For beauty & photography, Alcatraz Island is hit or miss.
The cellhouse audio tour is genuinely gripping, with former inmates' voices in your ears as fog rolls past the bars. Then a few hundred people shuffle the same corridor with you.
Alcatraz City Cruises is the only operator authorized to land passengers on the island; tickets open 90 days ahead and summer weekends sell out fast · cityexperiences.com
The ticket includes the round-trip ferry from Pier 33 and the award-winning Cellhouse Audio Tour, narrated in part by former inmates and officers · nps.gov