Is The Alcatraz Tour Worth It? Alcatraz Tour Review

Last Updated on 3rd May 2023

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Visiting Alcatraz Island - Everything You Need To Know & What To Expect

When we decided that we were going to finish our epic 3-month USA road trip in San Francisco, I knew that visiting Alcatraz Island had to be a priority on our list of things to do while we were there.

Going to San Francisco and visiting Alcatraz are two things that go hand-in-hand and even if you’re not usually one for history or museums, it’s a place that is usually very highly recommended by almost everyone who has been.

I have to admit, however, that I was a little apprehensive about visiting Alcatraz Island as I’d heard so much about it, that I was worried it wouldn’t quite live up to my expectations, but I’m so happy that it was everything I expected and more!

If you’re still on the fence about whether you should visit Alcatraz Island while you’re in San Francisco, I’ve put together a huge guide about everything you need to know about visiting Alcatraz, including what to do there, how to get to the island and is the Alcatraz Tour worth it?

How to get there – Is the Alcatraz Tour worth it?

Assuming you’re already staying in San Francisco, getting to Alcatraz Island is very easy.

You’ll need to book a ticket to Alcatraz that includes ferry transport to and from the island, plus entry into the cell house with a complimentary audio tour, as well as access to other exhibitions on the island.

There are many tour companies who try and offer tickets for Alcatraz Island, but some of them cost an absolute fortune and don’t even include entrance to the island, so watch out for companies trying to con you.

We booked with Alcatraz City Cruises which is technically the only official source for tour tickets to Alcatraz Island. Tickets cost $41 for adults.

The ferry to Alcatraz Island departs from Pier 33 in Fisherman’s Wharf and you need to arrive at least 20 minutes before your ferry departure time. Your ticket will likely suggest that you need to get there 45 minutes before, but anything between 20 minutes and 45 minutes should be fine otherwise you’ll be waiting around for ages.

There is no parking at Pier 33, so if you’re driving, you’ll have to find a nearby car park. However, parking in San Francisco is astronomically expensive in some places (you can be looking at $50-$60 a day!) and many of the car parks around Pier 33 received terrible reviews (there were many reviews of people claiming their car had been broken into!). I already touched on it quite a lot in my San Fran post, but another option you can choose, depending on where you’re staying in the city, is parking for free at your hotel if it allows it and then taking an Uber to Pier 33.

We did this and it only cost us around $10, compared to the very expensive car parking fees.

The ferry takes approximately 15 minutes each way from Pier 33 in San Francisco to Alcatraz Island.

You can, however, book a tour with Get Your Guide or Viator as part of a wider tour package that will take you on a guided tour around the waterfront in San Francisco or on a cruise around the bay, plus it includes the ferry to Alcatraz Island and the self-guided tour once you’re there.

Top tip: book your tickets to Alcatraz online well in advance, especially if you plan on visiting at the weekend and in the summer months. Tickets can sell out weeks in advance, so try and book as soon as you know you want to go. This is never really possible for us as we never usually book anything in advance as we never know where we’re going to be, but we actually managed to get tickets just 36 hours before our tour, so you can sometimes get lucky, but just try and be as prepared as possible to avoid disappointment.

What to expect – is the Alcatraz Tour worth it?

Once you arrive on Alcatraz Island, after the 15-minute ferry journey from Pier 33, you’ll be greeted by one of the NPS rangers (Alcatraz is part of over 80,000 acres of the Golden Gate National Park Recreational Reserve) who will provide a full briefing on what you can expect from your time on Alcatraz Island.

It’s not compulsory to stay for this talk, but it is helpful for learning more about the different attractions and exhibits on the island, plus where you can eat and drink and the location of the restrooms etc.

When the talk has finished, you’re free to go off and explore the island for as long as you please (as long as you don’t miss the last boat back to San Francisco – more on that below!).

The very first building you’ll see when you arrive on the island is the 1860s building that says “Indians welcome”/ “Indian land” on it (the first picture in this post). These are the former Residential Apartments of the prison guards who lived on the island with their families when it was a penitentiary.

We also saw the former guardhouse and the ‘New Industries’ building which is home to several exhibitions (including the American Indian Occupation – more on that below), plus several detailed posters and plenty of information about what life was like on Alcatraz Island when it was a prison.

It was so interesting to learn about what life was like for the prisoners when Alcatraz was a penitentiary between 1934 and 1963. You can also read more about the infamous prisoners that called Alcatraz “home” such as the notorious Al “Scarface” Capone, Robert “Birdman of Alcatraz” Stroud and George “Machine Gun” Kelly.

The whole place has a very mysterious and creepy feel to it, but it’s also absolutely fascinating to learn about their daily routine (pictured below), as well as the stories of the several attempts (and supposedly “successful” attempts) to escape from Alcatraz.

A self-guided audio tour of the former prison cell house

Next up: arguably the best bit about visiting Alcatraz – the self-guided audio tour of the former cell house!

You can choose from a section of languages in which to listen to the audio tour and you can also download an app on your phone to take the audio tour if you’d prefer not to use one of the devices provided.

The self-guided audio tour is included in the price of your ticket to Alcatraz Island and takes approximately 30-40 minutes to complete, depending on how frequently you want to pause the audio to have a proper look around (which I’d definitely recommend doing).

One thing that I thought was incredibly cool about the audio tour is that it’s narrated by ex-inmates and prison guards, so the voices of the narrators were real people involved in Alcatraz which is both eerie and very cool!

Visiting Alcatraz Island - Is the Alcatraz Tour worth it?

The “normal” cells alone inside the former penitentiary are so tiny, but the pink and green-door cells (pictured above) are even worse. They’re completely pitch-black and very small and cramped and these were used as isolation units for extremely dangerous prisoners.

As part of the tour, you’ll also learn how the prison structure that stands there today was actually built by inmates who were then made to “live” there for their crimes. Nicknamed “The Rock”, Alcatraz Island and the prison were deemed “inescapable” due to their location and the fact the island was completely surrounded by water.

Of course, there were several attempts to escape from Alcatraz, but none have been determined as “successful”. However, in June 1962, a man named Frank Morris and two brothers, John and Clarence Anglin had the most “successful” attempt of breaking out of Alcatraz when they used dummy heads made of soap, cement and paint and used them as a decoy, pretending they were fast asleep in bed when in fact they had escaped through small vents inside their cells.

When you see the size of the cells and the vents in real life, it’s almost impossible to imagine how anyone could fit through them, but they supposedly did and it’s thought that they even made it as far out to sea, but they were eventually presumed dead due to the icy cold water and their lack of buoyancy aids.

There are so many fascinating stories that you’ll hear as part of the audio tour at Alcatraz, so I’d highly recommend doing it.

Top tip: Make sure you follow the instructions on the audio tour so that you see everything and then you can wander off after. Many people made their own way around and missed a lot of the information, so be sure to follow the instructions as set out in the audio guide!

American Indian Occupation 1969 – Red Power on Alcatraz

I always knew briefly about Alcatraz and the fact that it used to be a prison housing some of the most notoriously bad criminals in US history, but I never knew about the other side of its history; the American Indian Occupation of 1969.

In November 1969, Native American students led by Mohawk activist Richard Oakes on behalf of “Indians of All Tribes” occupied Alcatraz Island for 19 months as a form of peaceful protest and to try and claim the land back as their own.

The main intention was one of peace and the activists wanted to establish a museum and a university on the island to educate people. However, the occupation dissipated in 1971 after 19 months as it was becoming increasingly difficult for the Native American occupants to get clean drinking water onto the island and keep it running sustainably.

There’s an entire room dedicated to what happened during that time and you’ll also see signs of the occupation all around the island in the form of writing and posters that were constructed by the American Indians who lived on the island during that time.

American Indian Occupation 1969 - Red Power on Alcatraz - Is the Alcatraz Tour worth it?

Take a tour to Alcatraz Island - Is the Alcatraz Tour worth it?

I’m cautious of not giving too much information away as I don’t want to spoil Alcatraz for you if you do decide to visit, but I will say that it’s very much worth spending some time learning about this part of Alcatraz’s history as it’s not something that we ever hear about, especially back in the UK, so it’s incredibly important to be educated about such an important piece of history.

The Big Lockup: Mass Incarceration in the U.S.

Once you’ve finished the audio tour of the cell house and handed your listening device back to a member of staff, you can go and visit “The Big Lockup” exhibit on Alcatraz.

This mass incarceration exhibit is more about modern-day prisons and the penitentiary system in the USA and although some of the facts and statistics are truly shocking (such as the fact that 1 in 37 adults in the US is in prison or jail or on probation or parole), it was equally fascinating to learn more about the justice system in the United States.

I’d highly recommend having a little wander through as it’s not particularly very big, but it is full of intriguing facts and figures.

Views of the Golden Gate Bridge and San Francisco

What to expect from visiting Alcatraz Island - Is the Alcatraz Tour worth it?

This is just a very small part of visiting Alcatraz Island and of course, there are many other (and better!) places in and around San Francisco that offer excellent views of the city and the iconic Golden Gate Bridge, but I wanted to mention it here as it’s a cool part of visiting the island.

One of the best viewpoints of the Golden Gate Bridge is from a tiny little door in the outdoor recreational area of the cell house tour, so be sure to check that out while you’re exploring the cell house.

Top tips – is the Alcatraz Tour worth it?

Top tips for visiting Alcatraz Island - Is the Alcatraz Tour worth it?

Bring a coat or a light jacket; even in the warmer months, the weather can get pretty chilly on the island and on the ferry.
Bring your own water or at least an empty bottle. You can buy water on the island but it’s pretty expensive, but there are water-filling stations next to the toilets on the island that you can use for free.
You can bring a backpack, but make sure it’s small enough and not a giant suitcase. We brought my small detachable bag from my Osprey backpack and it was the perfect size for carrying our drinks and snacks.
You can only eat and drink (apart from bottled water) on the main dock once you first arrive on the island, so make sure you eat when you arrive straight away or as you’re waiting for the return ferry back to San Francisco.
There are only two restrooms on the island – one when you first arrive on the island and one at the top of the hill, just before you do the cell house audio tour.
Allow for at least 3 hours on the island so that you can see and do everything.
The boats back to Pier 33 run approximately every half an hour, but the timetable often changes on a daily basis, so just be aware of the departure times once you arrive on the island (there are posters detailing the times on the boat and at the dock on the island).
To reach the cell house and the very top of the island, you’ll have to walk up the equivalent of 136ft, approximately the height of a 13-storey building. However, there is also a golf buggy-style vehicle for people who are unable to make their own way up the hill by foot.

FAQs – is the Alcatraz Tour worth it?

If you still have a few questions about visiting Alcatraz Island, check out my answers to the most frequently asked questions below!

Is the Alcatraz Tour worth it?

In my opinion, absolutely! As I mentioned at the start of this guide, I always thought that Alcatraz was one of those places that you “had” to visit while in San Francisco, but I was very happy to discover that it lived up to the hype and it’s one of the most unusual and interesting tours I’ve ever done.

How much does it cost to tour Alcatraz?

Ferry tickets to Alcatraz cost $41 for adults (this includes kids 12+), $25 for children aged 5-11 years, $38.65 for seniors and $119.60 for a family of 2 adults and 2 children aged 5-11 years.

What does the Alcatraz tour include?

The price of the tour ticket includes a return-trip ferry to Alcatraz Island, a self-guided audio tour of the former cell house, access to many of the historic sites on the island, including the New Industries Building, the Recreation Yard and more.

Alcatraz Island tours opening times

The opening times of Alcatraz Island vary depending on the seasons, but it is open all year-round apart from Thanksgiving, Christmas Day and New Year’s Day. Check the Alcatraz website for specific opening times for when you want to visit.

What time of day is best to visit Alcatraz?

There isn’t really a “best” time to visit Alcatraz, especially on weekends and in the summer as it’s usually always booked up days, if not weeks, in advance. However, I would recommend trying to go on a tour as early in the day as possible so that you have plenty of time in the afternoon to explore more of San Francisco (which is exactly what we did).

How long do you need to visit Alcatraz?

I would recommend giving yourself at least 3-4 hours to visit Alcatraz Island, including the ferry to and from the island. We spent exactly 3 hours on the island which I felt was plenty of time to see and do everything, but it depends on how long you want to spend there. I think a minimum of 3 hours is a good figure to aim for.

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