Explore the Ellis Island Immigration Museum on a 45-minute self-guided audio tour through exhibits including photos, films, archive material, and recordings. Additional audio tour options describe exhibits in more detail via in-depth interviews with historians, architects, and archaeologists. Visitors can also book a private tour of Ellis Island to maximize their experience and understanding of the sight, or a combo tour of Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty.
The 45-minute audio tour is available in nine languages and included in the cost of a ferry ticket.
An audio tour for kids aged 6 to 10 is also available in five languages.
Ellis Island can be seen up close, for free, from the deck of the Staten Island commuter ferry (though passengers can’t get off at Ellis Island).
Ellis Island and ferries to it are fully wheelchair and stroller accessible.
Ellis Island lies off the southwest tip of Manhattan. To visit Ellis Island from New York City, catch a Statue Cruises ferry from Battery Park in Lower Manhattan. The first ferry stop is the Statue of Liberty, followed by Ellis Island. The closest subway stations to Battery Park are South Ferry (1 train), Whitehall Street (R train), or Bowling Green (4 or 5 train); the M5, M15, and M20 buses stop as South Ferry as well.
Weather permitting, Ellis Island is open every day of the year except December 25. Ferries run from 9:30am to 3:30pm, with later departures in the summer and around holidays. Once on the island, you can stay until the last ferry departs, which changes seasonally.
Ellis Island hosts a number of temporary exhibits. Past highlights include New Americans: Photographs by Jill Enfield, featuring 30 wet collodion photographic prints of contemporary immigrant portraits. There is also a small glass house of immigrant portraits made from antique windows that Ellis Island visitors can enter.
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