I recently crossed the Caspian Sea on a cargo ship as a solo female traveler, traveling from Azerbaijan to Turkmenistan. The cargo ship runs from Alat, Azerbaijan to Aktau, Kazakhstan, and from Alat to Turkmenbashi, Turkmenistan — and this guide covers both routes, since the process is essentially the same, with a few caveats specific to the Turkmenistan crossing.
Most people take the ship to Kazakhstan rather than Turkmenistan, and honestly, if you’re just looking to experience crossing the Caspian Sea on a cargo ship, that’s the route I’d recommend too. The Turkmenistan crossing is generally more challenging, and I’ll get to the reasons below.
Let me start by saying that this is a cargo ship, meaning they come and go without any fixed schedule, and you can’t buy tickets online. I boarded the ship as the only traveler and the only female among a crew of truck drivers, so I decided to put together this guide for anyone else interested in making this crossing.
I swore when I started travel blogging again after a long break that I would never write these kinds of ‘too niche’ guides anymore, because I was hoping to make travel blogging a bit more profitable and these posts don’t make me any money and hardly get traffic — but here I am again, because let’s be honest, my travels are all about very niche destinations and things. If you find any of my tips helpful, you can support my travel blog on my Buy Me a Coffee page.
To see my full Caspian Sea cargo ship experience, you can also watch my vlog on YouTube — and for more practical tips that I’m not covering in the vlog, keep reading below.
Table of Contents
How to Buy the Tickets
As I mentioned, this is a cargo ship with no fixed schedule, and you can’t buy tickets online in advance. Your only option is to show up at the port and buy your ticket there.
Because the port is located about an hour from Baku in Alat, I wouldn’t recommend just randomly showing up. Instead, try to have a contact at the port who can tell you when a ship is leaving — that way you won’t end up waiting hours or even days, or get sent back to Baku because no ship is due for a while.
How to Get a Port Contact
To get a port contact, you can try reaching out to the shipping company ASCO through their website. On their website, you can also see a ferry movement schedule so you can see what ships are at sea or in port.
I had originally gotten a contact from another traveler who had taken the ship before and tried to reach him on WhatsApp, but the messages got a bit weird. I got the feeling he was trying to hit on me — you could clearly see on my WhatsApp profile picture that I was a young-ish female, and I had told him I was traveling alone. He clearly didn’t have any information about when the ship was leaving, or he was trying to trick me into coming to the port in the middle of the night, because the ship I ended up boarding left during the day — and when I was already sailing, he sent me messages saying I should come to the port at midnight. A little creepy!
Once I got that bad feeling, I contacted the shipping company directly through their website and asked for a contact number. After reaching out a few times, I got a phone number for someone actually working at the port and contacted him on WhatsApp. He turned out to be genuinely helpful — no weird messages, just straightforward assistance and he let me know when the ship was about to leave. When I got to the port, he also guided me through the whole process and really went out of his way to make sure I got on the ship. You can see him in the vlog; he was an absolute lifesaver.
If you’d like his number, feel free to message me on Instagram @gabrielahereandthere. That said, I’d still recommend contacting ASCO directly first, since I can’t guarantee this person will be working at the port indefinitely.
How to Find Out When the Ship is Leaving
Once you have a port contact, you can message them to ask about ship schedules. They’ll let you know when a departure is coming up, and you can head to the port then rather than waiting around.
I had checked on the schedule the day before, but the weather was bad — very windy — so the ships stayed in port. I was told the ship would leave the following evening. I’d mentally prepared for that, but the next morning I asked my hotel reception to call the port on my behalf, and was told I needed to be there within two hours. I also asked my WhatsApp contact, and he told me to come to the port in the morning.
That completely threw off my plans. I had been intending to work that morning, hadn’t bought food for the crossing, and hadn’t packed. With the port an hour away, I had to rush to get ready and take a taxi straight there.
How to Get to Alat Port from Baku
You can get to the port by taxi or bus. If you’re trying to catch a ship that’s leaving soon, take a taxi so you don’t miss the ship. Uber works in Baku.
Where to Stay Before Taking the Ship
I’d recommend staying in Baku rather than Alat. There’s not much happening in Alat, and if you end up waiting several days for a ship, you’ll be glad to be in the city.
I stayed at a few different places in Baku since I was there for a while: Apartments History 1870 (a lovely apartment with a beautiful terrace and a historical building), Antique Hotel Baku, and finally Utopia Hotel Baku, whose reception staff were especially friendly and helpful given my unusual travel plans. They were flexible with a late check-out when I still thought I’d be leaving in the evening, and even helped me call the port directly.
That said, if your ship is leaving in the middle of the night, very early in the morning, or if you need to wait in Alat for an extended period, it might be worth booking something there. There’s one hotel available online called Life-Sport Complex, which looks like a solid option at a reasonable price — it even has a swimming pool, spa, and gym. If the choice is between waiting at the port or staying there, the hotel wins easily.
Buying the Ticket and Boarding
When I arrived at the port, my contact was there and guided me through the entire process. Just opposite the shipping company office, there was an ATM and a bank. I had to pay for my ticket at the bank — the cost to Turkmenistan was $60. I believe Kazakhstan is slightly more expensive, though I’m not certain of the exact amount (if you’ve recently made this crossing, please leave a comment below!). Given how much a flight to Turkmenistan would have cost, $60 felt like an incredible deal.
I paid in US dollars since I already had cash prepared for Turkmenistan, but I imagine they exchange money there as well, so paying in Azerbaijani manat should also be possible.
When I got back to the office, things suddenly moved fast. I was told loading had already finished and the ship was leaving very soon. I was rushed to the waiting area, where I met a couple of other travelers — they were heading to Kazakhstan, not Turkmenistan. Two ships were departing at the same time. The truck drivers board separately, so the people in the waiting area were the only regular passengers traveling that day.
A bus took us to a security screening, then on to immigration where we were stamped out of Azerbaijan. From there, I walked to the ship on my own.
The Ship Experience
Once I boarded, I still had to wait six hours before we actually departed. There had been such a rush to get me to the port and ship in time, and I’d been told the ship was leaving within the hour — well, that didn’t quite happen. Still, I was lucky to wait only that long; some people have been stuck inside the ship for much longer.
My ship was one of the old Soviet-era vessels, the Professor Gul. There are newer, nicer ships too, but I actually liked the worn, weathered feel of this one. There were a few quirks with the aging interior though — at one point, the light in my cabin just exploded, which you can see in the vlog.
I had my own cabin, which was a relief. My port contact had made sure of that, and from what I understand, solo female travelers are generally given their own cabin rather than being put with truck drivers. The cabin had a bed and a sink, and they provided sheets and a towel for the shower when I asked.
The shower and toilet area felt a little sketchy from a solo female travel perspective — the doors didn’t lock. I had honestly prepared myself to skip showering entirely, since I didn’t even know there would be a shower. But I was genuinely relieved to use it after running around all day trying to make the ship on time. There were two women working on the ship, and they were very kind about it — when I wanted to shower, they stood outside the door to make sure no one came in. Without that, I wouldn’t have felt comfortable using a communal shower full of truck drivers with no lockable door. There was even hot water in the shower, so I was very happy about that!
Two meals were included for free. I had packed my own snacks assuming there would be no food, so the meals were a pleasant surprise. Dinner was a meat loaf, salad, chickpeas, and bread. As a vegan, I skipped the meat and made do with the rest and my own snacks. Breakfast was simple — eggs and bread. If you have any kind of allergies or a special diet, don’t count on the food options. But honestly, don’t count on the food in general and bring plenty of your own snacks, because you never know how long you might end up waiting on the ship.
Arriving at Your Destination
This was an overnight crossing, and by the following morning we were approaching Turkmenistan. I nearly had a heart attack when someone started pounding on my cabin door at 7 a.m. — I thought we’d arrived and I’d overslept, but it was just someone letting me know breakfast was ready.
After breakfast, it still took a few more hours to reach port. Once we arrived, I was brought to a room where I had to pay for a COVID test — yes, they still test for COVID there, and Turkmenistan may still be the only country in the world doing so. That had to be paid in dollars. After the test, I was escorted downstairs to wait inside the loading dock for several hours. In total, it took five hours from when the ship arrived before I was actually able to leave the port.
Eventually someone brought me my passport, and shortly after, a female officer from the Turkmenistan side came to collect me. I was handled separately since I was the only passenger on that ship.
I was brought into an enormous, white marble port building (no photos or filming allowed inside, so I don’t have any pics of this) which was honestly surreal. It had the scale and grandeur of somewhere like Dubai Airport, except there was virtually no one inside.
I was left with one young guard while everyone else had gone on their lunch break. I ended up waiting about two hours before immigration staff started filtering back and opening their booths.
My tour guide appeared at some point to help me through the process, which involved a fair amount of paperwork: paying for the visa and processing fees, collecting receipts and stamps, having my photo and fingerprints taken, getting my passport stamped, and going through a bag check. It was a lengthy and fairly complex process, and I was glad to have a guide who could translate everything.
Arriving in Aktau, Kazakhstan should be significantly simpler. If anyone reading this has done that crossing, please leave a comment below about your experience — it would be really helpful for others!
Things to Keep in Mind
- This is a cargo ship: departures are unscheduled and unpredictable
- You need to be flexible — you could end up waiting several days or even weeks in Azerbaijan
- Get a port contact so you can avoid unnecessary trips or long waits at the port
- Once you’ve been stamped out of Azerbaijan, you’re in international waters and can’t easily re-enter. In Turkmenistan, I heard stories of people getting stuck inside a ship for up to a week
- Be prepared to wait — whether in Baku, at the port, or on the ship itself
- Bring plenty of food. Even though meals are provided on the ship, you can’t count on them, and you don’t know how long you’ll be on board
Additional Notes for the Turkmenistan Route
If your main goal is to experience crossing the Caspian Sea on a cargo ship, take the Kazakhstan route — it’s much simpler. Turkmenistan adds a layer of complexity because it’s such a closed-off country.
For starters, you need to arrange your visa through a tour company, and you’re required to have a licensed tour guide waiting for you at the port. I had a hard time even finding a company willing to pick me up there — none of the standard tour packages include this option, so I effectively needed a fully private, customized itinerary.
Things got more complicated when the tour company told me I’d need to pay extra if the ship was delayed. By the time I messaged them to say the ship was departing, the driver and guide had already set off on the long drive from Ashgabat to Turkmenbashi. Any significant delay would mean additional costs on my end.
Final Thoughts
Looking back, I was extremely lucky with my timing and the fact that I waited so little — and everyone I met in Turkmenistan said exactly that. I’ve heard stories of people getting stuck inside the ship for a week, desperately trying to contact their embassy for help, only to be told that they’re in international waters and there’s little anyone can do. Others have waited in Baku for days or even weeks for a ship to depart. The fact that my ship left on the very day I had originally hoped for was a stroke of real luck — especially since I had checked a few days earlier and it wasn’t sailing due to bad weather.
The Caspian Sea is notorious for strong winds, and delays are common. The weather can get genuinely rough, and there have been several ships that have sunk over the years, so it’s completely understandable why they cancel sailings when conditions are bad. Factor this into your plans and always give yourself more time than you think you’ll need.
Have you taken this cargo ship before, or are you thinking about it? Leave a comment below — I’d love to hear about your experience!
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