For anyone who is going to San Francisco, one particular spot you simply can't lose out on is the infamous Alcatraz prison. Spending some time to take one of the numerous Alcatraz tours may just be the most unique part of your vacation. There is a lot of history here, and most of the stories that surround the area offer the entire facility a particular environment of eerie beauty.

Alcatraz tours take place throughout the year, so you may plan your trip to meet your needs. In order to stay clear of the crowds, you could get your Alcatraz tickets for the cold months of winter. It usually is cold, but you can enjoy the time on the island without feeling crowded. However, if you would like go when the weather is favorable, take a look at April and May or September and October. Strangely, the mid-summer months are usually cold and foggy out on the island.

Once you settle on a time to visit the island, there are still quite a few options available to you. For instance, you may go on one of several professionally guided Alcatraz tours if you'd prefer being in larger groups and hearing tales from an actual tour guide. On the other hand, should you like going at your own pace and avoiding the crowds, there are some great audio tours that include the voices of former guards and inmates so you can genuinely start to get an understanding for what it must have been like back when Alcatraz was still being used as a prison.

The history of this island dates back a long way, and you may begin to get an understanding for it via these tours. Probably the most notorious criminals in the United States spent time in this prison, and for good reason. Most prisoners that served portions of a sentence here were not instantly sentenced to Alcatraz. They had to earn their spot at Alcatraz by means of extreme and routinely bad conduct at other institutions.

Both Al Capone and Robert Stroud (the "Birdman" of Alcatraz) spent a while here, and most Alcatraz tours will take you to the cells where they spent almost all of their time. Alcatraz was in operation for nearly 29 years, and in that time frame it saw a lot of well-known criminals and traumatic incidents, which include 14 escape attempts. A lot of people also say that the prison is haunted, though it is improbable your tour will point those locations out to you.

If you know that you would like to spend some of your vacation visiting the prison, you should buy your Alcatraz tickets early and start planning what you would like to see. Alcatraz is really a huge place, with 336 main line cells and 42 solitary confinement rooms, there is a lot to see. If you are not heading on a guided tour of some kind, you will want to be sure you can maximize your time on the island without wandering aimlessly throughout the corridors.

Of all the San Francisco area attractions, Alcatraz tours are undoubtedly some of the most famous. Whether you want to experience part of the history of the island or you prefer to see one of the most well-known prisons on the earth, this is a vacation you will not forget.