Hard Hat Tour Of The Abandoned Ellis Island Hospital Complex

What an amazing step into history.

Loved our guide Charlie, he was able to answer all the groups questions with good and thoughtful answer.

Amazing experience to get away from the hoards of other tourists and learn about and see the hospital on Ellis island. I learned a ton and the guide, Hannah, really conveyed the history with facts and emotions that made it all come to life.

Great. Sebastian was a very good guide.

Loved it! Sebastian our guide is so knowledgeable!

So fun !!! Good for anyone that appreciates abandoned, historical buildings. Isaac was a great tour guide and so funny.

Absolutely wonderful experience. Truly gives you an understanding of the human experience of Ellis Island that you miss at the museum. Please don’t miss this opportunity.

Well worth the time. Fantastic tour, I just wish it was longer as we didn’t get to see all the artworks placed around.

A fabulous tour for the history buffs. Isaac was very informative and it was an entertaining, interesting tour with lots of photo ops.

Highly recommended. Isaac our tour guide was terrific and a real personality. You learn not only the history of Ellis Island but of modern medicine as well as Ellis Island housed the largest hospital complex in the U.S. at the time.

This tour gets off the beaten path, and explores the darker side of Ellis Island. You'll step away from the expertly restored main building, and get to explore the hospital wards where sick patients were cared for, and explore the terminal illness wings where 3,500 of Ellis Island's 12 million immigrants spent their final days, as well as the morgue where doctors of the time came to conduct autopsies and learn about new European diseases they had never encountered before. It's informative, and respectful of the history. At a place where you learn about the struggles of chasing the American dream, this tour offers a glimpse at the less rosy parts of that journey.

Very interesting tour enjoyed the history

Really a great way to learn about our past and history of immigration. Was also fascinating to learn about hospital technology at the time and what all these buildings are that are just a Stonesthrow from the statue of liberty

Well worthwhile. Lots of interesting background and information. Our guide, Denise, was terrific! Quite a bit of walking but 99% on one level. Could get pricey for a bigger group but I’m sure the money goes back to programming and maintenance. Don’t miss it!!

Our tour guide was Issac and he was great! The tour was fun and he was every entertaining and knowledgeable. Definitely a clever way to show history in a new way.

Sebastian gave an amazing tour. He is very knowledgeable.

Absolutely amazing! Definitely a tour you don’t want to miss. Great history and a wonderful experience.

Highly recommend taking the time to do an official tour at Ellis Island. Our tour guide, Jason, was knowledgeable and entertaining during our 90 minute tour. The hard hat tour offered a behind the scenes look at the history of the hospital complexes in a perfect small group of 6 guests. I look forward to returning and hope to see additional funding to support the work of restoring this institutional historic site.

This is a must do for the access you get. Our guide Sebastian was ok. I appreciated the effort and excitement but the knowledge not so much. He was asked several general questions and he really wasn’t sure on the answer. But he didn’t ruin the experience at all.

This really enhanced our visit to Ellis Island. Viewing the rooms of the hospital really made history cone alive. And our tour guide was excellent.

Great tour very interesting about the hospitals specifically! Guide was great at awnsering questions!

The tour was very interesting, about a part of early immigration to the United States, and how those who arrived ill were treated. Our guide Charlie was great- engaging, smart, funny, answered all our questions. I highly recommend the tour.

Fabulous! And an extra added treat would be to do the hard pot tour of the hospital associated with Ellis Island. It was excellent !

Isaac slayed the tour. Whipped the iPad and welcomed us to his home state of New Jersey with open arms. Can’t beat that Garden State Hospitality!

Awesome tour of a history I knew nothing about! Melissa is clearly passionate about helping restore the hospital grounds. She brought the stories to life and made it a thoroughly enjoyable experience! Highly recommend!

Sebastian was a great guide, very nice and knowledgeable.

We found the tour very interesting. Dave the your guide was very knowledgeable. We learned more than we thought would have done. Highly recommended.

Excellent!! A lot of history Davis is a excelent tour guide

Denise was great! Very informative and fun.

Dave is a great tour guide who is very knowledgeable!

Sebastian was amazing! The tour was very informative and enjoyable! Would definately recommend.

We had a wonderful tour guide- Charlie! He was so knowledgeable and he shared in-depth details regarding the old hospital. Such a great tour! I can’t wait to go back and bring family.

Denise was great tour guide! Such a cool tour!

I can not recommend the Hard Hat tour of Ellis Island abandoned hospital enough ! This place must be preserved and its history not forgotten. Our guide was incredibly knowledgeable and generous with his time. I just wish we had longer to take more photos!!

The Save Ellis Island Hard Hat Tour was easily one of the coolest things we everrr did in New York. Dave was an incredible guide: deeply knowledgeable, engaging, funny and clearly passionate about the history. Walking through the abandoned hospital and contagious-disease wards felt like stepping into another world, and the JR photographic pastings throughout the buildings made the whole experience even more haunting and powerful. Dave brought every room and every story to life without ever making it feel like a dry history lesson. Crazy good tour. Do not miss it!

The tour was amazing and Irwin did a wonderful job providing the history of the island. He made the visit!

Great tour loved by everyone in our group of five of varying ages. Our guide Mick was very knowledgeable and engaging.

Nick led our group on this hard hat tour, was informative and had a kind sense of humor and reverence for this place and its history. We felt we got much more out of our trip to visit the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island than seeing the Ellis Island museum alone.

The main Ellis Island museum is undergoing renovations so not all areas were open. Our guide for the Hard Hat Tour was Dave from the Save Ellis Island foundation which is working to protect and restore the hospital buildings on the island. We saw some restored areas and some areas that are in "arrested decay," which means they have been stabilized but not restored. We were not aware Ellis Island had extensive medical facilities to deal with immigrants before they were admitted to the US. There was a general hospital, a psych ward, and an infectious-disease hospital. We spent most time in the infectious-disease facility, a long spine with several pavilions attached. The entire tour was very informative and enlightening. Dave is very knowledgeable about these buildings and passionate about their restoration and preservation. Highly recommend!

This tour was insightful and informative, highlighting an era of history and some of the stories of people who once walked the halls presented on the tour.

I had the pleasure of doing the Hard Hat Tour with my wife and mother in law. Our tour guide Isaac was amazing and hilarious! We looked up my wife’s ancestors and it added so much context to the tour. Isaac was very knowledgeable and entertaining throughout the tour as well. Amazing day great tour and great overall experience! Can’t recommend it enough

Bo was great! The tour was incredibly interesting and I hope the island gets the funding it needs to restore it.

Incredible to see the grounds! Good value for 90 minutes. Isaac was friendly and knowledgeable. I went with my parents and we all enjoyed it. Highly recommend!

Such an amazing, informative tour. Isaac was great and really knew his stuff!…. Would definitely recommend

I highly recommend the Hard Hat Tour on Ellis Island. Nick was a fantastic guide, his easy storytelling style really gave us an insight into the people who came through Ellis Island. These tours contribute to fund raising for preserving the original hospital buildings. We booked in advance, they are small groups and great if you want the history at a deeper level.

Great tour and experience all around. Wonderful guide 👍

Nick is fantastic and very educational tour. Highly suggest

The ferry was running late we arrived 5 mins late and the tour left without us. Even though we communicated with the operator.

Dave was a great guide very knowledgeable. It was a great experience and thoroughly worth the money.