Statue of Liberty & Ellis Island
In the Summer of 2019, we took a two week road trip north through and around New England seeing all the National Parks and Historical Monuments & Sites there is to see and collecting all the stamps possible in the process. Regrettably, on that trip I was not able to visit the Statue and Ellis Island.
Then on July 3rd, 2024 we finally made a family day of it and completely conquered all there is to do with a tour of both Islands and traveling the top of the crown itself!
We booked our ferry and tickets through Statue City Experiences which included the ferry ticket and passes to traverse all the steps through the pedestal and up the heart of the statue to the crown itself.
Visitors have the option to travel out of New Jersey or out of New York (from Castle Clinton). If making the journey from the Jersey side, the best course of action is to plan to visit and tour Ellis Island and the Ellis Island museum first followed by Liberty Island with the "Mother of Exiles" statue second. If boarding from New York, reverse that to visit the statue first followed by Ellis Island.
Tickets to traverse the steps into the crown sell out almost immediately, so plan accordingly. However, even with an 11am reservation for the crown and pedestal, on the day we arrived (which was quite busy), the actual time didn't really matter.
Scroll past the photos to read through details of how the visit works.
Tips and Stories from our Statue of Liberty Adventure:
How the visit works:
1) Arrive at the ticketing window and show reservation.
2) Visitors are given a colored wrist ban that must put on before the actual tickets are handed over. This wrist ban includes a note about what is allowed when visiting the crown: Water, Phone, Medication, and NO BAGS (including no purses). However, if visitors take a bag or purse to the island, there are lockers outside the pedestal that can be used to store them before entering the pedestal itself and starting the journey to the crown.
3) Visitors pass through TSA styled airport security before you board the Ferry. Visitors may keep their shoes on, but everything else from pockets (and apple watches) have to be removed.
4) Hop on the ferry. It takes about 10-15 minutes from Jersey port to Ellis Island. The crowd may seem large, but a lot of folks can be loaded into the multi leveled ferry.
5) Hop off at Ellis island, grab the Passport stamps, the Jr. Ranger sheet to earn the badges and then tour the museum. There are multiple levels and exhibits through and a cafe for grabbing a bite to eat if desired.
6) Re-board the Ferry and head to Liberty Island. It takes about 10 minutes to get from Ellis Island to Liberty Island. On Liberty Island, there is a Gift Shop (they have Passport stamps), an Information Center (they have Passport stamps), a cafe (overpriced and not very tasteful food), the museum (they have Passport stamps), and the pedestal/statue. At the entrance to the pedestal, visitors have to show their tickets, but the reservation times on the ticket were ignored.
7) Elevators are availble to take visitors to the pedestal level, but the steps are more fun. At the pedestal level, a Ranger is guardin the steps heading up to the crown. The ranger cuts off the wristband received earlier at the ticket booth and sends visitors on their way still ignoring the reservation on the tickets themselves.
8) The steps to the crown are narrow, but safe. Visitors with extreme claustrophobia or extreme fears of heights may have a difficult time, but all other visitors should be fine (assuming they can walk all 364 steps from ground to the crown).
8) After completing the journey up to the crown and back, the next stop would be the museum across the plaza from the statue to experience the exhibits and earn the junior ranger badge if that's on the to-do list.
When all was said and done, it took us a total of about 6 hours to thoroughly tour both islands, make our way to the crown, and have a less than good lunch at the cafe. There are excellent views of the New York City skyline, the weather in July was excellent (although it can get hot from time to time), and I thoroughly recommend this day of adventure to everyone of all ages.
