Neptune Atlas
Guayaquil to Rotterdam by sea: 5,706 nautical miles
Guayaquil to Rotterdam by sea is 5,706 nautical miles (10,568 km) through the Panama Canal. Without the Panama Canal it is 10,903 nautical miles round Cape Horn, 5,197 longer. The route also passes the Strait of Dover. The distance is the same in both directions, so this is also the distance from Rotterdam to Guayaquil. Ships on this route often carry bananas.
| Route | Nautical miles | Days at sea at | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 knots | 12 knots | 14 knots | 16 knots | ||
| Through the Panama Canal | 5,706 | 23.8 | 19.8 | 17.0 | 14.9 |
| Round Cape Horn, without the Panama Canal | 10,903 | 45.4 | 37.9 | 32.4 | 28.4 |
Days are time under way at a steady speed. They leave out waiting, time in port and bad weather. The Panama Canal adds about 1.17 days for the transit and the wait.
Without the Panama Canal the voyage is 5,197 nm longer, which is 18.0 more days at sea at 12 knots. It is the dashed line on the map.
- Canals
- Panama Canal
- Canal time
- 1.17 days
- Inside emission areas
- 737 nm
- Straight line
- 5,299 nm
Emission control areas
737 nm of this route, 13 per cent, is inside an emission control area (ECA): North Sea and English Channel, 448 nm and United States Caribbean Sea, 290 nm. An ECA is a sea area where a ship must burn fuel with no more than 0.10 per cent sulphur, or clean its exhaust. Either costs more than sailing on ordinary fuel.
The two ports
- Guayaquil, Ecuador. UN/LOCODE ECGYE, at 2.17 S, 79.90 W.
- Rotterdam, Netherlands. UN/LOCODE NLRTM, at 51.92 N, 4.50 E.
A UN/LOCODE is the United Nations code for a port. The straight line above is the great circle, the shortest line over the globe, which crosses land.
How this was worked out
Computed on 13 October 2026 by the sea router behind the Neptune Atlas voyage estimator. It searches a grid of navigable water built from public sea depth data, so the track goes round headlands and through straits. No draft limit was set and no area was avoided. Distance tables differ by a few per cent, because each one picks its own point for a port and its own track through straits. Use it for planning, not in place of a chart.
Open this route in the free calculator Change the speed, set a sea margin or close a canal. No account is needed.
Related routes
Other routes at Rotterdam
- Houston to Rotterdam5,054 nm
- Jebel Ali to Rotterdam6,294 nm
- Karachi to Rotterdam6,234 nm
- New Orleans to Rotterdam4,806 nm
- Nhava Sheva to Rotterdam6,428 nm
- Norfolk to Rotterdam3,575 nm
- Puerto Bolivar to Rotterdam4,611 nm
- Richards Bay to Rotterdam7,098 nm
Guides that go with this route
- Emission control areas: where they are and what fuel a ship must burn inside them.
- Bunkers and fuel grades: what a ship burns on a passage like this one.
- Laytime and demurrage: the time allowed in port once the ship arrives.