New York Pass comparison: The best attraction passes for NYC

This is the best New York Pass comparison you’ll find on the internet. Read on, and we’ll prove it to you!

If you’ve read our comparison, then you:

• know the best attraction passes
• have a complete overview of what the New York Passes can (and can’t!) do
• can compare all New York Passes
• have an honest assessment of all candidates (as we have used all of them several times in New York City)
• know which New York Pass is the best for you!

❌ UPDATE June 2025: The provider Sightseeing Pass has filed for bankruptcy! The FLEX and DAY passes can no longer be purchased or redeemed!

So, are you ready to find the best New York Pass that will save you a lot of money on attractions in the Big Apple? Then, let’s get started!

🤑 Is a New York City Pass even worth it?

New York is full of great viewing platforms, world-famous sights, famous museums, and exciting sightseeing tours by bus and boat.

However, most attractions charge an entrance fee, and a visit during a trip to New York can be really expensive.

This is where the various New York City Passes come into play, as they can save you up to 50%.

There are various New York Passes with very different focuses, so deciding which one is right for you can be difficult.

That’s why we’ve created this New York Pass comparison to help you find the perfect New York Pass for your trip!

Our aim? We want to show you how to find the best New York Pass for your needs and plans.

To do this, we regularly review and update our posts to ensure that we always include the latest pass options, prices, and available attractions.

Our answer: A New York City Pass can be worthwhile for you even from just two attractions. We’ll show you how to find one.

🚀 Quick overview: New York City Pass comparison

In our experience, these are the three best passes for New York:

You can currently get an EXTRA 10% discount on the New York Pass for 4 or more days with the code LOV10NYGO!

💡 How the passes work and what types they are

Wondering what the differences are between the various New York passes? In this section, we will briefly introduce you to the different types of City Passes and answer this question.

What they all have in common is that the full admission price is paid with them – they are not just a discount, but a full-fledged ticket!

There are three different types in total:

After purchasing, you will receive your personalized passes by email and then have the option of saving them on your smartphone.

You can do this either via the provider’s apps or directly via the wallet on your iPhone or Google phone. In simple terms, electronic sightseeing passes are barcodes that work offline. If you are visiting New York from outside the USA, you will not need internet or a SIM card on site.

For some attractions, you will need an additional time ticket to reserve a time slot for a day of your choice. You need a reservation for these major attractions: the Empire State Building, the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), and the American Museum of Natural History.

For most sights, however, you simply go there, and you will be told the next available dates (you can’t even make a reservation with the pass for any of these attractions). Experience has shown that this is always within a period of 15 minutes to 4 hours.

Important: Booking the attractions does not yet activate your pass! It only becomes active when you have it scanned at the ticket counter at the first attraction in New York.

In the next section, you will find our detailed New York Pass comparison table, which you can use to easily compare the passes with each other.

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👉 New York Pass comparison: table

Here, we have listed the New York Passes that include the most attractions, tours, and sightseeing tours. With them, you can save the most money compared to buying individual tickets.

We have sorted all the essential sights for you. So, you can quickly see which attractions are included (and which are not).

You can also see all the benefits, prices, and conditions that apply to each New York Sightseeing Pass. This makes it easier for you to compare New York City Passes and find your best pass.

What you’ll notice is that SUMMIT One Vanderbilt and the Metropolitan Museum of Art are not included in any of the passes. The observation deck is still too new, and the museum decided to stop cooperating with the NY Passes in 2022.

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🥊 New York Pass vs. Explorer Pass

The New York Pass is the most popular City Pass, where you can book fixed days and then visit as many attractions as you want or can manage.

The Explorer Pass is the most popular attraction pass for New York City if you want to spread a fixed number of attractions and tours over several days.

That’s why it makes comparing the two passes so interesting. In the following sections, we answer the question of whether the New York Pass or Explorer Pass is better.

🗽 Attractions

Both passes are from the provider Go City, and both include all major attractions, city tours, and boat tours. Therefore, there is no winner in the comparison of the New York Pass vs. the Explorer Pass when it comes to the selection of attractions.

👍 Types

The New York Pass is a pass that allows you to enjoy New York City to the fullest for 1 to 10 consecutive days. You can visit as many attractions as you like.

The advantage is that there are no extra costs if you want to visit other attractions in New York spontaneously.

The disadvantage of the New York Pass is that the days have to be consecutive!

With the Explorer Pass, on the other hand, you don’t have to take this into account. It doesn’t allow unlimited sightseeing like the Explorer Pass, but you can choose up to 10 attractions. You have 30 days to do this after your first use in the Big Apple.

However, you can spread this out flexibly over all the days you are in New York City. This is the advantage of the Explorer Pass over the New York Pass.

The disadvantage, however, is that you cannot visit more attractions free of charge than you specified in advance when purchasing the pass (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, or 10 attractions).

💸 Free cancellation?

The same cancellation conditions apply to both passes. You can cancel your purchase within 30 days and get your money back.

To do this, the passes must not have been activated or used. In addition, you must not have reserved any timed tickets at the attractions.

💰 Prices

The prices of the New York Pass start at 164 dollars for one day, and the prices of the Explorer Pass start at 89 dollars for two attractions.

💪 New York Pass or Explorer Pass: which is better?

The New York Pass is the better pass of the two if you want to do a lot in New York City each day. There are no surprises when it comes to costs, as the New York Pass covers all admission prices.

The New York Pass is available for 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 10 days.

The Explorer Pass is the better alternative for you if you want to visit a certain number of sights and want to spread them out flexibly over several days.

With the Explorer Pass, you can choose between variants for 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, or 10 attractions. You don’t have to decide which attractions you want to visit – only the number is important.

More information:

• New York Pass in Detail
• Explorer Pass in Detail

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🥊 New York Pass vs. City Pass

The CityPASS and the New York Pass are the two New York City Passes that have been around the longest. Here, we present which of the passes is the better one.

🗽 Attractions

The New York Pass includes over 100 attractions. These include four observation decks (Empire State Building, Edge Hudson Yards, Top of the Rock, and the One World Observatory), over 20 renowned museums, seven boat tours, and five bus tours.

You can visit all the sights with the New York Pass.

With the New York CityPASS, you can choose from 8 attractions. These include the Empire State Building, the American Museum of Natural History, the Top of the Rock, the ferry to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, the 9/11 Memorial & Museum, the Intrepid Museum, and the Guggenheim Museum.

You can also take one of three Circle Line Cruises boat tours.

In total, the purchase of a CityPASS allows you to visit five attractions. Two of these are fixed: the Empire State Building and the American Museum of Natural History.

You can choose three of the other attractions mentioned above. This gives you a total of five attractions or tours. You have nine days from the first visit to do this.

As you can see, all CityPASS attractions are also covered by the New York Pass.

💸 Free cancellation?

You can cancel the New York Pass from Go City free of charge within 30 days and the CityPASS free of charge within 365 days of purchase.

The passes must not yet have been used or activated. The free cancellation only applies if you have not yet booked any time slots at the attractions.

💰 Prices

The New York CityPASS is only available in one version, which costs $154 for adults and $129 for children (6 – 17 years).

There are 8 variants of the New York Pass (for 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 10 days). Prices start at $164.

💪 New York Pass vs. City Pass: Which is better?

The two passes couldn’t be more different. While the New York Pass offers over 100 attractions, all of which you can visit, the CityPASS offers just eight, only five of which you can visit.

The CityPASS is focused on the most important sights. However, if you only want to visit the attractions included in the pass, it is an alternative to the New York Pass.

For $154, the New York CityPASS is the best pass if you want to visit the Empire State Building, the Top of the Rock, the American Museum of Natural History, the ferry to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, and the 9/11 Memorial and Museum.

Another advantage of the CityPASS over the New York Pass is the age restriction for children. While the other New York City Passes specify the age of a child at 3 – 12 years, the CityPASS has a significantly higher age limit (6 – 12 years). This makes it interesting for families with older children or teenagers.

To be fair, it must be said that admission to most attractions is generally free for children up to the age of five.

The disadvantage of the CityPASS compared to the New York Pass is the smaller selection of attractions. It is not possible to visit another attraction or take a tour.

The One World Observatory and the Edge, two attractive viewing platforms, are also missing. The hop-on hop-off city tours with BIG BUS are also missing, as are city tours and the night-time harbor tour, which is one of the most popular boat tours.

If you want a wider choice of attractions and flexibility on-site, we recommend the New York Pass.

More information:

• New York Pass in Detail
• CityPASS in Detail

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🎟️ New York combination tickets

The New York City Passes are worthwhile if you want to visit at least three attractions. A high saving is almost guaranteed.

However, if you only have two attractions on your itinerary, then it’s worth taking a look at combined tickets.

As the name suggests, very specific attractions are sold together in one ticket. However, the savings compared to the classic New York Passes are significantly lower.

These combination tickets are available:

• New York Art Museum Bundle (includes Museum of Modern Art, Guggenheim Museum and Whitney Museum of American Art)
• New York Tourist Card (includes Empire State Building, Museum of Modern Art and 1-hour sightseeing cruise to Statue of Liberty)
• SUMMIT One Vanderbilt + Museum of Modern Art (MoMA)
• SUMMIT One Vanderbilt + Empire State Building
• SUMMIT One Vanderbilt + New York Pass
• Empire State Building: 102nd Floor Top Deck & 86th Floor Observatory
• Empire State Building & Statue of Liberty
• One World Observatory & Statue of Liberty
• Central Park Bundle + SUMMIT One Vanderbilt (includes American Museum of Natural History, Central Park Zoo & SUMMIT One Vanderbilt)
• Tickets for Must-See Manhattan Tour & SUMMIT One Vanderbilt Entry
• Hudson River Bundle (includes Edge and U.S.S. Intrepid)

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🕵️‍♂️ How we find the best New York Passes

First, we searched for all the providers of sightseeing passes and interesting combination tickets available for New York City. Then, we looked at a total of 16 different passes and rated them according to ten different criteria. This allowed us to narrow down the list to the best providers.

In our evaluations, we paid attention to many things; for example, how expensive is the New York Sightseeing Pass? What is included in the price? How satisfied are customers? What are our own experiences with this pass? Is the customer service good? How easy is it to buy and use the pass? Can you decide which attractions you want to visit? Can you cancel the pass if you don’t need it after all? Are there discounts? What kind of attractions are covered? Our reviews are made by our team only, with no outside influence.

Why you can trust us

We want to give you clear and honest information. We use a lot of data and our personal experience to do this. Full transparency also means that we receive a commission for every discount pass for New York that we broker. However, this does not increase the price for you. All providers pay roughly the same percentage, so we have no financial incentive to favor any of them.

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🔎 Questions & Answers