Everyone does it... (Statue of Liberty)

Member Name: MykReeve

Product:	Statue of Liberty
Date:	19/07/00 (152 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: It's quite cheap

Disadvantages: It takes a lot of time, and the views really aren't that great

For the extremely reasonable price of just a few dollars, it is possible to get a ferry from Battery Park at the southernmost tip of Manhattan to Liberty Island. The price includes entry to the Statue of Liberty, as well as a visit to Ellis Island, and admission to the immigration building there.

If you're visiting New York on holiday, you really must go up the Statue of Liberty, though frankly it's puzzling as to why, and hopefully I'll explain why here.

Basically, when you arrive at the statue, if you've arrived in the main tourist season, you may find that the crown is closed to tourists. If so, you'll only be able to go up to the observation deck, a few metres below Liberty's feet. The view from here of Manhattan is pretty good, but frankly not vastly better than from ground level.

However, if you're there outside of the main tourist season, you can choose to either take the elevator or the stairs. If you want to go to Liberty's crown – I'm afraid you're going to have to take the stairs, and plod around an interminable series of increasingly narrow and winding spiralling staircases at a snail's pace. When you finally reach the top, you can't fail to be disappointed, the crown is incredibly cramped – there's probably not room for more than ten people there at any one time – and the view is unremarkable. There's a couple of good photo opportunities, such as "Manhattan from even higher up" and "the Atlantic ocean with a bit of Liberty's arm in front" but otherwise it's a bit disappointing. Plus, there's the fun of crawling all the way back down the spiral staircases again to look forward to. The interior of the structure itself is quite interesting though, and this makes the trip to the top slightly more worthwhile.

Also, to stand a decent chance of getting to the top in reasonable time, you're going to have to get one of
the first ferries of the day – they run every 30 minutes from 9:30am. Otherwise, you could easily waste a whole day just doing the Statue of Liberty!

The museum in the base of the statue is quite interesting. Although there is a point where looking at another green copper sheet ceases to be particularly inspiring, the story of the statue as a symbol of freedom throughout the world is more pleasing. The original torch now stands in the main lobby too.

If you want a free look at the Statue of Liberty from close to, take the Staten Island ferry. Although you don't get to go up the Statue, the ferry only takes about half an hour in each direction, and the view of Manhattan is every bit as good.

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