The best day out is often the one that leaves by boat.
Which crossing lands you on the island before the crowds. What a return ticket really costs. Whether the fast boat is worth the extra twenty dollars. Reviews of ferry trips you can book today, from San Francisco Bay to the Andaman Sea.
Four ferry crossings worth building a whole day around.
A landmark island, a prison rock, a bike run across the water and a border crossing that takes two hours. What each ticket costs, and what people say once they are back on the dock.
01The harbour classicStatue of Liberty & Ellis Island with FerryThe boat is the ticket to both islands. Take the earliest sailing: screening at the pier runs longer than the crossing itself.
02The prison rockAlcatraz Ticket, Ferry, & Self-Guided AppFifteen minutes out of Pier 33, and the only way onto Alcatraz. Sailings are timed and sell out weeks deep in summer.
03Bike aboardRottnest Island Full-Day Bike and Ferry TripWheel a bike onto the Rottnest boat at Perth and ride a car-free island all afternoon. The last sailing back is not negotiable.
04Another country by lunchReturn Day Trip Ferry Ticket to TallinnTwo hours across the Gulf of Finland puts you in Tallinn old town. The return ticket is cheaper than two singles and holds your seat home.
In the USA the ferry is not the transport. It is the ticket to the sight.
Liberty, Ellis, Alcatraz, Fort Sumter: you cannot walk to any of them, so the boat and the entry are one purchase. Three ways the American crossings sell, and what each costs to board.
Day trip, single ticket or return: three ways to buy a ferry.
The same stretch of water is sold three ways. A day trip wraps the boat around an island with a guide; a plain ticket is a seat and a sailing time; a return locks in the boat home before the afternoon queue builds.
The ferry crossings travellers actually queue for.
Every crossing on the site →More people board these than anything else we have reviewed, and each one earns the traffic for a different reason.
1
Statue of Liberty & Ellis Island with Ferry
Board a Statue City Cruises ferry from Liberty State Park in Jersey City and explore Liberty Island and Ellis Island at your own pace. Your $19 ticket includes round-trip transport, multilingual audio guides, the Statue of Liberty Museum, and the Ellis Island National Immigration Museum. Plan on four to six hours, plus airport-style security.
From · $19
Read our review →
2
Fort Sumter Admission and Self-Guided Tour with Roundtrip Ferry
from $43
3
Waiheke Island: Ferry & Hop-On Hop-Off Explorer Bus Tickets
from $59
4
Boston to Martha’s Vineyard Day Trip with Optional Island Tour
from $129
5
Return Ferry Ticket to Lobos Island Fuerteventura
from $20
6
Fort Sumter Entry Ticket with Roundtrip Ferry
from $43
7
Victoria & Butchart Gardens Tour with Ferry from Vancouver
from $228
8
Rottnest Island Full-Day Bike and Ferry Trip
from $84
Six countries where a ferry ticket buys the best day of the trip.
Harbour crossings in the States, island runs off Western Australia, the Canary hops, the Bay of Naples, the Andaman piers and the long Pacific reach out of Vancouver. Pick a country and start at its water.
Australia runs its best islands on a ferry timetable.
Rottnest before the day-trippers land, Moreton across the bay from Brisbane, Taronga on a commuter boat that happens to cross the finest harbour in the world. The crossings are short, the islands are car-free, and summer weekends sell out at the ticket window.
- 1Rottnest Island Full-Day Bike and Ferry Tripfrom $84
- 2Blue Mountains, Scenic World, Zoo, & Ferry Ridefrom $139
- 3From Perth or Fremantle: Rottnest Island Ferry and Bus Tourfrom $99
What a ferry ticket costs, band by band.
Every crossing we have reviewed, grouped by what you pay to board. A surprising amount of the best water in the world sits in the first column.
Harbour crossings, island singles and the commuter boats that double as a sightseeing run.
Full-day island runs with an entry ticket, a bike or lunch folded into the fare.
Private boats, long crossings and the day trips that put you in another country by lunch.
Three crossings where the boat outshines the destination.
Plenty of ferries are just transport. These three are the part of the day people describe afterwards: the approach to a prison island, the water going turquoise as the island appears, and a bike rolling off the bow onto a car-free road.
Islands you can only reach by boat
Alcatraz, Liberty, Ellis, Robben Island, Fort Sumter: every one of them is a short crossing with a long story, and the boat is the only door. The approach does the work a coach tour never manages, because you watch the place get bigger for fifteen minutes before you land on it. Sailings are timed and capped, which is why they sell out before the sight itself does.
- 1Statue of Liberty & Ellis Island with Ferry★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 18,683 reviews
- 2Alcatraz Ticket, Ferry, & Self-Guided App★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 2,460 reviews
- 3Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island Guided Tour with Ferry★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 2,189 reviews
The hop that changes the colour of the sea
Somewhere between the mainland pier and the island jetty the water stops being harbour grey and turns the colour of the brochure. Comino, Lobos, Phi Phi, Koh Lanta, La Graciosa. The boats are small, the crossings are twenty minutes to an hour, and the return sailing is the only appointment in the day.
- 1Robben Island Ferry Ticket and Guided Prison Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.1 · 1,792 reviews
- 2Robben Island Ferry Tour with 1-Way Hotel Pickup★★★★★★★★★★ 4.2 · 1,380 reviews
- 3From Perth or Fremantle: Rottnest Island Ferry and Bus Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 1,246 reviews
Bike on, bike off
Ferries take bicycles, which turns a crossing into a loop: ride out of the city, roll onto the boat, ride back on the far shore. San Francisco to Sausalito and the Rottnest run are the two everybody knows. Book the bike a slot as well as yourself; the racks fill before the seats do.
- 1Rottnest Island Full-Day Bike and Ferry Trip★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 2,548 reviews
- 2Rottnest Island Ferry and Bike Day Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 805 reviews
- 3San Francisco Golden Gate To Sausalito Bike Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 751 reviews
Four ferry rules that decide how the day goes.
A boat leaves without you. Everything else follows from that one fact: the timed slot, the summer sell-out, the last sailing back, and the queue at the security shed that is longer than the crossing.
- 01Alcatraz Ticket, Ferry, & Self-Guided AppEntry is a timed sailing with a hard cap, and summer dates go weeks ahead. There is no turning up at Pier 33 and hoping.
- 02Rottnest Island Full-Day Bike and Ferry TripThe island has no late boat. Whatever you do out there is bounded by the last sailing back to Fremantle.
- 03Statue of Liberty & Ellis Island with FerryAirport-style screening at the pier takes longer than the crossing. The first boat of the morning is the only quiet one.
- 04Return Day Trip Ferry Ticket to TallinnThe day-trip fare is tied to a specific pair of sailings. Miss the afternoon one and the next boat home is a hotel night.
Book the return, or the last ferry books you.
Almost every crossing sells both. A return is cheaper than two singles nearly everywhere, and more to the point it holds a seat on the boat home, which is the sailing that fills while you are still on the island.
By country — where the boat leaves from
Six harbours where the day starts at a ticket window.
Perth
HelsinkiThe ferry crossings we reviewed most recently.
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PRIVATE: Batam day tour with Ferry, 2-hour Massage and Lunch from Singapore
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SMALL GROUP: Batam day tour with Ferry, 1-hour Massage, and Lunch from Singapore
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Cat Rose: Praslin Island / La Digue Island Fast Ferry
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