We almost got scammed when we wanted to visit the Statue of Liberty in New York. By sharing my experience, I hope to avoid other visitors from getting scammed. Read my post to find out all about visiting the Statue of Liberty.
PS: Are you planning a romantic getaway to New York City with your loved one? Check out these unforgettable things to do in New York City, especially for couples.
When planning a trip to the Statue of Liberty, you need to be aware of the following things:
A visit to the iconic Statue of Liberty canβt be missed when youβre in New York – you just need to plan it carefully π.
Travel Photography for Couples
Learn more about taking your own travel pictures as a couple in my book:
As a travel couple, do you ever wish to travel back to a place, just to take better pictures together? I sure know I do! Thatβs why in this book, I am sharing everything we wish we knew about taking pictures together when we first started travelling as a couple. Read more…
Where to buy your tickets
The ferries to Liberty Island depart from Battery Park. As soon as we entered Battery Park, we saw massive queues of people waiting to embark their ferry. Thatβs when a sales guy started talking to us, trying to sell us βskip-the-queueβ tickets.
Of course it sounded like an attractive option to skip the queues and visit Liberty Island with an alternative tour operator, but I felt like there was a catch. I asked the sales guy if we would be allowed to disembark at Liberty Island with his tickets. He said yes, but I still didnβt trust it.
So I asked the sales guy if I could see the tickets before we buy. The tiny little letters on the ticket read that passengers wouldnβt be allowed to disembark on Liberty Island, but that the boat will dock in front of Liberty Island for 15-20 minutes. I would have been so disappointed if we bought these βskip the queueβ tickets! Just imagine what the pictures from the boat would have looked likeβ¦.
The official ticket selling point is at Castle Clinton in Battery Park. From the outside, it looks like a round fort, in the shape of a circle. This is where they sell tickets that allow you to disembark at Liberty Island. Here are some pictures of what the official ticket sales point looks like:
If you buy your tickets anywhere else, just make sure you read the terms and conditions carefully, and donβt fall for any scams.
Book your tickets in advance
It was only 1:30 pm when we made it to the official ticket point in Castle Clinton, but the tickets to Liberty Island were already sold out for that day. We were a little surprised, because the last boat from Battery Park was departing at 3:30 pm that day.
Luckily, we had one more day in New York, so we booked our tickets for the 9:30 am ferry the next day. So, if you donβt want to miss out on a trip to the Statue of Liberty, make sure to book your tickets in advance:
We bought a standard ticket that gave us access to both Liberty Island and Ellis Island. Our ticket included a pre-recorded audio tour for the Immigration Museum on Ellis Island, which we found really interesting. The New York skyline views from Ellis Island were also very nice:
Where to queue
The next morning, we arrived at Battery Park with our pre-purchased tickets. Although we booked our tickets for the first ferry that morning, there was already a queue. Not knowing that there were different types of queues, we just joined the only queue we saw (which was of course the longest!).
After waiting for 10 minutes or so, we saw people from our queue moving to another queue. So Jordi decided to find out what the other queue was for, while I was holding our place in the queue we were already in.
Turned out that there is a Flexible ticket queue (which is the long one we joined) and a Reserved ticket queue (which was a lot shorter). If you have a ticket with a date and time on it, you should join the reserved ticket queue. The flexible ticket queue is for people who have a ticket without a date or time on it. It was lucky we moved queues before we would have missed our ferry!
What (not) to bring
Before embarking the ferry from Battersea Park, you will have to pass an airport-like security check. So donβt bring anything that wouldnβt pass the checks in the airport, like sharp and dangerous items.
It is also not allowed to bring large bags, but we were allowed to bring a backpack. Most importantly, tripods are allowed (oh, and so are umbrellas, just in case you’re visiting on a rainy day)! π
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