Alcatraz Island

04/12/08

One of the best SF tours

by kimbolicious

Great informative, interesting tour of history! The ferry ride there was so fun, I recommend sitting on the top deck (even though its freezing, its so worth it!) Go during the "night" tours, they are the most informative and complete tours. I love the audio tour with the actual inmate voices. Is a bit pricey, but who cares? It's really worth it!

• Pros: all sorts of public transit can take you here, when you get off theres still hundreds of things to do!
• Cons: parking....but dont drive thats dumb...take the cable car and walk!

12/30/06

Fascinating piece of San Fran history

by sharopooks

Going to Alcatraz is a fabulous tour through a chapter of San Fran history, as well as the history of correctional facilities in the US. The evening tour (we went in late afternoon and experienced sunset there) will lend a creepier feeling and some excellent sunset photo ops. Audio and guided tour was very interesting and informative. If you're a fan of cable tv prison documentaries like I am, you'll see that Alcatraz is a much smaller size than today's facilities, making it a more manageable size to tour. Arguably our favorite part were the unguided exhibits in the "theater" (which is near the bottom) - very fascinating stuff on Alacatraz and the penitentiary system, we stumbled upon this on our way back to the boat w/ only 10 mins left so be sure to leave time for this if you like that kinda stuff. It's a bird sanctuary so beware if you lean over the stone ledge to see the door to the original prison there (I learned that the hard way!).

09/18/06

the first place required to see when you are there in S.F

by rsfl459

when you get off the boat you feel like your standing in history and your allowed to walk for a moment but hten the park ranger will tell you that if you stay you 'll sleep here until the morning. the person that was there when i went was Darwin Coon who was an inmate in this famous place. they take you on a tour with a cassette player and t makes you walk around the whole cell boxes that are there . the person narrating it will give you information and talk about the escapes that occurred. one famous escape happened with three inmates that put fake face on the bed and did there escape. they were the first to escape the Rock as they call it . if you ever go the place is amazing and you will marvel at the person who was there and how they had to spend there days.

when you see the inmates you'll be shocked at the story that they'll tell you . well you better reserve you tickets because they sell out really quick.

• Pros: i give it a 10 from 1 being the worse to 10 being awsome!!!
• Cons: it is depression but historical