Alcatraz - day or evening?
 

I'm taking a trip to SF and trying to decide between the day and evening Alcatraz tours. The night time one seems like it would be fun and spooky, but the day time trip is almost half as much! Is the evening tour worth the extra cost?

In my opinion, you'd be better off SEEING Alcatraz. The night tours sound like fun, but the view from your boat of the city and of Alcatraz itself during the day are second to none.

ttt

In a word: Day.

We took the evening tour a few weeks back. It was the last tour at 5:10pm. I can't imagine it would be much different than the day tour. It was full daylight except for the boat ride back where the sky had started to change colors over the city. It made for some interesting pictures. Far from being spooky as I too expected. My advice...choose the time that is most convenient!

We did it during the day and it was very enjoyable. The blue skies made for excellent picture taking.

I though that the night tours offered guided tours of parts of the facility, but that day tours included only the audioguide. Is that correct? The audioguide is great, and you get that with the night tours also. But the guided tours (we saw one of how the door locks work) are really interesting, and offer info beyond what is in the audioguide. Also, I think the "night" tours are really timed such that you arrive on the island before sunset, but head back to the mainland after sunset. So, you see the island and prison just fine in daylight, and you have views of the skyline in both light and dark, and can see the sunset.

If it fits your schedule, it can be a lot of fun to go at night!

Also, the day tour is $11 without the audio tour or $16 with. The night tour is $23.50 but includes the audiotour. I cannot recommend going and not doing the audiotour. It's fantastic! So then the evening tour is only $7.50 more, not double.

we did the night trip and loved it. I do not feel like we missed anything by the night time.

It was very interesting and probably worth the extra money.

I've lived here nearly my entire life and I've never been to Alcatraz.

I do recommend a catamaran sunset cruise. A person can buy tickets for this (maybe online by now) at a ticket booth at the eastern portion of Fisherman's Wharf.

I also recommend Muir Woods if you're hikers.

The Exploratorium is excellent if you have kids with you - or if you have the senses of a bon vivant.

We did the night tour at 23.50 including audiotour. Great audio tour. Other poster who said you go out in daylight,walk around in daylight and finish with a nighttime boat ride back. so you get the best, daytime views of SF and nighttime as well. I also liked that it allowed us to fit one more must do thing into the day. We came home from the tour and went right to dinner.

We also took a "Segway" tour which my 14 year LOVED. The tour part was OK but riding around on the Segways was a blast even for my 50 year old husband and I. You go all along the wharf, down to the Marina district and back.