My husband & I will be in San Francisco for the first time next week & were thinking of doing the night tour, but it seems to take a big chunk out of one of our 3 nights there. Is it really all that? I'm from NYC & a little jaded when it comes to tourist traps. Locals- please advise.

Jacquee,

You would be better off skipping Alcatraz. It is the ultimate tourist trap. Unfortunately now, SF has quite a few of them. Could you convice your former Mayor Rudy Giuliani to come here to SF to clean up our city like he did in NYC? I was so impressed with how he turned The City around. SF seems much like NYC was before the days of Mayor Giuliani.

I've never been on the night tour, but I've been to Alcatraz several times. I have enjoyed it every time. The island has a lot of history, the guides are very knowledgable - they are all state park rangers if I remember correctly - and the views of the city and the bridge are great. I imagine that with the night tour, you will get some great views of the city lights.

Tom - what's your definition of a tourist trap?

DO IT! We didn't and I've been sorry ever since. Every one that I know that did it said it was well worth it.

Jacquee, I may be wrong but I believe it would be too late to get tickets for a night tour...oh, I'm sure you could get them for a marked-up price, but I tried to get some for next Friday 2 months ago and the official website was sold out.

Does anyone else know how/where to get tickets?

J Correa,

Fisherman's Wharf is another place that I would refer to as a tourist trap. There are also many tourist trap shops in the Union Square area as well.

Definitely would skip it. We found it to be a waste of time. Wish we had explored more of SF's unique neighborhoods or other points of interest outside of SF.

Tom - that was an example, not a definition. What is it specifically about Alcatraz that makes it a tourist trap?

I'm just trying to get an idea of your perspective.

J Correa,

I think that everyone on this board knows the definition of a tourist trap. There is no need to explain it. If you do not know it, I suggest you look it up in a dictionary.

Yes, recruit Rudy...we sure could use his help us here. Sorry, I don't know about the night trip to Alcatraz. I've been in the daytime and enjoyed it. Ken

Main Entry: tourist trap
Function: noun
Date: 1939
: a place that attracts and exploits tourists

We enjoyed our tour of Alcatraz. I'm from Chicago (originally NYC) and don't like tourist traps either. We did visit Alcatraz, but didn't spend any time at the restaurants or things at the wharf (the tourist trap part of the area IMHO).

Alcatraz has alot of history and the audio handset walks you through some of it. That being said, I wouldn't do a night tour for the exact reason you specified. Why not take a couple hours during the day and save the nights for dinner and drinks on the town.

Geez Tom, lighten up.

As I said, I was just trying to get an idea of where you are coming from. I enjoy Alcatraz, you said it was the ultimate tourist trap. I was just wondering what is it about Alcatraz, in your opinion, that makes it such a tourist trap.

Does it qualify simply because it attracts a lot of tourists? In that case, the whole city would be catagorized as a tourist trap. In fact, if that is the criteria, then the entire state would have to catagorized as a tourist trap.

In my opinion, a tourist trap is a place that attracts a lot of tourists AND has no local cultural or historical value.

Alcatraz definitely has local historical and cultural value.

Another vote for a visit to Alcatraz. It was very memorable. I won't spoil it for you, but assuming they're still doing the tour the way they did it several years back, there was one segment that still sticks in my mind!

Thanks for the definintion Suzy.

Alcatraz definitely attracts tourists. Does it exploit them? I don't think so.

Another vote to do Alcatraz. I live in Manhattan and thought it would be boring, but it was fun and interesting---and anything that gets you on a boat in the Bay is a big plus.

Do also check out the funky neighborhoods, but a few hours at Alcatraz is worthwhile if the topic interests you.

I did not find Alcatraz to be very impressive at all. It is not worth your time.

J Correa/J/CF/xxx,

Please, enough already. It is obvious you are posting under different names just to convince Jacquee to go to Alcatraz. How odd i it that all of a sudden there are all these people posting who are from Manhattan or origianlly from NYC? Are you getting a financial incentive for getting people to waste their time and money at Alcatraz?

Jacquee,

Sorry that you have to be exposed to people such as J Correa. Whenever someone disagrees with them they always need to have the last word. Run, don't walk from J Correa's advice. She works for the SF Vistor's Bureau.

To xxx:

Yup. It's all a big conspiracy to get jacquee4 to go to Alcatraz. Damn, you found us out. There goes the big payola we were getting.

Geez, do you also think the little men in white are coming to take you away? Then again, maybe they should. Time to up the dosage on those meds.