Alcatraz Island Tour, San Francisco (Review)

Alcatraz was something I felt was a must see when visiting San Francisco. Alcatraz Island, also known simply as The Rock, was a maximum security federal prison, 1.25 miles off the coast. It had also been a fort, military prison and a maximum security federal penitentiary. In 1963, the prison closed after 29 years of operation because it was too expensive to continue operating. Later, the Indians of All Tribes occupied Alcatraz for 19 months in the name of freedom and Native American civil rights. 

I had a pre-booked start time and arrived there half an hour before, which I thought was a long time, but the guides said to arrive an hour early. It's a good job I did, because despite arriving early, I still had to queue to get another printed version of the ticket. They had a little history exhibit in the security area, with toilets, water bottle filling stations and a model of the island which was my favourite part. 

The queue for the ferry line, started an hour before boarding. It was very smoothly ran but frustrating because it was standing only, not fully in the shade and therefore super hot in the blazing sun. The ferry journey itself was lovely. We got a great view of San Francisco as we sailed away, and then I saw my first glimpses of the Golden Gate Bridge as well. There was plenty of space on the boat and lots of seats so I sat down and enjoyed the view. 

Pulling into the island definitely felt surreal. It felt like a film and everything had been left just where it was. Unfortunately, when we arrived we had a rather abrupt start with a chatty guide introducing us to the island, but disappointingly lots of guests being rude and ignoring or talking over her. They had paper guides for a cost but lots of people were stealing them. Sadly, there was no audio guide until you got to the top of the island. 

There were meant to be toilets at the bottom but these were out of order. We were told the toilets at the top were working, but at the top these were also closed so instead there were 4 very small portoloos only. All the water bottle filling stations were broken and closed. Luckily, they sold some water bottles at the gift shop at the bottom, but it was frustrating because they specifically said you couldn't bring water, but empty bottles could be refilled. 

At the bottom, they did offer a car buggy system to take those less able to walk up the island, to the top. In retrospect, I probably should have gone on this but I didn't want to miss the scenery and tours available on the walk up and also I didn't want to stand out as the only non-elderly person there. I struggled though. My pneumonia symptoms were still causing a very high heart rate and even walking at the slowest pace, I had to keep stopping as it was approaching 150bpm. 

Walking up, the views were lovely and there were some areas of information with different aspects to look at like the gardens, the water tower and the staff accommodation. Unfortunately, there were a lot of areas of limit and closed. It was unclear if these were temporary or permanent. It said they were doing temporary repairs, but it also didn't look like there had been people there for years. 

Once inside the prison, that's where there was an audio guide. Unlike Liberty Island, you couldn't stop and start it, so it was more of a continuous run through. The route itself also wasn't super ideal because sometimes you ended up walking back on yourself and then there were difficulties with the crowd. It also missed some of the areas so I then went back to explore them myself. It was still fascinating and it shared some stories of the inmates and escape attempts, albeit somewhat repetitively throughout. 

It was crazy to me how untouched some things had been, such as the kitchen and even the menu which was still the same as the last day the prison was opened. 

Whilst there, they had a book signing from one of the previous inmates. I was shocked when I read a little about his story about how bad he had been and literally every time he was released, he would be arrested again. I struggled to find it in myself to support him as he seemed to show no remorse, but I haven't read the book myself so I can't say for sure either way. 

The main courtyard and seeing the remains of the officers home was really eye opening. It was fascinating to see the before and after of all the damage, and of course it's somewhat protected but only going to degrade over time. 

I then walked down through the gardens, before heading back to the prison recreational / garden space. The garden path showcased a book written about another of the prisoners. I actually really liked the story and found the pictures lovely, but once again it seemed to glamorise being in jail and a criminal, with no consequence. 

Overall, I really enjoyed my time there and I am so glad I got the opportunity to visit. I think it's fascinating to see the reality of prison in the past and given this is one of the high security ones, the amount of freedom inmates got as well. 

To watch the vlog and see the daily post from when I visited, visit here.