existent.
Usually, I’m used to spending time on my own but spending time in a group of people and not being able to communicate easily was harder than I expected and took quite a toll on my self-esteem.
As you can noticeably read in my posts.
But I was extremely lucky to meet people who were willing to spend their precious free time talking to me (in English) and including me in their activities. A very big Thank You for that!
Also for our captain who organized so many activities for the crew (and me). I heard that that’s not necessarily a given.
In any case, if you think about joining a cargo ship „cruise“ yourself, prepare for:
- no luxury…the ship is a work place and not a tourist boat
- high costs: you pay more or less the same price as for a regular cruise but without the entertainment or luxury; instead: less people, more dirt and „unusual“ experiences 🙂
- lots of free time, without internet and cell phone reception (I assume that is still the case in 2026)
- self-organization (e.g. for trips on land) and
- flexibility since all activities have to be aligned to the ship’s schedule which is permanently changing; also the sailing date is only fixed a few days before the departure
If that still sounds compelling to you, I can recommend Frachtschiffreisen Pfeiffer (https://frachtschiffreisen-pfeiffer.de/) who offer a wide variety of cargo ship cruises and did a great job at organizing the trip and answering my questions.
Or you can start reading about my experiences as a first step 😉
