‘One-of-a-Kind’: Alcatraz Closure Spirals Tourists’ Plans

For the next two weeks, public entry to Alcatraz Island is closed.

But standing on San Francisco’s Pier 33 on Wednesday, where boats usually depart multiple times a day to take visitors across the bay and inside the former federal prison, you’d have no way of knowing this iconic landmark was even closed. 

The usual blue signage encouraging tourists to buy tickets to the island was still plastered everywhere. Not a single sign mentioned the closure.

A group of tourists, including Julian Vrialenk and Kevin Hamilton visiting from the Netherlands, lined up to get on a boat. But because of scheduled maintenance to the island’s ferry dock, vessels were only going around the world-famous tourist destination and not allowing anyone to disembark.

Their reaction to the closure? “A bit mad,” said Hamilton.

The pair had hoped to take the famed night tour of the island. Frustratingly, their three-week visit coincided precisely with the closure, “exactly when we came here.”

• Jump straight to: Three alternatives to Alcatraz Island for visitors 

For many tourists to San Francisco — 1.5 million of them each year — Alcatraz is the pinnacle of their trip. No other landmark is quite as famous, said Martha Winning, visiting from Germany with her twin sister Frida.

“It’s one-of-a-kind,” she said. “It’s basically the attraction.” 

The National Park Service announced the scheduled three-week closure in late September, saying the repairs are critical to safely and reliably bringing visitors to the island.

Alcatraz City Cruises, the company that runs the ferry to and from the island, offered those who booked tours in advance refunds — or the option to cruise around the island instead. While the company is targeting Nov. 18 to reopen, it said bad weather or other factors could extend the closure.

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For Katie and Kenneth Durham, educators from Sacramento, touring the island is a chance to learn about some of the more nuanced parts of local history. They planned to bring 15 German exchange students to the city for the day for a hands-on opportunity to learn about the island’s history both as a prison and a protest site. 

Instead, they accepted the tour company’s offer to switch their tickets to a bay cruise instead, and their students had to see the island from afar.

“It’s great when kids can experience things beyond just a movie or a book or classroom,” Durham said. “I remember the first time that we went over to Alcatraz just seeing how teeny-tiny the cells are. It’s like, ‘whoa.’”

For some local businesses, the closure has slowed business to a halt. The cafe closest to Pier 33, Queen’s Louisiana Po-Boy Cafe, had a sign on its door saying it would be closed for three weeks. 

Down at Pier 39, at the black-and-white striped Alcatraz Gift Shop, employee Cindy Yu was working behind the counter. Business was slow, she said — even for a weekday in October.

“There’s like more than 5,000 people that go out there [to Alcatraz Island] each day,” Yu said. “So when they’re closed,” she gestured around to the empty store, “it does affect.”

Lucky for tourists, there is plenty else in the city to do instead. Hamilton and Vrialenk had just come from watching the sunrise over the Golden Gate Bridge. Winning and her sister, too, said they’d make other plans.

“We’re huge foodies,” Winning said. “So I think we’re going to spend that money on restaurants.” 

If you’re hosting family ahead of the holidays or planning some exploring of your own, Alcatraz Island is a popular choice for a reason — the views from the ferry and the facility’s famous, thoughtful audio tour have kept it on the list of classic San Francisco excursions for decades. 

But if your tour got canceled or you want to skip the headache of worrying about reopening dates entirely, we’re here to help. Here are three ideas to salvage your day trip plans:

If your plans are somewhat set in stone (and you were hoping to go to Alcatraz the first week of the closure), you can easily pivot to another tour that’s also run by Alcatraz City Cruises, called the Bay Discovery Cruise.

While it doesn’t dock at Alcatraz Island, so you can’t explore the buildings, this 90-minute tour will get you up close to see the island and — weather permitting — will even sail under the Golden Gate Bridge.

You’ll also get to see nearby landmarks like Angel Island, Sausalito, and, of course, views of downtown San Francisco and the city’s waterfront. Tours start at $44 per person and are subject to availability.

If that doesn’t suit your needs, there are many other tour companies offering tours of San Francisco Bay all year long, including Adventure Cat, which offers daytime and sunset sailing in the bay, Red and White Fleet, which also offers whale tours (plus occasional “floating features” in partnership with the Roxie Theater, where you can catch a movie while you sail!), and the Blue and Gold Fleet, whose “Escape from the Rock” tour circles Alcatraz Island while recounting the tales of its famed escapees.

There are also several wildlife-specific boat tours, like the Golden Gate Whale Watch tour, that can get you and your guests out on the bay for an adventure.

Still hankering for a boat trip with some history on the side? A visit to Angel Island State Park could be a perfect match. 

Ferries to the Bay Area’s largest island depart from the San Francisco Ferry Building four times per day, leaving enough time to explore the island on foot or — if you’re hoping to cover more ground — by bike.

Once there, you’ll have your pick of beaches, several of them ideal for swimming, or you can attempt a hike up to Mt. Livermore, the highest point on the island. 

End your circumnavigation at the U.S. Immigration Station, often called “the Ellis Island of the West,” where you can learn the painful history of the 175,000 Chinese immigrants who were detained and interrogated there while attempting to immigrate to the United States between 1910 and 1940. You can reserve a guided tour or peruse the museum at your own pace.

If your main goal is to enjoy the water (and you don’t mind a little physical exercise), consider renting kayaks in the bay — a great way to get some sun on your face and get up-close-and-personal with the beauty of the city and beyond. 

If you don’t want to leave downtown, City Kayak, located on the waterfront near Oracle Park, does rentals by the hour and also offers guided paddling tours to see the city skyline, cruise by the baseball park, or head out for a full moon excursion. 

Nearby, Dogpatch Paddle is another good option, where you can rent kayaks and paddle boards from their Crane Cove location or take one of their many tours. 

If you’re willing to make the trek to the North Bay, SeaTrek in Sausalito is a particularly unique option, where you can weave between Richardson Bay’s iconic houseboats either by yourself or with a guided tour.