Mrs, Weekly Flyer and I stopped for 1 night in San Francisco on our way up to Napa. After a long flight from Atlanta to San Francisco we arrived very late to the W Hotel and crashed knowing that we had one quick activity the next morning before picking up our rental car and heading north. The next morning we’d take the boat over to Alcatraz and explore the island and history for a few hours. It not only has an interesting fact of being a federal prison, but is also 1.5 miles off land in the San Francisco Bay offering great views of the city.

We walked over to Union Square from the W Hotel and caught the cable car over towards the pier 33. There was no line to buy tickets so we bought two and jumped into the line to board the boat with our coffees in hand.

It was a cold morning but we decided to sit upstairs. The boat ride was quick and we only spent a short time in the cold breeze before arriving at the island.

Once on the island we could do a self paced tour or participate in a number of park operated tours. We decided to do the self guided tour and move along at our own pace, stopping to see the things we wanted and passing on things we didn’t care to see.

Bottom Line

A quick day trip and self guided tour of Alcatraz was a great way to get out in the bay on our first trip to San Francisco. Doing a self guided tour helped our short trip stay short and we felt like we got the experience we were looking for during our visit on the island.