I didn’t think any visit to San Francisco would be complete without a trip to Alcatraz. I think the prison is famous worldwide. To get there you need to take a ferry. The website suggested pre-booking, and I did, but it didn’t seem necessary at Pier 41. Perhaps in the high season it is a good idea to pre-book.
When you arrive there are tours available that give the history of the island. I found the ranger to me quite informative. If you choose to take a tour, it takes about one hour. After this you can go and see the cell blocks. Once you enter you can get a free audio guide that walks you around the prison.
These are the showers at the enterance. There is not much privacy here.
The audio guide talks about escape attempts, specific prisoners and guards lives. It was interesting to walk around and listen to the stories. One interesting thing I found us that San Francisco downtown is clearly visible from 3 small windows in the call block. I’m told that on New Years Eve, prisoners could see and hear parties going on across the bay. Certainly I can think of better places to spend NYE than Alcatraz though!
Once you are finish you can walk around the island for as long as you like, you can take any ferry back, but I would recommend not missing the last one.
One of the interesting parts of Alcatraz that I did not know is that after the military stopped using it as a prison it became a base for an aboriginal movement. This water tower was apparently rusted through so it was sanded down and repainted, but they found the decendents of the original “artists” to repainted the messages.