Alcatraz Island
Good to know
- Best time to go
- Year-round; book ferry tickets well in advance
- Budget
- $$
- Accessibility
- limited
- Coordinates
- Open in maps
Alcatraz Island sits in the middle of San Francisco Bay, occupied successively by a Civil War-era military fortification, a federal penitentiary from 1934 to 1963, and now a National Recreation Area site within the Golden Gate NRA. The ferry crossing provides views of the San Francisco skyline and the bay, while the island's gardens, maintained by horticulturists, contain plants descended from those cultivated by prisoners and guards. The night tour offers a markedly different experience of the cell house.
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