Angel Island State Park

In the mood for an island vacation? Camping, biking, hiking, pic-nic, or just explore. Wild goats, post-card views of the San Francisco Bay, historic immigration center, great place to get away from it all for awhile. Take a scenic bay cruise to Angel Island State Park. If you don't feel like carrying a pic-nic with you, there is a nice café where you can grab a bite to eat. Tram ride around the island for those who don't want to, or can't walk much. Sit on right side of tram for best views. Nice beach on the island called Quarry beach for sunbathing and swimming. Sometimes foggy early in the day. This place is the jewel of the bay.

Great place for a day trip with options to bike around, hike or take a tour. Just a warning that the walking and hiking can be strenuous and a lot is uphill.

Plenty of benches for picnics. There are some beaches that are nice to visit. The fort McDowell is pretty much a ghost town of old rotting buildings and not necessarily worth seeing. The immigration detention center is worth seeing it's $5 per person.

You can rent bikes or e-bikes on the island. A lot of people bring their own bikes on the ferry. It's easiest to pay with a clipper card or just get your round trip ticket ahead of time.

This is a good option for people visiting San Francisco and not being able to get out to a hiking spot. It can be cold or windy on most days so watch the forecast and I suggest not wearing only shorts and t shirt.

There is a small cantina that sells limited food and drinks including beer. I recommend packing your own food I got something from the ferry building. It's a full day to visit so plan ahead!

A great day trip from San Francisco. It's only accessible via ferry from which I took from Terminal B - San Francisco Ferry building. The ferry ride gives you great views of both the San Francisco and Oakland City Skyline and both the Bay Bridge and Golden Gate Bridge.

The ferry ride takes about 30 minutes or so. There is a general map of Angel Islands near the restroom area when you get there but no paper maps available. There are 2 trails, Perimeter and Sunset. I hiked the Sunset trail all the way to the end which is the top of Mount Livermore. There is shade, for the most part, during the hike although there's no shade once you get near the top. The trail has nice views as you're making your way through it and you'll be rewarded with a great 360 degree view of the Bay Area once you get to the top.

There are some historical buildings here as this used to be an immigration station and it was nicknamed "Ellis Island of the West". I'll be back for this though since I went on a Tuesday and that part of the island is only staffed from Thursday-Sunday

We went with a group of ladies from the East Bay. What a terrific outing! Great ferry rides, tram tour and tour of immigration center and barracks. Such interesting history! Everyone had a fabulous time. Thank you!

Despite having grew up and spending the better part of my adult life in SF Bay Area, I have sadly never been to Angel Island until recently. Short of having your own boat or being a very fit (albeit slightly suicidal) swimmer, the only way to reach Angel Island would be via ferry from either SF or Tiburon. We opted for the Tiburon route, which proved to be the wise choice. As we had a lot less people to contend with vs the SF ferry, and parking at/near the pier in Tiburon was plentiful. Tickets cost $17.40 round trip for adults.

Although originally utilized as a seasonal hunting and gathering location for indigenous peoples, Angel Island has been repurposed over the years for quite a few uses, many of which were tragically sad and a direct result of our countries past bigotry and racism. Some of its history includes an army fort and battery defense for WWI and WWII, a quarantine station for the bubonic plague, an immigration station, and nowadays, a state park with an active US Coast Guard lighthouse.

While for most visitors (including us), Angel Island is just a day trip. But you can also book a reservation for a camp site to stay overnight. For the rest of us, you can opt to either hike, bike, or like us, book one of the tram tours that will take you from the pier to the former immigration center and back. The tram costs $18/adult, and most people will hop off at the immigration center to explore and ultimately walk back to the pier on foot.

My boyfriend surprised me with a wonderfully planned trip to Angel Island after doing an extensive amount of research on his own.

We ended up taking the ferry at noon at the Tiburon location instead of the SF one. We left our car at a $5 all-day public parking lot a couple blocks down. It was approximately $18 round trip for the ferry itself and about $8 for the toll back over the Golden Gate Bridge. The ferry was a fun and gorgeous 10 minute ride.

There's plenty of activities you could do on Angel Island and we were tempted to rent a bike or do a tour. My boyfriend planned for us to do the 5 mile hike to Mt. Livermore (roughly 2.5 hours). The forested portions of the hike had a lot of nettles that felt impossible to avoid because of the number and the narrowness of the path. There were also a few scattered poison oak towards the top of the island. I highly recommend avoiding shorts for this hike. Luckily, we soon forgot bout the nettles once we started getting glimpses of the 360 view of the bay. This was definitely one of my favorite hikes and I highly recommend it to anyone who is looking for a mild/moderate challenge!

The Tiburon Ferry departs Angel Island every 20 minutes past the hour, with the last being 5:20 pm. Our line was significantly shorter than the SF line, however, since the ferry arrives less frequently, we ended up leaving after everyone in the SF line had boarded and left.

What a disappointment! The island is beautiful, but the Angel Island Company that runs the concessions is a disaster. We checked out the website before our trip and saw that the Cafe was closed due to construction. We understood. So we looked forward to the tram tour and bike rentals. We arrived to see a sign that said "Due to a mechanical breakdown of the tour bus, no tours today. Please enjoy our bike rental service". As we moved to the bike rental place, a sign said "No bike rentals today".
Apparently the bike guy called in sick. Where's his back up? Who's on call? Does the Angel Island Company not have a plan?
Also, the tram WAS giving tours, but only to those tours that were associated with the Alcatraz Tour. Was there no way to use those trams for the audio tour?
Overall, it seemed like staff just didn't care.

Took a day trip out to Angel Island. You take the ferry from the ferry building. Make sure your clipper card has $18 for round trip fair.

All the folks at the dock were very nice and helpful. They made sure we were I'm the right place and had enough fair.

We went on a Tuesday so there were not a lot of people. It was nice to be able to sit on the sun deck on the way over. You can see the whole city from out on the water -- from Bay Bridge to Golden Gate Bridge. The only down side is the museum isn't open on Monday or Tuesday so we didn't have access to that.

We walked the Perimeter Trail which was a moderate hike. It was not super hard but there is parts with incline that can get you out of breath if you're not used to hiking (AKA me). We did have a hard time finding which trail to start on using the map they have near the ferry but once we figured it out it was easy to follow.

Such a great day trip. However note there are only a select number of ferries so plan accordingly.

Angel Island is a perfect destination for a day trip. I did camp here once which was a really cool experience. Today though we hopped the ferry in Tiburon with picnic lunches in our backpacks and walked the perimeter of this beautiful island. The views are spectacular!
We made some time to visit the historical buildings which are quite alarming when reading the history of the immigration station. During World War II, the U.S. military used the immigration station on Angel Island as a processing center for prisoners of war, as well as a detention center for hundreds of Japanese immigrants from Hawaii and the mainland United States.
I'm pleased that much of the history has been preserved so that others may learn what happened here.
If you come to Angel Island sans food, there is a cafe on the weekends and otherwise a small snack station.
I've brought my bike on the ferry in the past to cycle the island- also quite nice. Bike rentals are available however.

Located a short ferry ride from the city, a trip to Angel Island will have you feeling like you're a world away...that is until you see the sweeping views of the city from the island's many vantage points.

From the ferry building it was $18 roundtrip to visit the island. After a nice ride over you're greeted by beautiful views, a small cafe, some other historical buildings. The island offers hiking, bike rentals, and guided tram tours.

We went with the intention of riding bikes and arrived just before 10am on the first ferry. The cafe, which it seems also runs the bike rentals was short staffed and let us know they would be open for rentals closer to 11am. We spent the hour walking around and looking in the small museum on the island.

Finally around 11 we were able to get our bikes and head out on the bike path around the island. The first part was more of a dirt path, but as soon as you got to the top of the hill it opened up to a paved road.

We rode around the island stopping at different viewpoints and historical sites including the old military barracks. Biking was definitely the best way to explore the island if you want to see the whole thing. The ride did have some steep hills, including one you have to walk your bike down, but it was fairly easy riding for two people that hadn't ridden bikes in years. Bathrooms were sparse and we did run out of water, so be prepared with water and go to the restroom before you take off.

Food on the island is limited to the cafe, so be sure to check the menu beforehand and see if they'll have something you want. We opted to bring our lunch while was the right move.

The ferry schedule to and from is fairly limited on weekdays so be sure to plan ahead and look at the schedule.

Angel Island is a good place to learn about the history of immigration to San Francisco. Angel Island offers a trams tour around the island which is very informative. The immigration center had lots of history about Asian immigration to California. The person at the pay desk at the immigration center was very helpful in helping me navigate around the island. Angel Island has stunning views of the San Francisco landscape. There are lots of biking and hiking trails. There is also lots of picnic tables available . This place is worth multiple visits.