The Statue of Liberty stands on Liberty Island in New York Harbour. You can see it for free from the shore, or closer from the Staten Island Ferry – but if you want to visit Liberty Island or climb to the top you have to book a ticket.

Don’t expect hundreds of photos – this is one of the most photographed attractions in the World and you don’t need my iPhone snaps adding to the image library.

There is only one official tour operator https://www.statuecruises.com/ and we purchased our tickets from their site. The ferry goes from Battery Park in Manhattan to Liberty Island. You can then take a ferry back to Battery Park or on to Ellis Island, then return to Battery Park. Ferries also depart from New Jersey. The website isn’t very good. I wanted two Crown, or at least Pedestal tickets, plus two Hard Hat tours of the abandoned hospital on Ellis Island – I couldn’t find a way to book that without effectively purchasing four ferry tickets.

If you’re really interested in the Ellis Island hard hat tour, I’d book that with a time plus two hours from your departure from Battery Park.

Crown tickets weren’t available one month in advance – I booked Pedestal at $18.50 per person and printed them at home. The tickets were for 1 pm. We took a taxi from the Ghostbusters Firehouse in Tribeca and started walking through Battery Park. Almost immediately we were confronted by ticket sellers – I assume fake or over-priced tickets. These sellers continued to approach us all the to the Statue Cruises entrance – just ignore them and don’t even bother saying no.

There was hardly any line for the airport-style security and we were through and on-board quite quickly.

The trip didn’t take long and there are good views of Manhattan.

Liberty Island is great to walk around and it’s easier to take a photo of Manhattan from there.

There was an elevator to the top of the pedestal. The path around the edge was quite narrow. It’s fairly high but too many people. We enjoyed the next stage down – not busy at all and plenty of Lady Liberty photo opportunities.

We returned to the ferry docks and joined the line for the ferry to Ellis Island.

There is only one official tour operator: https://www.statuecruises.com/