Is the Statue of Liberty + Ellis Island Tour Worth It? (2026)

I love to wander a city. Preferably I’ll have my camera in hand, plenty of time, and a willingness to be sidetracked by anything interesting. Most of the time this works out well. Sometimes it ends with me having a lot of photos and very little idea of what I was actually looking at.

Whilst my blind wandering is satisfying enough on its own terms, it’s not always the best way to use a limited time in a city. So when we found ourselves in New York with three or four days and a long list of things we wanted to actually understand rather than just photograph, taking a few guided tours seemed sensible.

One of those tours was the Take Walks Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island tour. We did it back on a 2015 press trip and have been back to New York several times since, which gives us a useful mix of first-hand experience plus enough distance to look at it honestly: what’s still good, what’s changed, and whether you should book a guided tour at all rather than just hopping on the ferry yourself.

Take Walks is what we did, and we’d recommend it. The Ellis Island story doesn’t really land from a museum panel, and a good guide brings the immigration history to life in a way the audio guide doesn’t. The catch is cost: you’re paying roughly $35 a head more than booking the City Cruises ferry yourself. If you’d rather shop around for other operators, GetYourGuide and Viator both list alternatives. The question to start with is whether the guide premium is worth it for the kind of trip you’re planning.

What the Statue of Liberty + Ellis Island tour involves

Whichever operator you go with, a guided Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island tour follows roughly the same shape, because the boat schedule and what you can do on each island are set by the National Park Service rather than the tour company.

You meet your guide near Battery Park in lower Manhattan, generally early in the morning to beat the queues and the heat. From there it’s a short walk to the ferry terminal and the security check (treat it as airport-style: bags screened, no large backpacks, no food). You then board the only ferry licensed to land on the islands, operated by City Cruises (formerly Statue City Cruises), and a guide leads your group across the harbour to Liberty Island.

On Liberty Island your guide takes you around the base of the statue, into the museum, and (previously) up onto the pedestal itself for the view through the framework. After Liberty Island, the same ferry takes you across to Ellis Island, where the bulk of the tour focuses on the immigration history. You finish back at Battery Park about four hours after starting, give or take depending on the tour tier.

Our experience: meeting Lady Liberty

I’d visited New York before our 2015 trip and one of the things I’d skipped was the Statue of Liberty. So when Take Walks offered us the tour, it seemed like a good way to fix that gap. Our guide was Michael, a born-and-bred New Yorker who’d been leading tours in the city for over a decade.

The tour started early, with a 9am meet, which is the right call. By the time we got to the security line it was short. By the time we were on the boat the harbour wasn’t yet busy. Our guide gave the group some pointers on the best places on the ferry to stand for photographs (front of the upper deck if you can get there, port side for the approach to Liberty Island) and then largely left us alone for the crossing.

On Liberty Island proper, Michael regrouped us, gave a quick orientation, and then took us straight to the statue. There are several levels of access available: ground level only, pedestal level (the platform inside the base, with views up through the framework), or right up into the crown. Pedestal and crown are both subject to limited daily availability and need pre-booking before you arrive on the island.

Our 2015 tour included pre-booked pedestal access. We climbed the stairs to the feet of the statue and got a really good appreciation of just how big the thing is up close, plus a view of the Manhattan skyline that’s harder to come by elsewhere. We also got to peer up into the framework, which was more interesting than I’d expected.

One thing I particularly remember: Michael was unusually well versed in the best spots for photographs. He even took everyone’s photo in front of the statue, which involved laying flat out on the concrete to get the angle. As someone who spends a fair amount of time adopting strange poses to take pictures myself, I appreciated the effort more than most.

After the pedestal we went back down through the museum (which covers how the statue was made, why, and the trans-Atlantic shipping logistics, which are more interesting than they sound). Then it was back on the ferry across to Ellis Island.

Ellis Island is where the tour earned its keep. Over twelve million immigrants passed through the immigration hall here between 1892 and 1954, and around four in ten Americans have an ancestor who came through it. Michael’s storytelling here was the highlight of the day. The history of Ellis Island is a mix of hope, opportunity, and in a small but real percentage of cases, the crushing experience of being denied entry and put back on a boat. It’s a moving place to walk through, and having a guide who could thread the personal stories into the geography of the building made the difference.

What’s changed since our visit

A few things have shifted since 2015 that affect the value calculation. We’ve kept up with most of these on subsequent New York trips, but it’s worth flagging them clearly because they materially change which version of this tour to book.

The biggest single change is that pedestal access for tour groups has been restricted. The pre-booked pedestal access that was a feature of our tour is no longer available through Take Walks. A small number of niche third-party operators still bundle pedestal access into their guided tours, but for most visitors the cleaner path is to book pedestal tickets separately and well in advance directly via the National Park Service through City Cruises. This removes one of the strongest differentiators the guided tour used to have over going self-guided.

The brand has also rebranded. When we first did the tour, the operator was called Walks of New York, part of a wider Walks of [city] family that started in Italy. The whole group is now consolidated under the Take Walks name. The booking funnel and the tours are the same; the name on the receipt is different.

Take Walks’ New York lineup has narrowed considerably. Back in 2015 we did four tours with them: Statue of Liberty + Ellis Island, a behind-the-scenes Broadway theatres tour, a 9/11 memorial walk culminating at One World Observatory, and a Greenwich Village food tour. Three of those four no longer exist. Their current New York menu is essentially Statue of Liberty (in three tiers, more on which below), Met Museum tours, and a Grand Central Terminal tour. If you were hoping to combine the Statue of Liberty tour with one of their other New York walks, the options are thinner than they used to be.

None of that is a quality concern at the brand level. Take Walks are the same people we’ve used in Rome (their Vatican Key Master tour is one of our favourite tour experiences anywhere) and Paris. The reduction in New York coverage looks like a reshuffle rather than a problem with the operator.

Is a guided Statue of Liberty tour worth it?

Here’s the practical answer, with the caveats that follow.

Worth it if: you want the Ellis Island history told properly rather than picked up from museum panels; you’re short on time in New York and want someone else to handle the ferry timing and orientation; you’d otherwise spend the same morning getting a bit lost; or you have kids who’ll engage better with a story-told version than a self-guided one.

Not worth it if: you’re confident reading museum exhibits, you’ve got a spare four-plus hours and don’t mind a slower pace, you’re on a tight budget, or your main goal is photographs rather than context (you can stand in better spots for longer if you’re not on a guide’s schedule).

The downside is mostly cost. The cheapest guided option is around $59 per adult; the cheapest self-guided ticket (the City Cruises ferry, which includes both islands) is around $25. So you’re paying roughly $35 extra per person for the guide. For two people that’s $70. For a family of four, $140. For most visitors, having a guide walk you through Ellis Island justifies the premium. For visitors on a tight budget, the self-guided ferry plus the on-island audio guide gets you most of the experience for about a third of the price.

Our take, having done it: take the tour. Michael was a strong guide and the Ellis Island portion came to life in a way the audio guide can’t match. If you’re choosing on the merits rather than the price, the guided version is worth the premium. If your travel budget rules it out, the self-guided ferry is a respectable fallback rather than a poor substitute.

Guided versus self-guided: which way to go

If you’ve decided you want some kind of structured visit, the trade-offs go like this.

Guided tour pros: structure (you don’t have to think about ferry timing, queue strategy, or pacing), historical context delivered live, on-island guidance for the museum sections that aren’t always self-evident, and on a small-group tour you’ll often pick up details you wouldn’t have looked up on your own.

Guided tour cons: you’re locked to the group’s pace, which is usually faster than you’d choose for the museum sections and slower than you’d choose for the obvious photo spots. Cost is roughly two to three times the self-guided ferry. Quality varies by guide, and a weak guide on the Ellis Island portion meaningfully hurts the experience.

Self-guided pros: you set your own pace, you can spend an hour at a single museum panel if you want, you can stay on Ellis Island for as long as it stays open, and you’ll save money. The City Cruises ferry includes audio guides on the islands that cover the basics.

Self-guided cons: you’ll need to book the ferry well in advance, especially in summer (peak season can sell out a few weeks ahead). The audio guide is fine but not as engaging as a good live guide. And without structure, plenty of visitors blast through Ellis Island in twenty minutes when they’d have got more out of an hour.

If you’re already a confident museum-goer who likes to take their own time, self-guided is the right call. If you’re short on time, prefer a structured experience, or want a guide handling the logistics for you, the Take Walks Fully Guided tour is the option we’d point at first.

Statue of Liberty tour options compared

Here are the main paths, with what each costs at the time of writing and what you actually get.

• The Take Walks Fully Guided Statue of Liberty + Ellis Island Tour runs about 4 hours 25 minutes, from $59 per adult. This is the tour we did. It includes the ferry, both islands, and a guide for the entire visit. Group size is capped, typically at around 14. The right choice if you want the most comprehensive guided version.
• The Take Walks Statue of Liberty Express Tour runs about 2 hours 25 minutes, also from $59 per adult. It covers Liberty Island and Battery Park but skips Ellis Island. The pricing is identical to the longer tour, which is a strange call by Take Walks (you’d think the longer one would cost more). Worth considering if your time in New York is tight and you’d rather see the statue and skip the immigration history.
• The Take Walks Private Statue of Liberty + Ellis Island Tour runs about 4 hours 10 minutes, from $479 as a group rate (not per person). Same content as the Fully Guided tour but with just your group. Worth it for a family of four or five who’d rather not share the day with strangers.
• Self-guided ferry tickets via GetYourGuide start at $25 per adult General Admission. This is the City Cruises ferry, which includes access to both islands plus the on-island audio guides. The cheapest path that still gets you to both islands.
• Self-guided ferry direct via City Experiences matches the GetYourGuide prices. This is the official ferry operator’s own booking page. Use this if you’d rather book direct and have no need for the GetYourGuide booking app.

Looking for other guided operators? GetYourGuide’s Statue of Liberty category page lists smaller-operator tours that we haven’t personally taken. Viator’s listings cover similar ground. Tour quality on aggregator listings varies considerably (you’re really booking the individual operator, not the aggregator), so check recent reviews carefully before booking anything you can’t otherwise verify.

What you’ll photograph (and what you can’t)

Photography is one of the better reasons to take this trip and one of the more frustrating ones, depending on what you’re hoping to come away with.

The boat approach is one of the photo highlights of the whole day. From the upper deck of the City Cruises ferry, on the port side approaching Liberty Island, you get a clean shot of the statue against the harbour with the Manhattan skyline visible behind you. Get there early enough to claim a spot near the rail before the boat fills up. A 24-70mm or equivalent on a full-frame body covers most of what you’ll want here (see our best lenses for travel photography guide if you’re working out a kit). If you’re shooting on a phone, the standard wide lens is fine.

Ground-level shots of the statue from the path that circles Liberty Island are the standard postcard angle. The path on the south-west side of the island gives the cleanest framing because you don’t get the visitor centre roofs cutting into the bottom of the frame. Late morning light on the statue’s face is reasonable; harsh midday sun is less forgiving.

The pedestal-level view is where the access-policy change really lands. On a pedestal-included tour you used to get an upward view of the statue’s underside and out across the harbour to Manhattan. Both of those compositions are now only accessible if you’ve booked a pedestal ticket separately through the National Park Service. If you’re booking a tour primarily for the pedestal photos, the answer now is to book pedestal tickets separately, then choose a tour or self-guided depending on the rest of your priorities.

Ellis Island is a different photo problem. The Great Hall is a beautiful interior space with vaulted ceilings, but lighting is mixed (window-lit during the day, fluorescent in places) and people are everywhere. A wide lens (16-35mm or your phone’s ultrawide) lets you frame the architecture; a 50mm or equivalent works for the portraits-of-photos-on-walls shots in the museum sections. Bring a higher-ISO-capable body if you have one.

One last note for photographers: tripods aren’t allowed inside the statue or on the pedestal, and security at the ferry terminal screens for them. A small travel tripod can usually go through, but expect to keep it folded in your bag rather than deploying it on the islands.

The other Take Walks NYC tours we did, briefly

The Statue of Liberty tour was one of four we did with Take Walks back in 2015. The others were a behind-the-scenes Broadway theatres tour (which finished inside the New Amsterdam Theatre‘s costume room, where Jess got dressed up as Mary Poppins and I had a turn as Neptune), a 9/11 memorial walk that ended with the One World Observatory, and a Greenwich Village food tour built around Mario Batali‘s restaurants.

None of those three are bookable any more. The Mario Batali tour ended in 2018 for reasons that were widely reported and we won’t relitigate here. The Broadway tour has since been discontinued. The 9/11 walk has been retired without a current direct replacement. Take Walks now lists no Broadway, food, or 9/11 product in its New York range. That’s mostly why this article narrowed from a multi-tour review to a Statue of Liberty tour focus: the Statue of Liberty + Ellis Island tour is the one that stayed.

Booking tips

A few practical things we’ve learned from doing this tour and from other Take Walks tours:

• Book at least a week ahead in summer, two to three days ahead in shoulder season. The Fully Guided tour gets a “Likely to sell out” flag on the Take Walks site, which is reasonable rather than alarmist; weekend slots in July and August do book up.
• Take ID with you. The ferry security check has tightened over the years and a passport or driving licence is the safer bet, particularly for non-US visitors.
• Don’t bring a large bag. Anything bigger than a small day pack is a problem at the ferry terminal screening. A camera body plus one or two lenses is fine; a full kit bag will slow you down.
• Eat before you go. Food on the islands is overpriced and slow. The morning tour means you finish in time for a proper late lunch back in lower Manhattan, which is a better use of money.
• Wear comfortable shoes. You’re on your feet for most of four hours including a fair amount of stairs and uneven ground on Ellis Island.
• If you want pedestal or crown access, book that separately and well in advance through the National Park Service via City Cruises. This is no longer included in any guided tour. Pedestal slots can sell out weeks in advance in summer; crown books out months ahead.

Frequently asked questions

Is the Take Walks Statue of Liberty tour worth it?

If you want the Ellis Island history told properly and you’re short on time in New York, yes. If you’re a confident self-guided museum-goer or you’re on a tight budget, the self-guided ferry plus the included audio guide gets you most of the experience for about a third of the price.

Can you visit the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty on the Take Walks tour?

Not any more. Pedestal access is no longer included with any Take Walks tour. A small number of niche third-party operators still offer pedestal-included guided tours, but the most reliable path is to book pedestal tickets separately, in advance, directly through the National Park Service via City Cruises. The same applies to crown access.

How long is the Take Walks Statue of Liberty + Ellis Island tour?

The Fully Guided version is around 4 hours 25 minutes, including the ferry crossings to and from both islands. The Express version (Liberty Island only, no Ellis Island) is around 2 hours 25 minutes. The Private version is around 4 hours 10 minutes.

Is Ellis Island worth visiting?

Yes, more than the Statue itself in our view. The immigration history is moving and well-presented, and most visitors give it less time than it deserves. If you do go self-guided, plan an hour minimum on Ellis Island, ideally longer.

Do you need to take a guided tour, or can you do it yourself?

You can definitely do it yourself. The City Cruises ferry includes access to both islands and there’s an on-island audio guide for each. The case for a guided tour is mainly that the Ellis Island portion is significantly better with a good guide than with the audio guide, and that having someone manage the ferry logistics removes a layer of planning friction.

What time should I take the Statue of Liberty tour?

The earliest possible ferry. The 9am Take Walks slot gets you onto the boat before the queues build and gives you time to do both islands at a reasonable pace. By midday in summer, security queues at the ferry terminal can be over an hour, which eats your day badly.

Are the Statue of Liberty tours suitable for kids?

The Statue itself goes down well; Ellis Island is more variable. Younger children (under about eight) tend to lose interest in the immigration history. A guided tour can help here because a strong guide can pick out the parts that engage younger visitors, but it’s not a guaranteed fix. The Express tour, which skips Ellis Island, is worth considering for families with younger kids who won’t get a lot out of the longer version.

Further reading

If you’re planning a wider New York trip alongside the Statue of Liberty visit, our other guides cover the practical pieces:

• Our 2 day New York itinerary fits the Statue of Liberty into a focused weekend visit.
• Our 3 day New York itinerary gives you room to do pedestal or crown access on the second morning.
• How to get around New York City covers the subway, AirTrain, and how to reach Battery Park from anywhere in the city.
• New York attraction passes: whether the Statue of Liberty visit fits into a wider pass strategy (short answer: ferry tickets aren’t included in most passes, but plenty of attractions on a Day-2 pass-day are).

And if you’d like to learn more about why we keep coming back to Take Walks specifically, our Vatican Key Master tour review covers a tour we’ve done multiple times in Rome and consistently rate as one of the best guided tour experiences anywhere.

We did the original Take Walks Statue of Liberty + Ellis Island tour as part of a 2015 press partnership with Walks of New York (now Take Walks). We’ve been back to New York several times since at our own expense and have continued to rate the surviving tour on its own terms. Our code of ethics covers how we choose who to work with.