FERRY TRIPS · AROUND THE WORLD
Some of the best views are from the deck.
The Statue of Liberty from the water, the Cyclades by island ferry, Sydney Harbour on the commuter cat, Capri across the bay. Real reviews of the ferries worth boarding, from the famous crossings to the quiet island runs.
Worth the trip for the boat alone
Three crossings that are the whole point.
Most ferries just get you across. These three are the reason you came: the run past the Statue of Liberty, an island ferry through the Cyclades, the green-and-yellow boats of Sydney Harbour. The crossings travellers remember long after the trip.
New York
The Statue of Liberty
There is no closer look at Lady Liberty than from the water, and the ferry from Battery Park is how you get it: out past the harbour, a stop on Liberty Island under the torch, then Ellis Island where the records of twelve million arrivals are kept. The crossing is the experience, the skyline behind you the whole way out and back.
- 1 New York City: Statue of Liberty & Ellis Island with Ferry
- 2 Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island Guided Tour with Ferry
- 3 NYC: Wall Street Tour with 9/11 Memorial and Statue Ferry
Greece
The Greek Islands
Half the romance of the Cyclades is the deck of the ferry: Athens falling away behind, the blue widening, a white town rising on the horizon as you pull into Mykonos, Paros or Santorini. The boats are the islands' road network, and island-hopping by ferry is the trip a lot of people fly across the world to do.
- 1 Santorini Guided Day Trip From Crete with Ferry Tickets
- 2 Crete: Santorini Day Trip with Fast Ferry Cruise
- 3 Athens: Ferry Boat Ticket to/from Agistri Island
Australia
Sydney Harbour
Sydney built its public transport into one of the great harbour cruises by accident. The green-and-yellow ferries run past the Opera House and under the bridge to Manly, Taronga and Watsons Bay, and the front deck on a clear day is the best seat in the city for the price of a transit fare.
- 1 Blue Mountains Small-Group Tour from Sydney with Scenic World,Sydney Zoo & Ferry
- 2 From Sydney: Blue Mountains, Scenic World, Zoo, & Ferry Ride
- 3 Sydney: Taronga Zoo Ticket with Return Ferry
If you only book one
The crossing more travellers book than any other.
Out of every ferry on the site, this is the one people come home telling everyone they know to take.
The crowd-pleasers
The Most Popular Ferries Right Now
The Statue of Liberty run, the Alcatraz boat, the Capri crossing, the Rottnest fast cat. The tickets travellers are happiest they booked.
Start with a place
The best ferries, place by place.
The USA for the harbour icons, Australia for the island cats, Spain for the Mediterranean hops. Pick where you are headed and we will show you the crossings worth booking there.
What kind of crossing
Three very different days on the water.
An island chain to hop, a harbour to see from the deck, or an open strait to cross. Each is a stretch of the world the site covers deeply, and a different kind of ferry day at the end of it.
San Francisco Bay
Out to Alcatraz, back past the bridge.
The bay is best seen from the deck of a boat. The ferry out to Alcatraz lands you on the island prison with the city skyline behind it; the Sausalito run crosses under the Golden Gate to a harbour town across the water. Either way, the crossing puts San Francisco in front of you the whole trip.
See the best San Francisco Bay ferries →Capri & Naples
Across the bay to the blue grotto.
From the Naples waterfront the hydrofoils fan out across the bay: forty minutes to Capri and its faraglioni rocks, on to Ischia and the Amalfi towns of Sorrento and Positano. The fast ferries are how you reach the islands, and the run across the Bay of Naples with Vesuvius behind you is half the reason to go.
See the best Capri & Naples ferries →The Greek Islands
A white town rising on the horizon.
The Cyclades are a road map drawn in ferry routes. From Piraeus the boats fan out to Mykonos, Paros, Naxos and Santorini, the blue Aegean widening behind you and a cliff-top town coming into focus ahead. Island-hopping by ferry is the trip people fly across the world to do, and the deck is where it happens.
See the best Greek island ferries →Istanbul
One boat, two continents.
The Bosphorus splits Istanbul between Europe and Asia, and the commuter ferries cross it all day for the price of a token. A Bosphorus cruise runs the strait past the palaces and waterside mansions, gulls trailing the stern and a glass of tea in your hand, with the old city stacked up on the European shore.
- 1 Istanbul: Guided Food Tour with Ferry Ride and Tastings
- 2 Istanbul: Round-Trip Ferry Tickets to the Princes’ Islands
- 3 Istanbul: Asian Side Walking Tour with Ferry Ride
By the crossing
How far do you want to go on the water?
A ten-minute harbour shuttle across Sydney. A half-day island run out to Rottnest. A full open-water passage from Europe to Africa. Pick the kind of crossing that sounds like your kind of day.
A short hop
Sydney Harbour, the commuter cat.A few stops across the harbour and you are at Manly or Taronga, the Opera House sliding past the window. The cheapest, best sightseeing in the city is the regular ferry, no tour required.
A half-day run
Rottnest, the island day out.Twenty-five minutes on the fast cat from Fremantle and you step off onto car-free beaches and the quokkas. The boat is half the trip, and the bike-and-ferry combos make a full day of it.
An open crossing
Gibraltar, Europe to Africa.The fast ferry from Tarifa puts Tangier within an hour, two continents joined by one short blue strait. A proper open-water crossing where the far shore is a different world.
Rottnest Island
Twenty-five minutes to car-free.
The fast cats leave Fremantle and Perth several times a day and land you on Rottnest in under half an hour: white-sand bays, no cars, and the quokkas that made the island famous. Most travellers pair the ferry with a bike or a snorkel tour and make a full day of it, which is exactly how the island is meant to be done.
See all 31 Rottnest Island ferries →By place
Pick a harbour to push off from.
San Francisco Bay for Alcatraz. New York Harbor for the Statue. Sydney Harbour for the commuter cat. The Greek islands for the hop. Capri and Naples for the bay. Rottnest for the quokkas.
More destinations
More coasts worth a crossing.
The Canaries for the island chain, Victoria for the Strait of Georgia, the Bosphorus for two continents, Gibraltar for Africa. The rest of the map, ready when you are.
Three crossings, three day trips
Pick a port, build the day around the boat.
A harbour landmark out of New York, an island escape from Los Angeles, a country-to-country hop from Helsinki. Three ports, three very different ways to spend a day on the water.
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