The Statue of Liberty was dedicated to the US from France in 1886. Its copper skin is 1/8 inch thick and has turned green through the years due to oxidation. In order to understand how large the Statue is, Lady Liberty's eyes are 2 feet in diameter and the book she carries is 2 stories tall.

There are a variety of ways you can see the Statue of Liberty. You can request a window seat on your flight and look at it from above. You can go to Battery Park and catch a glimpse of it from far away. You can take the Staten Island Ferry or you can do the Statue of Liberty tour.

Battery Park is easy enough to get to. We walked from our hotel (Cosmopolitan in Tribeca), but there are several train and bus options, for example N or R to Whitehall Street. Here you can walk along the Hudson River and see the Statue way out in the distance.

The Staten Island Ferry brings you a lot closer to the Statue and is completely free. The one-way trip is about 25 minutes. You pass right in front of the statue and can take great pictures of both the statue and downtown Manhattan. It's comfortable, but it is not a luxury by any means. You can stand outside or sit inside. There are many locals, but there is also a fair amount of "tourists" as well.

You can get here by taking many trains, for example the 1, to the southernmost point.

Statue tours. It is free to visit the Statue and Ellis Island museums. But, you do have to pay to take the ferry to get to these locations. The ferry ride is $11.50 adult /$9.50 seniors / $4.50 children. It leaves Battery Park in NY and Liberty State Park in NK. When you arrive on liberty Island there's a gift shop and a snack shop. You can purchase an audio tour of the island. Unless you've pre-purchased an in-statue tour, at this point you really only have the option of walking around the statue. They no longer let people go in the statue. It's a nice walk (if the weather is good) and it is very relaxing. Onto Ellis Island Immigration museum. The museum is well laid out. The building is large and still has graffiti from when immigrants were coming into this country. The displays give you a good feel for how it must have been to be going through the rooms. The exhibits are interesting and chances are you will leave here wanting to find out more about your heritage.

One thing to remember is Security is tight on the Island. Before you board the ferry you will go through security measures more stringent than what you experienced at the airport: x-ray machines, metal detectors, removing belts and shoes. The process and lines are long. Be prepared. Give yourself ample time. The Islands open at 9:30am and close at 5pm.

The statue of liberty. An absolute classic piece of New York and an absolute must see for tourists. Once you get to the island it is all about taking pictures, of the skyline, of others in your group, and of the fine lady of freedom herself. Once you’ve taken pictures to your hearts content, it is actually time to enter the statue

The first thing I would recommend is don’t overlook the museum; it contains a really well put together exhibit on the creation and history of the statue. After walking around the museum (I’d allow 30 minutes, but then again I am a museum geek), you then proceed up a few stairs to the base of the statue. Here you get to look inside the statue but don’t expect to go any further. In a post 9/11 world, going up to the crown has been deemed unsafe. That’s not to say that the view isn’t amazing. Spend some time up here taking photos too. And bear in mind that once you leave an area you will not be allowed to re-enter it. After you exit the statue there isn’t a whole lot else to do, other than take a trip to the gift shop and hop back on the ferry.

It’s a given that as a tourist/traveler you will visit this statue, just give in to temptation. It’s worth it.

The Statue of Liberty is a great tourist destination for lots of reasons. First, of course, is the statue itself, which really is a very impressive sight: it's massive and really rather beautiful, and the views of downtown from Liberty Island are lovely. Second is the fun of getting to the island: you have to take a ferry from Battery Park, which is always entertaining, though it can be extremely cold in winter. Third is the people-watching: real New Yorkers never go to places like the Statue of Liberty, unless they're escorting out-of-town guests, and as a result, the line for the ferry is even more delightfully international than most of New York.

Entrance to Liberty Island is free, but in order to get there, you must take a Circle Line ferry. Tickets cost $11.50 for adults, $4.50 for kids, and $9.50 for seniors. Ferry tickets can sell out, so it's a good idea to buy ahead, especially if you want to go inside the base of the statue--for that you'll need a separate free ticket that admits you on a guided tour. These are time-stamped so that you have reservations for a single tour. The time-stamped tour tickets sell out well before the ferry tickets do, so if entering the statue is important to you, plan ahead.

If you don't enter the statue, there isn't very much to do on the island except walk in a wide circle around the statue, admiring it and the views of Manhattan and New Jersey. But it's a very pleasant thing to do.

The ferry leaving Liberty Island takes you to Ellis Island, which is a much more interesting (if less picturesque) spot: the former immigration center that processed hundreds of thousands of immigrants in the early 20th century is now a museum documenting immigration to America. Most of the exhibits consist of photographs of immigrants, although there are also some cases full of objects people imported with them (embroidered dresses, silverware, books, etc.) and later donated to the museum. I found the photographic exhibits surprisingly moving: they're well selected, and the information provided along with the photographs is thorough and varied. The museum manages to do a good job of showing just what immigrants were up against in their home countries (the Irish potato famine, massive unemployment in Italy), and then what challenges they faced in America (anti-immigrant sentiment, the difficulties of assimilation).

If you're interested in doing genealogical research on Ellis Island, there's a library, although you should contact them in advance for permission.

There's food available everywhere on this trip: while you stand in line for the ferry, you'll be surrounded by pretzel carts, and there's a concession on the ferry, a fast-food restaurant on Liberty Island, and a cafe at Ellis Island.

Continued from Part One….

Annoyingly, we saw quite a few people with larger bags than those we had. It seems to be down to the guard on duty as to what is let in and what isn’t!

A tour guide is available to walk you through the museum, or you can go it alone, as we did. It has replicas of the face and feet of the statue and also the original lamp, which was replaced. There are also hundreds of postcards featuring the statue, going back to before it was completed -- very interesting. You can see exactly how the statue was built and see photos of it growing bit-by-bit.

After the museum, you get to the viewing platforms. We had brought tickets for the observation deck, but when we tried to enter, we were told our tickets were for the lower platform and not for the glass ceiling area. This was when we realised that we had been given the wrong tickets; hence, the three promenade tour tickets and not two observation tickets. Although I was disappointed and a little angry at having paid a premium for lesser tickets and could prove it by the e-mail confirmation, we were not allowed in the observation area. The thing I was most concerned with was the people who had our tickets, as presumably, there were three of them, with only two tickets.

We were the only ones on the platform whilst we were there – everyone else was on the level above!! You get good views of Manhattan, but not any better that those you get from ground level, and of course, the views of the statue itself are restricted, as you are looking straight up at it past the higher platform – the one we should have been on – do I sound bitter?

Once you have walked round the platform, you leave the actual statue and queue up again to retrieve your belongings from the lockers. Once you get to the machine, it asks you which locker number you had, then your fingerprint is scanned, and if all checks out, your locker is released. Exit via the gift shop!

We ate at the restaurant, which is a fast-food-type place with liberty burgers, liberty hot dogs, etc. We sat outside and were surrounded by seagulls, some of which were huge. We also saw the strangest leaf insect on a neighbouring chair, sunning itself.

Once you have finished on the island, it is back on the boat to either Staten Island, the first stop, or back to Battery Park.

All in all, I would say that unless you really want to visit the museum, then there really is no need to pay for tickets to Liberty. In hindsight, I would just get the ferry to the island and wander, as you get much better views of the statue itself from ground level, and the views of Manhattan, etc., are just as good too.

This review will span two entries, sorry.

I booked my tickets for the Statue of Liberty on the web, the day after they allowed booking. I was very excited and booked tickets to go to the second level of the statue, where you can see through a glass ceiling to see the inside of the building and can also get a higher viewing platform – or so I thought.

The e-mail confirmation suggested getting to the departure point – Battery Park -- two hours before our 12:45pm tour. When we arrived, there were several ticket queues, but I spotted a small sign for pre-booked tours and went to the allotted table for the ticket. I was asked my name and given an envelope with ferry tickets, tour tickets, and an info sheet inside. We noticed that, for some reason, we had three tour tickets, not two, but two ferry tickets. We didn’t think too much of this until later.

When you board the ferry -- they run every half hour -- you have to go through a security check, much like the airport, but you have to remove all jewellery, watches, belts, etc. and put them, along with your bags, into a tray to go through x-ray. You then go through one yourself and then have to re-dress! Once on the boat, everyone rushes to the top to get the best views, which as you get closer to Liberty Island are quite stunning, especially with clear blue skies as we had. After about 15 minutes, you dock at the island and can then just wander until it’s time for your tour. There are drinks and ice cream vendors, as well as a restaurant.

Do not leave too late to embark on your tour, as the process of actually getting to it can take a while. On the website, it says you can take small handbags, camera bags, etc., but no backpacks and the like. However, my small handbag and my husband’s small camera bag were refused. You are then told to store your belongings in the lockers provided, but be warned, we had to queue half an hour to get one, and it wasn’t very busy. When you get to the machine which allocates them, it tells you to pay $1 by credit card, note, or coins; however, the machines actually only took dollar bills, so lots of people were getting there only to find that it would not work or that they needed to get reasonably new dollar bills. When you have paid your $1 and had your fingerprint scanned, a light flashes on a locker, and you leave your belongings. Remember the locker number, since you won’t get your stuff back without it.

You then have to go through more x-rays and again remove all your watches, belts, etc. After all this, you are let to a large holding area ready for your tour, which starts in the museum. Continued….