Tour to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island +/- the highlights of Downtown

The question: ”Where the Statue of Liberty is located?” is confidently answered by any tourist: "In New York, of course!" To which an experienced licensed tour guide in New York City will answer: “Well, not really” :). You will learn about where this first symbol of New York is actually located, what is its full name, when, how and by whom it was built and presented, also what a gigantic role it played and still plays in life of Americans - you will learn about all this on our tour to the Statue of Liberty. And as always with New York Tours Plus - your unforgettable and non-trivial photo session is guaranteed!

This 5-hour tour might be called a walking tour, but technically it is a “boat/walking” tour. After all, the Statue of Liberty is located on the island of the same name in Upper New York Bay and it is very difficult to get there on foot without water transport. Therefore, we use the boat with the services along Battery Park - Liberty Island - Ellis Island - Battery Park route. We will purchase your boat tickets in advance (these tickets are paid additionally, $25 for adults and $15 for children).

Island, Pedestal or Crown? 

If you book this tour to the Statue of Liberty in advance, at least a week in advance, then, as a rule, we go up to the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty. If the reservation takes place 2-3 days in advance, then our many years of experience suggests that there may not be tickets for the pedestal left, and then we will simply visit the Liberty Island without going to the pedestal. For information on how not to get into the Statue's crown, see the end of the description under the footnote *.

How the time of the tour is distributed? 

Our tour has of three unequal parts: 

1) Liberty Island;

2) Ellis Island and

3) Downtown of Manhattan.

 

We usually spend most of our time on Liberty Island, then visit the Ellis Island Immigration Museum, and the rest of the time we spend on a few major attractions in lower Manhattan, based on the principle of “we see as much as we can in the tour time that left”. But you may skip Ellis Island stop and go through the full program in Downtown. Or you can visit everything at once: both Liberty Island with the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Islands with the Immigration Museum plus completely go through all the main attractions of Downtown, but for this you will have to aim for additional tour time (one extra hour costs $100). We discuss all these options with you in advance.

During this tour you will see the following sights:

• Liberty Island and the Statue of Liberty Museum;

• Statue of Liberty and (if tickets are available) - the pedestal of the Statue; 

• Ellis Island and Immigration Museum; (You can skip this point, if you wish, and then you will see the following attractions in Downtown): 

• Battery Park; 

• A statue of a Charging Bull that brings financial and all kinds of good luck; 

• Wall Street, the building of the New York Stock Exchange and the Federal Reserve building;

• Church of the Holy Trinity and the architecture of lower Broadway; 

• 9/11 memorial - where the twin towers of the World Trade Center stood; 

• Oculus building, underground passages under the Memorial.

—————-

*An important question that most of  tourists raise: it was possible before to get into the crown of the Statue of Liberty, for which you had to buy named tickets a few months ahead of the tour. Now, starting from 2020, “the Statue has a headache”, that is, visiting the crown of the Statue is closed and tickets to it are not sold. Not for sale at all.

 

This is a private tour, a licensed sightseeing guide of New York City is at your disposal throughout the entire tour.