Every good island day starts at a ticket window. This is which boat to take.
How long the crossing is, whether the fast boat is worth the extra, what happens to your suitcase and your hire car, and which sailings sell out in August. Reviews of ferries, water taxis and island transfers you can book before you fly.
Four ferries: Liberty Island, Lobos, Rottnest, the Princes’ Islands.
Four short crossings that carry more travellers than anything else on the site. What each ticket costs, how long you are on the water, and what the people who sailed say.
01The harbour runStatue of Liberty & Ellis Island with FerryTwenty minutes out of Battery Park, two islands, and the only angle on the statue that is worth the queue.
02The cheap oneReturn Ferry Ticket to Lobos Island FuerteventuraCorralejo to Lobos and back in a morning. Fifteen minutes each way, and the island has no cars on it.
03The bike-and-boatRottnest Island Full-Day Bike and Ferry TripThe Fremantle boat to Rottnest with a bike waiting at the jetty. The island is flat and the quokkas are unbothered.
04The commuter ticketRound-Trip Ferry Tickets to the Princes’ IslandsA round-trip on the Princes’ Islands boat, sold the way locals buy it. Take the outside deck seats.
In San Francisco and New York the ferry is the sightseeing boat.
Two harbours run the busiest tourist ferries on earth, and both sell out. Here is what a seat on each costs and how far ahead to buy it.
Ferry countries, from the Canary Islands to the Andaman Sea.
Eight places where the timetable shapes the trip: an archipelago you island-hop by fast cat, a coast the hydrofoils serve better than the road, and harbours where the commuter boat is also the best tour in town.
A return ferry ticket, or a whole day with the crossing included.
The same crossing sells two ways. Buy the ticket alone and the day is yours; buy the day trip and someone meets you at the jetty with the bus, the bike or the lunch already arranged.
Alcatraz, Robben Island, Comino: the boat is the ticket.
Some islands admit nobody who has not booked the sailing first. One operator, a fixed number of seats a day, and an entry time printed on the boarding pass. These are the crossings where the ferry and the attraction are the same purchase.
The ferry crossings more people book than any others.
Every crossing we have reviewed →The sailings that carry the most travellers on the site, and what earns each of them the slot.
1
Statue of Liberty & Ellis Island with Ferry
Take a self-guided ferry trip to Liberty Island and Ellis Island, starting from the booked departure point in New Jersey or New York. See Lady Liberty up close, view the original torch, explore the Immigration Museum, and use audio guides in 12 languages. Allow four to six hours.
From · $19
Read our review →
2
Muir Woods and Sausalito (Return by Bus or Ferry)
from $91
3
Water Taxi All Day hop-on hop-off Venice of America Boat Tour
from $38
4
Fort Sumter Admission and Self-Guided Tour with Roundtrip Ferry
from $43
5
Boston to Martha’s Vineyard Day Trip with Optional Island Tour
from $129
6
Return Ferry Ticket to Lobos Island Fuerteventura
from $20
7
Fort Sumter Entry Ticket with Roundtrip Ferry
from $43
8
Rottnest Island Full-Day Bike and Ferry Trip
from $84
What a ferry ticket costs, and what the boat costs when there is no ferry.
Every crossing on the site, grouped by price. A commuter ferry and a chartered water taxi cover the same stretch of water for wildly different money.
Harbour ferries, island return tickets and the short hops that locals use as a bus.
Landmark island tickets, fast boats between islands, and day trips with the crossing built in.
Long sea days, private water taxis and the ferry-plus-guide trips that fill a whole day.
Symi, Capri and the Venetian lagoon: the Mediterranean by ferry.
This is the sea that invented the day boat. An hour out of Rhodes to a harbour stacked in ochre, fifty minutes from Naples to the Faraglioni, and a lagoon where the bus route floats.
Every Mediterranean crossing →
Four ferries that will not wait for you.
Most crossings can be bought at the pier an hour before departure. These four run on capped sailings, seasonal timetables and boarding times printed weeks in advance.
- 01Alcatraz Ticket, Ferry, & Self-Guided AppOne operator runs the only boat to the island, seats are capped per sailing, and summer dates go weeks ahead.
- 02Rottnest Island Full-Day Bike and Ferry TripA handful of sailings a day out of Perth and Fremantle, and the island caps how many people are on it.
- 03Capri Guided Tour with Ferry Tickets & MinibusHydrofoils out of Naples thin out sharply once the season ends, and the last boat back is earlier than you think.
- 04Return Day Trip Ferry Ticket to TallinnThe Gulf of Finland day trip only works on the early sailing. Miss it and the return leg no longer fits.
The meltemi, the mistral and the monsoon all cancel ferries.
Small fast craft go first. A conventional ferry keeps running in a swell that grounds the hydrofoil, a bus-and-ferry combination routes around the exposed stretch entirely, and a water taxi will cross a sheltered harbour on a day nothing else moves. Build the reserve day in before you need it.
Three crossings you cannot make any other way.
Bridges and tunnels have taken most of the world’s short sea routes. These three are still boat-only, and two of them cross something bigger than water.
Tarifa to Tangier
The Strait of Gibraltar is fourteen kilometres of open water at its narrowest, and the fast ferry out of Tarifa crosses it in about an hour. You leave a Spanish windsurfing town at breakfast and walk into a Moroccan medina before lunch, with a passport stamp collected on board. Sailings suspend when the levante wind gets up, which it does often enough to be worth a flexible ticket.
- 1Tangier Day Trip with Lunch and Ferry★★★★★★★★★★ 4.3 · 631 reviews
- 2Cultural excursion for one day to Tangier with ferry included★★★★★★★★★★ 4.0 · 577 reviews
- 3Tangier Private Tour with Ferry & Lunch from Tarifa★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 432 reviews
Alcatraz and Robben Island
Two prison islands, two harbours, one arrangement: the ferry operator is also the ticket office, and there is no other way ashore. Alcatraz sells its sailings weeks ahead in summer and the audio tour starts the moment you land. Robben Island runs from the V&A Waterfront and turns back when the swell in Table Bay says so.
- 1Statue of Liberty & Ellis Island with Ferry★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 18,683 reviews
- 2Alcatraz Ticket, Ferry, & Self-Guided App★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 2,460 reviews
- 3Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island Guided Tour with Ferry★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 2,189 reviews
The Bosphorus boats
Istanbul commutes between Europe and Asia on public ferries, and the same boats are the best sightseeing platform in the city. Tea is poured on deck, gulls follow the stern the whole way, and a round trip out to the Princes’ Islands costs less than a museum ticket. Go on a weekday if you want a seat by the rail.
- 1Guided Food Tour with Ferry Ride and Tastings★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 770 reviews
- 2Round-Trip Ferry Tickets to the Princes’ Islands★★★★★★★★★★ 4.1 · 586 reviews
- 3Asian Side Walking Tour with Ferry Ride★★★★★★★★★★ 4.4 · 224 reviews
By port, from San Francisco to Sydney
Six Mediterranean ferries, Tarifa to Istanbul.
Tarifa
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