{"id":94608209,"date":"2012-06-28T10:33:00","date_gmt":"2012-06-28T10:33:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cheapoair.com\/miles-away\/family-travel-visiting-and-escaping-alcatraz-island\/"},"modified":"2014-09-25T09:19:09","modified_gmt":"2014-09-25T09:19:09","slug":"family-travel-visiting-and-escaping-alcatraz-island","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cheapoair.com\/miles-away\/family-travel-visiting-and-escaping-alcatraz-island\/","title":{"rendered":"Family Travel: Visiting (and Escaping) Alcatraz Island"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"Family Travel: Visiting (and Escaping) Alcatraz Island\" src=\"\/miles-away\/wp-content\/uploads\/files\/2012\/6\/AlcatrazIsland-IG.jpg\" alt=\"Family Travel: Visiting (and Escaping) Alcatraz Island\" width=\"450\" height=\"340\" align=\"middle\" \/><\/div>\n<p align=\"center\"><strong>Alcatraz Island<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Just one mile away from San Francisco\u2019s busy shore, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nps.gov\/alca\/index.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Alcatraz Island<\/a>, once the infamous federal prison, waits ready for exploration.\u00a0 Although visiting a federal prison might not seem up there on the top of your <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.cheapoair.com\/deals\/family-travel\">family vacation<\/a><\/strong> bucket list, school-age kids actually enjoy learning about the island\u2019s history while exploring the grounds.\u00a0 In addition to being known widely as a prison, Alcatraz Island served as a post in the Civil War, is home to the west coast\u2019s first lighthouse, and even hosted a Native American Indian occupation during the 1960s.\u00a0 Mix together all of this history with amazing views of the bay, wildlife, and city skyline, and you\u2019ve got a great family day trip!<\/p>\n<p>The island is maintained by the National Park Service and is accessible only by official charter through Alcatraz Cruises.\u00a0 A fifteen-minute boat ride whisks you and your family to \u201cThe Rock.\u201d\u00a0 You\u2019ll be greeted by a friendly park ranger when you arrive, who will debrief you on your visit and share a couple stories.\u00a0 Ask about the junior ranger program, the perfect fit for reading kids, available for free in the visitor center and gift shops.\u00a0 After hiking up numerous switchbacks to reach the top portion of the island (a shuttle is available for those unable to make the climb due to physical limitations), you will arrive at the audio tour start point.<\/p>\n<p>The Cellhouse Audio Tour is self-guided and available in numerous languages.\u00a0 It offers an inside look at the penitentiary\u2019s history as told by some of the former inmates and prison guards.\u00a0 Although smaller children are not likely to grasp everything being explained on the tour, kids as young as six or seven should be able to follow along with the tour quite nicely.\u00a0 Despite the great presentation, the tour is not for everyone.\u00a0 Although crime details are not discussed in exhaustive definition, the tour does mention a few grim details including discussing the Battle of Alcatraz, which included numerous deaths.<\/p>\n<p>Spend some time on the island after the tour exploring the abundant wildlife.\u00a0 The Junior Ranger activity booklet helps point you in the right direction.\u00a0 In addition to touring the cellhouse, families can explore information on the Civil War post and Native American Indian occupation in the exhibits and video rooms below the main buildings.<\/p>\n<p>Tours sell out well in advance in busy seasons, and reservations are more than highly recommended.<\/p>\n<p><em><br \/>\nDon&#8217;t forget to <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.twitter.com\/cheapoair\" target=\"_blank\">follow us on Twitter<\/a><\/strong> for exclusive travel deals! <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Alcatraz Island &nbsp; Just one mile away from San Francisco\u2019s busy shore, Alcatraz Island, once the infamous federal prison, waits ready for exploration.\u00a0 Although visiting a federal prison might not seem up there on the top of your family vacation bucket list, school-age kids actually enjoy learning about the island\u2019s history while exploring the grounds.\u00a0 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[70,66],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-94608209","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-family","category-interests"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cheapoair.com\/miles-away\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94608209","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cheapoair.com\/miles-away\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cheapoair.com\/miles-away\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cheapoair.com\/miles-away\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cheapoair.com\/miles-away\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94608209"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.cheapoair.com\/miles-away\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94608209\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":97170090,"href":"https:\/\/www.cheapoair.com\/miles-away\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94608209\/revisions\/97170090"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cheapoair.com\/miles-away\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94608209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cheapoair.com\/miles-away\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94608209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cheapoair.com\/miles-away\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94608209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}