How much is a ferry ride from SF to Sausalito?
The Golden Gate Ferry runs SF to Sausalito, from about $8.50 with Clipper or $14 paper one-way. Here are the 2026 fares, with the Blue & Gold route suspended.
By Rachel Chen, San Francisco bay cruise specialist
The fare depends on how you tap. Cross from San Francisco to Sausalito on the Golden Gate Ferry and an adult pays about $8.50 with a Clipper or contactless card, or $14.00 on a paper ticket one-way, with kids four and under riding free. That is the short answer, and it is cheap for a half-hour boat ride across one of the most photographed stretches of water anywhere. The longer answer matters too, because the boat that used to run this route is not the boat running it today.
Here is the twist a lot of older guides miss: the Blue & Gold Fleet ferry to Sausalito is suspended, and has been since spring 2026. The route did not disappear, it moved operators, and the fares and departure point changed with it. So before you turn up at the wrong pier expecting the old boat, this is what a ride to Sausalito actually costs in 2026, which ferry runs it now, and how a plain transit crossing differs from a bay cruise if scenery, not just transport, is what you are after.
How much is the ferry from SF to Sausalito?
The Golden Gate Ferry from the San Francisco Ferry Building to Sausalito costs about $14.00 paper one-way for an adult, or $8.50 with Clipper or contactless, effective July 1, 2026. Youth, seniors, disabled and Medicare riders pay $7.00 one-way, Clipper START riders $4.25, and children four and under ride free, up to two per adult. A paper round trip is $28.00; the crossing takes about 30 minutes.
The number that trips people up is the gap between paper and card. Paying with a Clipper card or a contactless tap drops the adult fare from $14.00 to $8.50 one-way, a real saving over a round trip, so load a card before you go if you can. Discount categories, youth and seniors among them, pay a flat $7.00 regardless, and the free ride for small children makes this an easy family outing. These are the 2026 rates, set in a modest regional increase that took effect on July 1, and the full table sits on the Golden Gate fare update notice.
| Rider (Golden Gate Ferry, SF to Sausalito) | Paper one-way | Clipper / contactless one-way |
|---|---|---|
| Adult | $14.00 | $8.50 |
| Youth, senior, disabled, Medicare | $7.00 | $7.00 |
| Clipper START (eligible low-income) | $4.25 | $4.25 |
| Child 4 and under | Free (limit 2 per adult) | Free (limit 2 per adult) |
One thing to hold onto as you read on: this is a transit fare, not a cruise price. It buys a crossing to a town, not a narrated loop of the landmarks. That distinction is the whole point of the second half of this page, so keep it in mind before you assume $8.50 is what any boat trip on the bay costs.
Which ferry runs SF to Sausalito now?
The Golden Gate Ferry runs it, from the San Francisco Ferry Building on the Embarcadero. The Blue & Gold Fleet ferry to Sausalito is suspended, effective May 3, 2026, for a Pier 41 remediation and upgrade project, with no resumption date announced as of late 2026; riders have been directed to the Golden Gate Ferry. The San Francisco Bay Ferry also serves the wider network. So the boat and the pier both changed in 2026.
This is the part that catches out anyone working from an older itinerary. For years, Blue & Gold ran a popular Sausalito ferry from Pier 41 near Fisherman's Wharf, with four daily round-trips and pre-suspension one-way fares of $14.75 for adults and $9.00 for seniors, disabled riders and children. That service stopped on May 3, 2026, pulled for a Pier 41 dock and vessel upgrade project, and no restart date has been set. The operator's own page confirms it and points riders to Golden Gate Ferry; you can read the notice on the Blue & Gold Sausalito page.
So today the crossing leaves from a different place. The Golden Gate Ferry departs the Ferry Building further down the Embarcadero, not Pier 41, and lands at the Sausalito ferry terminal in about half an hour. Blue & Gold's other boats, its bay sightseeing cruises, charters and the RocketBoat, still run from Pier 39 as normal, unaffected by the Sausalito suspension. If you want the current Golden Gate timetable, it is on the Sausalito ferry route schedule.
What does the crossing include, and how long does it take?
The Golden Gate Ferry to Sausalito is a roughly 30-minute crossing from the Ferry Building, several times a day, more often on weekdays than weekends. The fare covers the ride and nothing more: no narration, no guided loop of the bridge or Alcatraz, no built-in sightseeing stop. It is public transit that happens to cross a gorgeous bay, so the views are a bonus, not a tour. Buy a round trip if you plan to come back the same day.
What you get for that $8.50 to $14.00 is transport, clean and simple. The boat crosses in about half an hour, you get open-air deck space and a genuinely lovely angle on the bridge and the city skyline on the way, and then you are in Sausalito to wander the waterfront, eat, or ride a bike back over the bridge. Weekday sailings are more frequent than weekend ones, and gates close a minute before departure, so do not cut the timing fine.
What you do not get is a tour. There is no commentary naming the landmarks, no route designed to pass Alcatraz up close, no loop that brings you back where you started. The ferry points at Sausalito and goes, which is exactly right if a trip to the town is the plan. The San Francisco Bay Ferry runs a separate, wider network of commuter routes around the bay if your day involves other stops; its map is on the SF Bay Ferry site. For weighing the ferry against a proper cruise, our side-by-side of the Sausalito ferry and a bay cruise breaks the choice down in full.
Ferry or a bay cruise: what are you actually paying for?
A ferry is transport: it crosses to Sausalito in 30 minutes for about $8.50 to $14.00 one-way, with the views as a free bonus. A bay cruise is a sightseeing trip: a narrated 60-minute loop under the Golden Gate and past Alcatraz that returns to where it started, from $39. The ferry is cheaper because it is not a tour. Pick the ferry to reach Sausalito, and a cruise when seeing the landmarks from the water is the whole point.
The two get confused constantly because both are boats on the same water, but they answer different questions. If your plan is a day in Sausalito, lunch by the harbor, the art galleries, the ride back over the bridge, the ferry is the obvious, cheap, correct choice, and reading a cruise fare into it only makes the trip look pricier than it is. The ferry does not circle Alcatraz or slow down under the bridge towers for photos, because that is not its job.
If, instead, the boat itself is the attraction, if you want the Golden Gate filling the sky overhead, Alcatraz close on the beam and a narrator naming what slides past, you want a cruise, and the Sausalito ferry will feel like a commute. The related pick here is the classic narrated hour: the Blue & Gold SF Bay Sightseeing Cruise from Pier 39, rated 4.6 across 1,562 reviews at $39, a full 60-minute loop of the headline sights that brings you back to the Wharf. When the view is the point, you can see the current sailing times and the live price before you pick a date.
Its twin from the other big fleet runs the same idea from Fisherman's Wharf. The Red & White Golden Gate Bay Cruise leaves Pier 43½ at the same $39, rated a strong 4.7 across 4,013 reviews, and covers the same bridge-and-Alcatraz route with recorded commentary. Which one you pick usually comes down to which pier is closer to your day, and both are the sort of trip a plain ferry crossing simply is not. You can check its sailing dates and the live price on the listing. Keeping the transit fare and the cruise fare clearly separate is exactly what San Francisco Bay Cruises is built to do.
There is a nice hybrid many visitors miss: take the cheap ferry to Sausalito for the town and the harbor, then book a separate narrated cruise on another day for the landmarks, rather than expecting one boat to do both. That way the ferry stays cheap and the cruise stays scenic, and neither disappoints by trying to be the other. For the wider transit picture, our look at ferry fares and access to Angel Island covers the bay's other big island run, and for the money side of the cruises themselves, our breakdown of what a bay cruise costs lays out every category.
| Golden Gate Ferry to Sausalito | Narrated bay cruise | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Transport to a town | Sightseeing loop of the landmarks |
| From price (adult) | ~$8.50 Clipper, $14.00 paper one-way | $39 |
| Duration | ~30 min one-way | 60 min round loop |
| Narration | None | Recorded commentary |
| Route | Straight to Sausalito | Under the bridge, past Alcatraz, back |
| Best for | A day in Sausalito | Seeing the bay from the water |
The bottom line on cost: a ferry ride from San Francisco to Sausalito runs about $8.50 to $14.00 one-way for an adult in 2026, on the Golden Gate Ferry from the Ferry Building, with the old Blue & Gold route suspended. If you want the town, that is your boat and your fare. If you want the bay itself, the narrated cruise is the trip. For a fuller verdict on the crossing, our take on whether the Sausalito ferry is worth it weighs it out. And if the scenery is the real draw, these three cover the range from a value loop to a real sail.
Frequently asked questions
How much is a ferry ride from SF to Sausalito?
On the Golden Gate Ferry from the San Francisco Ferry Building, an adult pays about $14.00 paper one-way or $8.50 with Clipper or contactless, as of July 1, 2026. Youth, seniors, disabled and Medicare riders pay $7.00, and children four and under ride free, up to two per adult. A paper round trip is $28.00, and the crossing takes about 30 minutes.
Does Blue & Gold Fleet still run the Sausalito ferry?
No. Blue & Gold Fleet's Sausalito ferry has been suspended since May 3, 2026, pulled for a Pier 41 remediation and upgrade project, with no resumption date announced. Riders have been directed to the Golden Gate Ferry, which now runs the SF to Sausalito route from the Ferry Building. Blue & Gold's bay cruises, charters and RocketBoat still run from Pier 39 as normal.
Where does the Sausalito ferry leave from in San Francisco?
The Golden Gate Ferry to Sausalito leaves from the San Francisco Ferry Building on the Embarcadero, not from Pier 41, which was the old Blue & Gold departure point before that service was suspended. The crossing lands at the Sausalito ferry terminal in about 30 minutes. The San Francisco Bay Ferry runs separate commuter routes elsewhere around the bay.
Is the ferry to Sausalito the same as a bay cruise?
No. The ferry is transport: a roughly 30-minute crossing to the town of Sausalito for about $8.50 to $14.00 one-way, with no narration or guided loop. A bay cruise is a sightseeing trip, a narrated 60-minute round loop under the Golden Gate and past Alcatraz from $39, that returns where it started. The ferry is cheaper because it is not a tour.
How do I pay less for the Sausalito ferry?
Use a Clipper card or a contactless tap, which drops the adult fare to about $8.50 one-way from $14.00 on paper. Youth, seniors, disabled and Medicare riders pay a flat $7.00, Clipper START riders $4.25, and children four and under ride free, up to two per adult. Weekday sailings run more often than weekends, so check the current timetable before you go.
Can I take a cruise to Sausalito instead of the ferry?
Most bay cruises are round loops of the landmarks that return to their starting pier, so they do not drop you in Sausalito the way the ferry does. If your goal is a day in the town, take the Golden Gate Ferry. If your goal is seeing the bridge and Alcatraz from the water, book a narrated cruise. A good plan uses the ferry for the town and a cruise for the scenery.