Visiting Miss Liberty is of course on your list!  So many options, which is best?

There are a number of options to consider when visiting the Statue of Liberty.  A number of tours are available for a fabulous price, or you can take the Staten island ferry for free. I have done both and I cannot understand why you would take the free ferry and so the statue from miles away when you have come all the way to NYC.  So, I am not even going there to tell you about my very disappointing experience on the Staten Island Ferry.

 “Grab a crown ticket 2 months before if you can, it's so worth it.” 

Two months before our departure to NYC I got online to check out available tickets.  Being so far in advance, crown tickets for the day we wanted were available. Click Here to get your crown tickets from the main authorised seller, statuecruises.com.

Thinking it would cost us a small fortune, I was pleasantly surprised to discover it was a tiny bit more to climb up the inside of Liberty.  Why climb up you ask?  Because, why not!   To see the internal structure of this amazing monument is breath taking. The view from the top is awesome.  Who ever knew that people are looking out from her head every day.    Not realising they shut down lots of trains on the weekend we got a bit caught up finding different lines to get us to Lower Manhattan to the South Ferry Terminal at Battery park, the southern tip of lower Manhattan. This is a different dock to the Staten island Ferry we finally arrived at the end of Line 2 platform walking start to the ferry.

Statue of Liberty Ferry

There was lots of signage pointing the way. We walked straight up to the pre-paid line and even though we were there at 12:30 and our tickets were for 1pm we were told to go straight onto the next ferry. Note that this isn't for the ferry itself as they leave constantly, this is for the security screening so people go through in batches.

"Make sure arrive 30 minutes prior your security entry." 

From then, it’s a long but quick line up to get on the ferries. Once on the ferry, we climbed up to the second floor for great photos of the Liberty, the views forward and back were beautiful.  Look over the Manhattan skyline and look forward to the Statue coming into view.

Statue of Liberty

As you arrive at Liberty park itself you will get the most amazing photos on arrival.

Statue of Liberty

Once we landed, we walked through ticketing and security. Luckily, we brought our ID as requested.


It was now time to climb her.  I must say you feel very special lining up at the souvenir shop with the chosen few!  First section was up to the pedestal. Then on and up the 200 spiralling steep and very narrow staircase right up the middle to the crown.  You ascend for a very long way.  While not difficult, you wouldn't want to have bad knees!

Inside Statue of Liberty

Once at the top of her head there are small windows to look out.  Take your time, as there is no rush.  Everyone is polite and take turns looking our and marvelling at the structure.


Climbing back down was very easy ending up in the overpriced souvenir shop. We then took a quick tour of the small museum at the bottom showing how she was constructed and old archived parts including her bronze face.

Take great photos outside and then back onto the ferry to Ellis Island.

Ellis Island 

Arriving at Ellis Island, I was very excited and intrigued, being an English teacher of newly arrived student from different countries.  Sadly, I was a bit disappointed.

Ellis Island

While the building itself is stunning, inside is very empty. There are very few artefacts, considering the size of the place, and many very open rooms of nothing. This is a site for local Americans finding their history and roots.  Lots of people were searching for names of family members who came through here and so for us it didn't hold as much significance as it does for them.

Ellis Island Great Hall

I was glad we went, as it was part of the tour, but wouldn't go again.  We spent about 40 minutes at Ellis Island but this was a very rushed look at this stage. As we finished a ferry arrived so we raced to board the ferry as it was very cold to be standing on a pier and arrived back at Battery Park.  Take some stunning photos of the famous Manhattan skyline on your way back.


Our complete tour took 3 1/2 hours though could probably spend longer with this tour but we felt we had done it justice and certainly had enough photos to prove it. Once back, the magic of Lower Manhattan was waiting to be explored