§ Ground & sea

freighter travel

also called cargo ship travel · freighter cruise

Booking a limited passenger berth on a cargo ship for long ocean passages.

repositioning cruisedeadhead cruiseferry hoppingfreighter travel
Solid lines are terms people actually mix up with freighter travel. The rest sit in the same subject, slow travel by sea. repositioning cruise · deadhead cruise · ferry hopping

Right, in plain English

Freighter travel means booking one of the handful of passenger berths a cargo ship carries, to ride along on a long ocean crossing. It is a slow, rare alternative to flying for moving yourself across an ocean. Schedules are sparse, and there are often strict rules on age and medical fitness because there is no doctor mid-ocean.

You want to cross an ocean without flying and like the idea of weeks at sea to work and read. Freighter travel can do it, but you find sailings are infrequent and the line asks you to clear a medical and age check before they will sell you the berth.

Why it matters

Rare slow alternative to flights for transoceanic moves, with sparse schedules and strict medical or age rules.

Slow travel by sea · 4 terms

These are ways to cross water that are not ordinary holiday cruises.
A repositioning cruise is a one-way sailing sold cheaply when a ship relocates between seasonal ports, and a deadhead cruise is a ship moving with no revenue purpose.
Freighter travel is booking a rare passenger berth on a cargo ship for long ocean passages, and ferry hopping is linking islands or coasts by successive ferries instead of flying.

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