New York Pass

If you’re interested in the New York Pass by Go City, you’ve come to the right place.

We’ll show you everything you need to know about the New York Pass. You’ll find out how the New York Pass works and which attractions are included (and which are not), and we’ll highlight all the advantages and disadvantages.

At the end, we answer the most frequently asked questions and share our experiences with the New York Pass.

After reading our article, you’ll be well-informed about the New York Pass!

💡 How does the New York Pass work?

To get the most out of your New York Pass, you should use it for the first time as early as possible in the day. Then you will have the whole day at your disposal for sightseeing.

If, on the other hand, you don’t use it for the first time until late afternoon, you won’t have much time left to visit many attractions, and you’ll be giving away additional savings.

Please note: Reservations are required for some attractions. You can find out which ones here.

🗽Which attractions are included?

The selection of sights, city tours, guided tours, boat trips, and world-famous museums is huge. There are over 100 well-known highlights to choose from.

We present the most important of these in the following sections. This will give you a good overview of the attractions included:

🌃 Observation decks

New York City has five major viewing platforms to offer. You can visit four of them with the New York Pass:

• Empire State Building (price without pass: 48 dollars)
• Top of the Rock (price without pass: 44 dollars)
• One World Observatory (price without pass: 45 dollars)
• Edge at Hudson Yards (price without pass: 44 dollars)

You only need a reservation for the Empire State Building. You can do this simply and easily via the Go City reservation page. You will receive the appropriate link after booking the pass.

For all other viewing platforms, you can simply go there, and you will be allocated the next available time. This is usually the case within 15 minutes, but it could (rarely) go to a maximum of four hours.

However, it is also possible that there are no more free tickets. In this case, you will have to try again at a later time.

The fifth viewing platform is SUMMIT One Vanderbilt. This is not included in any of the New York Passes. You can buy tickets for One Vanderbilt separately here.

🖼️ Museums with the New York Pass

New York is home to several world-famous museums. With the exception of the Metropolitan Museum of Art (The Met), you can visit all museums for free with the New York Pass. The Met is not included in any of the NY Passes.

These museums are included:

• Whitney Museum of American Art (Ticket price: $25)
• International Center of Photography (Ticket price: $18)
• Museum of Arts and Design (Ticket price: $18)
• 9/11 Memorial & Museum (Ticket price: $33)
• American Museum of Natural History (Ticket price: $28)
• ARTECHOUSE New York (Ticket price: $35)
• Fotografiska New York (Ticket price: $30)
• Guggenheim Museum (Ticket price: $30)
• Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum (Ticket price: $33)
• Madame Tussauds Wax Museum (Ticket price: $48)
• SPYSCAPE Museum (Ticket price: $42)
• The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA): Ticket price: $30

See all museums.

🚌 City tours

With the New York Pass, you can take several city tours by bus.

The hop-on hop-off buses from BIG BUS are particularly useful for getting your bearings. You will get to know the most important attractions and neighborhoods in a comfortable way.

The day ticket includes the downtown route and the uptown route. The downtown route starts at Times Square and takes you past important sights to Battery Park. Once there, you will travel past One World Trade Center toward Times Square.

The Uptown route also starts at Times Square. From there, head north along Central Park to Harlem. The second part of the route takes you along 5th Avenue.

An audio guide is available for both routes, from which you can learn lots of interesting information about the buildings.

These bus tours are included:

• Big Bus 1-Day Downtown & Uptown Hop-on Hop-off Tour (Ticket price: $60)
• NYC TV & Movie Tour (Ticket price: $61)
• NYC Bus Tour of Bronx, Brooklyn, and Queens (Ticket price: $79)
• THE RIDE (Ticket price: $79)

See all bus tours.

Our tip: You do not need to book for the city tour with BIG BUS; for all other tours, a reservation is necessary.

🚢 Boat trips

With the New York Pass, you have a wide choice of boat tours. From the boat, you have a great view of the city’s skyscrapers and skyline. These tours are therefore, rightly very popular.

With the exception of the sailing tour on the tall ship, you do not need a reservation for the boat trips. We recommend that you arrive at the pier approximately one hour before departure. Show your New York Pass at the ticket counter to receive your tickets for the boat tour.

These boat trips are included:

• Circle Line NYC Landmarks Cruise (Ticket price: $41)
• Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island Ferry (Ticket price: $24.50)
• Harbor Lights Cruise (Ticket price: $49)
• Statue at Sunset Cruise(Ticket price: $29)
• Best of NYC Cruise: Circle Line Sightseeing (Ticket price: $49)
• Liberty Super Express Cruise (Ticket price: $29)
• The Beast Speedboat Ride (Ticket price: $32, May to October)
• Clipper City Tall Ship: Daytime Sail or City Lights Sail (Ticket price: $55, May to October)

See all boat tours.

🎡 Attractions with the New York Pass

In addition to the observation decks and numerous museums, there are other attractions you can visit with the pass.

These sights are included:

• 9/11 Museum Workshop (Ticket price: $30)
• Rockefeller Center Tour (Ticket price: $29)
• Tickets for the New York Yankees (Ticket price price: $58)
• Madison Square Garden Tour (Ticket price: $37)
• Radio City Music Hall (Ticket price: $33)
• RiseNY (Ticket price price: $43)
• Harlem Gospel Tour (Ticket price: $55)
• New York Botanical Garden (Ticket price: $35)
• Brooklyn Botanic Garden (Ticket price: $18)
• Cathedral of St. John the Divine (Ticket price: $15)

See complete list of attractions.

🕺 Walking tours

Walking tours of New York City are becoming increasingly popular. These are also called walking tours and are conducted by a New York guide.

There is a suitable tour for almost every important neighborhood, which you can do for free with the New York Pass:

These walking tours are included in the New York Pass:

• Broadway Tour including Times Square (Ticket price: $39)
• Secrets of the Statue of Liberty & Ellis Island (Ticket price: $67)
• Food on Foot Tours (Ticket price: $49)
• New York Graffiti and Street Art Tour through Brooklyn (Ticket price: $32)
• Brooklyn + DUMBO (Ticket price: $39)
• Central Park & famous filming locations (ticket price: $36)
• High Line, Chelsea and Meatpacking District (Ticket price: $39)
• SoHo, Chinatown and Little Italy (Ticket price: $39)
• Harry Potter & Fantastic Beast (Ticket price: $26)

See all walking tours.

Important: You need a reservation for almost all of them.

🚲 Bike hire with the New York Pass

Riding a bike through New York City is great fun, especially when the weather is favorable. This is also possible free of charge with the New York Pass!

These bike tours are included in the New York Pass:

• Central Park Bike Rental
• Central Park Bike Tour
• Brooklyn Bridge Bike Rental
• Brooklyn Bridge Bike Tour

📅 Reservations with the pass

For some attractions, you will need a separate timed ticket in addition to the pass.

This does not cost any money but is required to gain access to the attraction with the New York Pass.

This is particularly the case for guided tours of the Big Apple. But it also applies to some of the most famous attractions: for the Empire State Building, the ferry to the Statue of Liberty & Ellis Island, and the American Museum of Natural History, this is the case.

However, this may change over time. To be on the safe side, check the attractions that require a reservation before traveling.

Here, you will find a list of all the attractions where a reservation with the New York Pass is mandatory.

Especially in the peak travel season from May to October, you may not find any free times for your desired day. In this case, try to see whether it is possible on other days.

🫰How much does the New York Pass cost?

The price of the New York Pass depends on how long you want the pass to be valid for. They start at $149 for the 1-day pass; the 10-day pass costs $399.

The age limit for children is 3 to 12 years.

💻 Is the New York Pass worth it?

Admission to the sights and tours in New York City is not cheap. Tickets for the Empire State Building cost $48 without a New York Pass, the hop-on hop-off city tours with BIG BUS cost $60, and the boat tours cost $44.

For example, if you want to visit One World Trade Center, the Top of the Rock, the Edge observation deck, and Madame Tussauds, in addition to those three attractions, the individual tickets would cost $333 without a New York Pass.

With the New York Pass, two days costs 204 dollars. This saves you 129 dollars per person, which is a discount of 39%.

The more expensive attractions you visit, the quicker the New York Pass pays for itself.

🗺️ Examples for 3, 4, and 5 days

The most popular New York Passes are valid for 3, 4, and 5 days. We have therefore created different travel plans for you.

This will show you how quickly a New York Pass can pay for itself.

New York Pass for 3 days

New York Pass for 4 days

New York Pass for 5 days

👨‍👩‍👧‍👧 New York Pass for children

Admission for children up to the age of five is free at most attractions. If your child is under this age, the New York Pass is not worthwhile.

These are the age limits for selected attractions:

📲 Purchase, download, and as free app

We recommend purchasing via the official website NewYorkPass.com. Experience has shown that the New York Pass is the cheapest there.

After the purchase, you will receive an email with your personalized New York Passes. In the email, you will also find a digital travel guide with lots of information about the attractions. There, you will also see which attractions require a reservation.

You then have two options: Either save the passes as a PDF and print them out, or you can download the free New York Pass.

You can save your pass in the New York Pass app. This also works without internet in New York City, so you don’t need a SIM card or Wi-Fi.

This method also applies if you have purchased passes for several people. You can then see all the passes in the app. The pass is a simple QR code that is shown at the entrance to the attractions.

Our tip: Within the app, you can save the various passes as an image and send them to all participants.

After you have purchased and downloaded the passes, it is not yet activated. We will show you when this happens in the next section.

🚀 Activation of the New York Pass on-site 

Activation of the pass means that the first day of use begins at this point.

As soon as you present the New York Pass at the first attraction in New York, it will be scanned and activated. This happens automatically, and you don’t have to do anything.

🚨 Disadvantages

In addition to its many advantages, there are a few things that can also be disadvantageous.

• Price: It is too expensive if you only visit one or two attractions per day.
• Validity of the days: the days must be consecutive.
• Sightseeing stress: There is a risk of sightseeing stress to make the pass worthwhile.
• Reservations: You must make additional reservations for some attractions. Here, you can see all the attractions where this is the case.
• Queues: While there are separate queues for pass holders, they are not VIP or Fast Lane tickets.

Our tip: If you are not sure whether you should take the New York Pass for four or five days, for example, opt for the shorter version.

That way, you won’t have any stress, and it will quickly pay for itself in four days.

👉 New York Pass alternatives

In addition to the New York Pass from Go City, there is a very similar product, the Sightseeing DAY Pass.

It works in exactly the same way as the New York Pass and offers a similarly large selection of attractions. Only the 9/11 Memorial Museum and the tour of Rockefeller Center are missing, but it does offer a trip to the Woodbury Common Outlet.

We have put together more details about this in the comparison of the New York Pass vs. the Sightseeing DAY Pass.

An alternative to the New York Pass can be the Explorer Pass, the Sightseeing FLEX Pass, or the CityPASS New York. With these three passes, you can spread a selected number of attractions (up to 12) over several days.

You can see which other NY passes are available in our New York Pass comparison.

👍 My Experience with the New York

We have used the New York Pass several times over the years. On our first few visits, we opted for the larger 5-day and 7-day versions because we wanted to see a lot of the city.

More recently, we have taken the smaller passes for one to three days because we had fewer attractions on our itinerary, and we already knew many of them.

The New York Pass was accepted at each of the attractions without any problems, and we were able to save money in each variant.

Can we recommend the New York Pass? Yes!

🔎 Conclusion: Who is the pass suitable for?

The New York Pass is perfect for anyone who wants to see the most of New York City. The sightseeing program can be taken full advantage of, as it offers the widest range of famous viewing platforms, museums, sights, city tours, and boat trips of all New York Passes.

☝️ Questions & Answers