Visiting Alcatraz: official tickets, opening hours and the night tour

To visit Alcatraz, there is only one official seller: Alcatraz City Cruises, the only company authorized by the National Park Service to land on the island, departing from Pier 33 in San Francisco. The adult Day Tour ticket starts at $47.95, ferry and audio guide included, and tours are often sold out several days in advance. Note for 2026: the island is closed for works from October 26, with reopening planned for November 19.

Alcatraz takes half a day, to be fitted into a stay described in our San Francisco travel guide. This guide gathers the official rules of the NPS and the concessionaire, the sunset time for the night tour and the bay’s climate normals.

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Alcatraz tickets: official seller vs resellers

The NPS does not charge an entry fee for the island, but you need a ferry ticket, and Alcatraz City Cruises is the only carrier authorized to land. The ticket includes the round-trip ferry from Pier 33, entry to the island and the prison audio guide (Cellhouse Audio Tour), available in several languages. The packages published on the official ticket office:

Package	« From » price (adult)	Contents according to the official website
Alcatraz Day Tour	$47.95	Self-paced day visit, audio guide, NPS programs
Alcatraz Night Tour	$59.65	Evening visit after the day visitors have left, evening programs
Alcatraz & Angel Island	$88.00	Alcatraz + Angel Island (tram tour) on the same day
Behind The Scenes Tour	$104.65	Small guided group in areas usually closed

Resellers: according to the official FAQ, other sites sometimes sell tickets at higher prices; only authorized resellers, who show the same Alcatraz price as the official website (with possible booking fees), offer valid tickets, and tickets sold by individuals on the street are illegal. Cruise companies sail around the island without landing. The concessionaire itself sells a 90-minute cruise around the bay (Bay Discovery Cruise) that does not stop at Alcatraz: do not confuse it with the visit.

Cancellation: refund possible up to 72 hours before departure, according to the ticket office. America the Beautiful passes and NPS free days do not apply to the ferry ticket. To bundle other sights in the city, compare the options on our San Francisco pass page.

Opening hours and closing days

• Day tours: first departure around 8:45 am, then about every 30 minutes; times vary by season.
• Night Tour and Behind The Scenes: fixed times at the end of the day; not on Sundays or Mondays, according to the concessionaire’s FAQ.
• Annual closures: Thanksgiving, December 25 and January 1.
• 2026 closure: October 26 to November 19 (planned reopening), dock works.
• Partial closures: some areas of the island are closed for part of the year for seabird nesting.

The Pier 33 ticket office opens an hour before the first departure and closes at the last departure; it does not accept cash. The NPS points out that Alcatraz often sells out a month or more in advance in summer and around the holidays.

Best time to visit Alcatraz

The Night Tour lets you see the bay at dusk. Since its departure time changes with the seasons, here is the sunset time on the 15th of each month, with the San Francisco normals published on our city page.

Month (the 15th)	Sunrise	Sunset	Day length	SF max temp	Rain
January	07:24	17:14	9 h 51	14.3 °C (58 °F)	112 mm (4.4 in)
February	06:59	17:48	10 h 49	15.8 °C (60 °F)	111 mm (4.4 in)
March	07:20	19:16	11 h 56	16.7 °C (62 °F)	80 mm (3.1 in)
April	06:34	19:45	13 h 11	17.2 °C (63 °F)	41 mm (1.6 in)
May	05:59	20:12	14 h 13	17.8 °C (64 °F)	18 mm (0.7 in)
June	05:47	20:33	14 h 46	19.2 °C (67 °F)	5 mm (0.2 in)
July	05:59	20:31	14 h 32	19.1 °C (66 °F)	0 mm (0.0 in)
August	06:25	20:02	13 h 38	19.9 °C (68 °F)	2 mm (0.1 in)
September	06:51	19:17	12 h 26	21.2 °C (70 °F)	3 mm (0.1 in)
October	07:18	18:32	11 h 14	21.0 °C (70 °F)	24 mm (0.9 in)
November	06:49	16:58	10 h 08	17.6 °C (64 °F)	66 mm (2.6 in)
December	07:17	16:51	9 h 34	14.4 °C (58 °F)	121 mm (4.8 in)

How to read it: from November to January the sun sets before 5:15 pm and the night tour takes place in the dark; in June–July it sets around 8:30 pm and the evening crossing is often still in daylight. Summer is dry but cool (19–20 °C / 66–68 °F in the afternoon) and often foggy; September and October are on average the warmest months in the city. The NPS advises always bringing a jacket and dressing in layers.

How long, and what route?

• Crossing: from Pier 33; on arrival, a short welcome talk on the dock.
• Climb to the prison: about 400 m (1,300 ft) and 40 m (130 ft) of elevation gain from the dock, the equivalent of 13 floors according to the NPS.
• Cellhouse Audio Tour: the heart of the visit, to follow at your own pace in the cell house.
• Ranger programs: daily but with no fixed schedule; look at the board at the landing when you arrive.
• Time needed: allow half a day with the crossings; 4 to 5 hours for the Night Tour.

There is no food service on the island, apart from a few dry snacks at the bookstore: food is sold on board the ferry, and picnicking is only allowed on the dock. Restrooms at the dock and at the top of the island only.

Getting to Pier 33

• Boarding: Alcatraz Landing, Pier 33, on the Embarcadero south of Bay Street.
• Transport: the NPS recommends public transit; the historic streetcars of the MUNI F line stop in front of the pier.
• Car: no parking at Alcatraz Landing; about fifteen paid car parks within five blocks, including the one at 80 Francisco Street, the closest according to the NPS.

Destination de Voyage calculation: as the crow flies, the island is 2.6 km (1.6 mi) from Pier 33 and 4.9 km (3 mi) from the Golden Gate Bridge.

Accessibility

According to the NPS accessibility page, Pier 33 is fully accessible. On the island, an accessible tram (S.E.A.T.) takes people with reduced mobility from the dock to the cell house, and an elevator serves the upper floor. The rest of the island has very steep slopes and about 45 steps between the prison and the recreation yard. The audio guide is available in American Sign Language, as an audio-described version with tactile markers and as a braille transcript; hearing loops at the Pier 33 ticket office.

Common mistakes (official rules)

• Buying an « Alcatraz » ticket on an unauthorized site or on the street: risk of an invalid or overpriced ticket.
• Booking a cruise around the island thinking you will visit the prison: only Alcatraz City Cruises lands.
• Counting on a same-day ticket: they are rare, book up to 90 days in advance.
• Planning the visit from October 26 to November 19, 2026: island closed for works.
• Aiming for the Night Tour on a Sunday or Monday: it does not run on those days.
• Coming in sandals or without a jacket: the NPS recommends non-slip shoes and warm clothing.
• Driving all the way to the pier: there is no parking at Alcatraz Landing.

What to see nearby

Fisherman’s Wharf, Pier 39, the Golden Gate Bridge and the city’s neighborhoods are covered in our guide to things to do in San Francisco. For weather along the whole coast, see the best time to visit California and our California page. Another NPS ferry visit, on the East Coast: the Statue of Liberty.

A little history of Alcatraz

Before the prison, the island was a military site from 1850 to 1934: a fort during the Civil War and the first lighthouse on the West Coast, according to the National Park Service. The high-security federal penitentiary operated from 1934 to 1963.

The closure, decided under Attorney General Robert Kennedy, took place on March 21, 1963. The reasons: an operating cost per inmate nearly three times higher than at other federal prisons, buildings eaten away by salt spray, and an island with no fresh water, supplied by boat. The June 1962 escape hastened the decision. From November 1969 to June 1971, Native Americans occupied the island, an episode the NPS presents as the starting point of their sovereignty movement.

Frequently asked questions

Our sources

• National Park Service, Alcatraz Island (nps.gov/alca): Plan Your Visit, Fees & Passes, Operating Hours & Seasons, Accessibility, consulted on 16 October 2026
• Alcatraz City Cruises (alcatrazcitycruises.com), official concessionaire: ticket office, FAQ, « Temporary Closure » page, consulted on 16 October 2026
• NOAA / National Weather Service: 1991–2020 normals, San Francisco Downtown station, taken from our San Francisco page
• Astronomical calculations: NOAA solar algorithm, IANA time zone America/Los_Angeles, applied by Destination de Voyage; great-circle distances between public coordinates
• National Park Service, Alcatraz « History & Culture » (military and penitentiary periods, Native American occupation), consulted on 16 October 2026; Wikipedia, « Alcatraz » article (reasons for the closure), consulted on 16 October 2026
• Our methodology

Updated November 2026. Prices and hours may change: check the official website before you go.