Alcatraz Island

Some of you might have wondered why I didn’t mention Alcatraz yesterday when I wrote about San Francisco, but that is because Alcatraz was so amazing I decided it deserved its own post. In my opinion, it is compulsory to visit Alcatraz when you’re in San Francisco. It is absolutely amazing to walk around and the audio guide was spectacular.

Alcatraz Island is a small island located in the San Francisco bay only 2.4 km offshore from San Francisco. The Rock, as it is also called, is one of the main sights of the town that attracts thousands of tourists every year. Because it is so popular I would recommend buying tickets about two weeks before you arrive. Then you are certain that you will experience this famous old prison.

Like I said, Alcatraz is an old prison and one of the reasons why it is so famous is because of the many escape attempts. Some of America’s most wanted inmates served their time behind the walls, such as Robert “Birdman” Stroud, George “Machinegun” Kelly and Al Capone. And because of all these bad inmates it is no surprise that some of them attempted to escape. During 29 years, 36 people were involved in 14 attempts; 23 were caught, six were shot and killed during their escapes and three were lost at sea and never found. Those last three, Frank Morris, John Anglin and Clarence Anglin, have actually become famous because of their escape because no one knows if they survived. It has been made several films based around the prison itself and the escape and the most famous one is perhaps the 1971 film Escape from Alcatraz starring the legendary Clint Eastwood.

Walking around the prison was quite powerful and we could actually see the cells where the inmates had escaped. It must have taken them forever to dig through those walls but apparently they thought it was worth it. Now they are down in history because of what the escape.

When walking around Alcatraz you have an audio guide who talks about the cells and the dining hall and how it was like to be a prisoner there. Some of the people talking are previous inmates and correctional officers. Hearing them talking and explaining about the old days were very powerful because I knew they knew what they were talking about. I also believe that this is one of the best audio tours in America, and for good reason. The tour takes about 45 minutes, but you can pause the guide and walk around and read the posters and take your time. I learned so much and I am very glad we got to experience this when we had first travelled so far.

I really recommend visiting Alcatraz, it was absolutely amazing!

If you are interested in travelling and to see some tips of the places we were this summer, then I have covered Los Angeles, Celebrity Tour, Disney Land, Universal Studios, San Diego, Ghost Tour, Sea World, Lake Havasu, Grand Canyon, Hoover Dam, Las Vegas and San Francisco.

All of the pictures are my own.