Alcatraz
Whether by car or Caltrain (free for most Stanford students/postdocs), it is really easy to travel to San Francisco from Stanford.
Once there, you can take a ferry from Pier 33 to Alcatraz Island, the home to the famous Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary.
For tickets and more information, visit Alcatraz Cruises’ official website here.
Both daytime passes (~$40) and nighttime passes (~$50) are available.
The ferry has a nice view of the prison, the city as well the Golden Gate Bridge, and the island’s fauna and flora are quite beautiful in contrast to the eerie prison.
Though this maximum-security facility was shut down in 1963, it is now open to the general public.
It is a tourist hotspot due to its unique location, rich history, and for housing some of the country’s most infamous criminals.
I won’t go into detail of the prison’s history because the tour provides a free audio guide that has testimonies from both sides of life in the prison – tales from former inmates and from those who worked in the prison such as correctional officers.
Nobody does a better job explaining life on the island than those who actually lived there.
I did both the day and night tours, but I would advise doing the night tour if you have the chance.
First off, the atmosphere of the prison is simply amazing during the nighttime.
Additionally, there are fewer people during the night tour, and you may even find areas of the prison where you are by yourself; this gives you a sense of the chilling isolation that its inmates experienced.
Also, when the groups from the daytime tours leave the island, you have the option to choose from numerous presentations that demonstrate various aspects of life and events inside the prison.
For example, I chose to see a reenactment where the guards showed us how they open all of the doors for one row of cells.
I highly recommend checking this out.
Lastly, the night tour is great because you will get to see the prison/San Francisco both by day and night – you will depart before sunset and return at night.
It was really funny returning to the ferry because everyone was so spooked out by the tour and did not want to get left behind.
