01 The official ferry to Liberty Island
2 compared from €27 typically 5h 3.90 average
From €27, and the only way to set foot on Liberty Island. Statue City Cruises holds the concession, the boats leave Battery Park and stop at Liberty Island and then Ellis Island, and the round trip takes four to five hours if you do both properly. Security screening at the pier is airport-grade and the queue for it is the wait people complain about. Pedestal access is a separate reservation; the crown is booked months ahead through the National Park Service and is not sold here.
02 Sailing boats and tall ships
4 compared from €53 typically 1h45 4.59 average
The best-rated group on this page, from €53 with a €64 median for ninety minutes to two hours under canvas. A schooner out of North Cove or the South Street Seaport, engine off in the harbour, and the statue from the water at the pace it was meant to be seen. Seasonal: most run April to October and cancel in a blow. They do not land on the island and do not pretend to.
03 Sunset and night cruises
3 compared from €24 typically 1h30 3.85 average
From €24, median €26, forty-five to ninety minutes. The statue is floodlit after dark and the skyline behind it does the rest, which is the whole argument. Ratings are the weakest here and the reviews are consistent about why: a boat packed to capacity on the one departure everybody wants. Book a sailing boat at the same hour instead if the light is what you are after.
04 Sightseeing cruises past the statue
5 compared from €21 typically 1h15 4.50 average
From €21 with a €26 median, fifty to ninety minutes out of Pier 83 or Battery Park. They pass Liberty and Ellis Islands, turn, and come back up the Hudson past the skyline. For anyone who wants the photograph rather than the museum, this is the honest purchase, and the fifty-minute express versions carry the deepest review counts in this catalogue.
