Most ships in this directory can now only be met on the page. These 13 are the exception: the preserved ships you can still walk aboard. Scattered from Bristol to Bintan, Yokohama to Long Beach, they survive as hotels you can sleep in, museums you can tour, and dockside attractions built into — or around — a real hull. Some are complete museum ships in their home ports; others are landlocked, beached or open only on a handful of days a year, and this page says so plainly where that is the case. What follows is the directory's visiting guide to each of them: where she is, what is open, and what to check before you travel.
Where she is: Bristol, England, UK · launched 1843
Great Britain lies in the dry dock where she was built, at Great Western Dockyard in Bristol. Visitors first descend beneath the glass plate that represents the sea to walk under her iron hull and see the conservation system at work, then board to explore restored decks: the 1845 saloons, emigrant steerage, engine-room reconstruction and dockyard museum. Alongside is the Being Brunel museum, devoted to her designer. She receives 150,000 to 200,000 visitors a year, and of every ship in this directory she needs no qualification: she is home, in her own dock, more than 180 years after she left it.
Where she is: Bintan Island, Indonesia · launched 1914 · 6,818 GT
Doulos Phos stands on dry land at Bintan Island, Indonesia, as the Doulos Phos The Ship Hotel. The conversion kept the hull whole: guests stay in cabins on decks A and B in hotel configuration, and the ship functions as both hotel and maritime monument, with her bookship and Costa-era history presented as the core of the attraction. She is reached via Bintan's resorts area, a ferry ride from Singapore. Unlike most preserved ships, she is boarded at leisure on land, without sailing anywhere — a vessel launched in 1914 at Newport News, still complete and visitable more than 110 years on.
Where she is: Yokohama, Japan · launched 1929
Hikawa Maru is permanently moored at Yamashita Park on the Yokohama waterfront, operated as a museum ship in association with the NYK Maritime Museum. The visit follows a self-guided route through restored first-class cabins and public rooms with their Art Deco interiors, the dining saloon and lounges, passenger and crew spaces, the wheelhouse and bridge, and the engine room, alongside exhibitions tracing her liner, hospital-ship and refugee voyages and the history of NYK. She is presented as a cultural property rather than an attraction ride: a complete pre-war liner you can walk through, in her home port. Check official museum pages for current opening arrangements before visiting.
Where she is: Le Barcarès, France · launched 1931
Moonta stands beached at Le Barcarès, on the Mediterranean coast of southern France near Perpignan, in the position she has occupied since 1967. She is now a shore attraction: the Casino Le Lydia complex built into and around her hull, with her exterior profile, funnel and decks forming the centrepiece of the resort frontage. The current mix of casino, restaurant and exhibition uses may have changed under municipal ownership, and no opening arrangements are stated here because they change. The essential fact is simpler: a 1931 Australian coastal liner, complete and recognisable, sitting in the sand of a French beach.
Where she is: Long Beach, California, USA · launched 1934 · 80,774 GT
Queen Mary is permanently moored at Long Beach, California, across the water from downtown, where she operates as a hotel, museum ship and events venue. Visitors can stay aboard in staterooms, take guided and self-guided tours of the decks, engine-room area and exhibitions, and see the Art Deco public rooms at the heart of the ship — the first-class restaurant, observation lounge and promenade deck. No tour times are given here because they change, and current programmes or restoration closures should be checked on the ship's official site before travelling. Allow a full day: she is a 1,000-foot, 12-deck ship.
Where she is: Zhanjiang, China · launched 1954 · 10,216 GT
Brazil Maru — as Hai Shang Cheng Shi, the "Maritime City" — is beached at Zhanjiang in Guangdong Province, China. Her present state needs stating honestly: the attraction has been reported closed in recent years, the ship was dilapidated in the 2010s, received some maintenance by 2018, and was announced in August 2025 as entering a major renovation intended to reopen her as part of Zhanjiang's historic and cultural waterfront. No opening is confirmed here, so verify locally before travelling. What can be seen from the waterfront is the hull itself, exterior and wheelhouse largely intact from her liner years.
Where she is: Rotterdam, Netherlands · launched 1958 · 38,645 GT
Rotterdam lies in her namesake city as a static hotel, museum and events ship. Visitors can stay overnight in her restored cabins, tour public rooms, decks and machinery spaces, and use restaurants and event spaces in her preserved interiors. She does not sail, and nothing aboard should be expected to operate as it would on a working cruise ship — the experience is that of a museum you can sleep in. Practical details and tour availability change and are not listed here; check the ship's own current visitor information before going, and expect a preserved 1958 liner, not a cruise in port.
Where she is: Turku, Finland · launched 1959 · 4,295 GT
Bore lies permanently at Forum Marinum, the national maritime museum on the Aura River at Turku, Finland, alongside the museum's other historic vessels. She works as a combination museum ship, hotel and restaurant: visitors can go aboard to see the ship, stay overnight in her cabins, and eat in her restaurant spaces. Outside she presents her 1960 Bore Line appearance; inside are her Kristina Regina cruise-ship interiors. As a working piece of Turku's waterfront rather than a roped-off relic, she is among the most accessible preserved passenger ships in Scandinavia. Check Forum Marinum for opening arrangements before travelling.
Where she is: Baltimore, Maryland, USA · launched 1959 · 15,585 GT
Savannah lies at Pier 13, Canton Marine Terminal, Baltimore, alongside the Liberty ship John W. Brown, but she is not a walk-up museum with daily hours. She opens only on scheduled open-house days, traditionally centred on National Maritime Day in May and other announced visits through the year, listed on ns-savannah.com. On open days visitors get self-guided and guided access to her mid-century passenger spaces, staterooms, dining room, cocktail lounge, galley, veranda and engine and control rooms, with recent access to the reactor containment vessel. Visits are generally free, shoes are restricted, and accessibility is limited — timing an announced day is essential.
Where she is: Shenzhen, China · launched 1962 · 14,225 GT
Ancerville — still carrying the name Minghua — is the centrepiece of Sea World in Shekou, Shenzhen, China, visited as a hotel and leisure complex set into the development's plaza. Following a 2001–2004 refurbishment, she hosts a four-star hotel of about 253 rooms, Chinese and Western restaurants, bars including a wine bar and cigar house, a coffee shop, a boutique and a movie theatre, all within the hull of the 1962 liner. Because she is landlocked, you walk up to and into her from the surrounding streets rather than boarding from a quay; her profile, minus lifeboats, remains unmistakably Paquet.
Where she is: Tianjin, China · launched 1966
Yaohua, as Orient Princess, lies at Binhai, Tianjin, China, moored since 2003 as a floating tourist attraction. Two large restaurants were built aboard as part of that conversion, one aft of the boat-deck superstructure and one on the promenade deck, and those — rather than restored liner interiors — are the core of what a visitor encounters. No official website for the attraction was found in the sources used for her guide, and opening arrangements, access to original passenger spaces and current condition could not be confirmed from a primary source. Treat the Tianjin mooring as confirmed, and check everything about access locally.
Where she is: Dubai, UAE · launched 1967 · 70,327 GT
Queen Elizabeth 2 lies permanently at Mina Rashid, Dubai, open both to overnight guests and to day visitors, with stays and tours booked through qe2.com. The offer centres on guided Heritage Tours presenting her as a floating museum: original artefacts, photographs and navigational instruments, an authentic passenger cabin, the captain's quarters and the flag room, alongside the story of her 1967 launch, more than 5.6 million nautical miles, Falklands service and steam-to-diesel transformation. Tour versions combined with afternoon tea, lunch or dinner have also been offered. Check qe2.com for current times, as schedules change.
Where she is: Cambodia · launched 1974 · 9,848 GT
Rex Fortune is recorded in the dataset as beached as a hotel in Cambodia, in the Sihanoukville area in one list of surviving ships. That is, on present evidence, almost all that can be said responsibly. What is open to visitors, whether she operates as a hotel, casino or attraction at any given time, and under what name she trades locally could not be verified from primary sources — and that same list misstates her original name, so its location detail also needs independent confirmation. Treat this entry as a lead for research, not visitor information, and confirm her current status through current Cambodian sources before going.