If you want to find out more about the New York Explorer Pass by Go City, you’ve come to the right place.
We’ll tell you everything you need to know about the Explorer Pass. You’ll learn how to use the pass, which attractions it includes (and which it doesn’t!), and we’ll show you all the pros and cons.
Finally, we answer the most frequently asked questions and share our impressions of the Explorer Pass with you.
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💡 How does the Explorer Pass work?
With the Explorer Pass New York, you can choose from over 90 sights, museums, boat trips, and city tours. Four viewing platforms and city tours with BIG BUS are included.
The Explorer Pass is a digital product. You don’t have to pick it up in New York City; you can start sightseeing straight away.
The Explorer Pass is available for 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, or 10 attractions.
When you are in New York City, you show your Explorer Pass New York at the entrance to the attraction to gain access. From this point on, the pass is active and you have 60 days to use it.
Important: You don’t have to decide exactly which attractions you want to visit. The only thing that matters is how many attractions you want to visit.
Please note: Reservations are required for some attractions. You can find out which ones here.
🗽 What attractions are included?
The Explorer Pass from Go City offers a huge selection of famous sights, impressive city tours, boat trips, and museums. There are over 90 highlights to choose from.
We will introduce you to the best of them in the following sections. You will then have a good overview of the attractions included.
🌃 Viewing platforms
With the Explorer Pass, you can visit New York’s viewing platforms at the same time.
- Empire State Building (Ticket price: 48 Dollar)
- The Edge at Hudson Yards (Ticket price: 44 Dollar)
- One World Observatory (Ticket price: 45 Dollar)
- Top of the Rock (Ticket price: 44 Dollar)
You also need a reservation for the famous Empire State Building. You can do this via the Go City reservation page. You will receive the appropriate link after booking the pass.
No reservation is required for the other three viewing platforms. If you want to visit these, simply go to the entrance of the attraction, and you will be allocated the next possible time. In our experience, this usually happens within 15 minutes to a maximum of four hours.
However, it can also occur that there are no more free tickets. In this case, you should try again at a later time.
You might have noticed that one viewing platform is missing: SUMMIT One Vanderbilt. This skyscraper was opened in 2022 and is currently not included in any of the New York Passes. You can buy tickets for One Vanderbilt here.
🖼️ Museums with the Explorer Pass New York
New York City is home to several world-famous museums and exhibitions. With the Explorer Pass, you can visit over 20 museums for free.
These museums are included:
- 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
What you’ll notice: The Metropolitan Museum of Art (The Met for short) is not included. However, this is not the case with only the Explorer Pass. It is not included in any of the New York City Passes.
🚌 Sightseeing tours
With the Explorer Pass New York, you can experience various city tours by bus.
The hop-on hop-off buses from BIG BUS are ideal for getting your bearings in the city. You can easily discover the main attractions and important neighborhoods.
The day ticket includes both the Downtown and Uptown routes. Both routes together count as one attraction.
- The Downtown loop starts at Times Square, passes landmarks such as the Empire State Building, and then runs along Broadway and SoHo to Battery Park. The One World Trade Center can also be seen.
- The Uptown loop also starts at Times Square, heads north along Central Park to Harlem, and then shows you 5th Avenue.
Show your Explorer Pass to a BIG BUS employee at the Times Square stop in front of the M&M store to receive your free ticket.
Our tip: Although you can hop on and off at over 20 stops on these bus journeys, we recommend that you start at Times Square. This way, you are guaranteed a seat.
These bus tours are included:
- Big Bus 1-Day Downtown & Uptown Hop-on Hop-off Tour (Ticket price: $60)
- THE RIDE (Ticket price: $79)
- NYC TV & Movie Tour (Ticket price: $61)
- NYC Bus Tour of Bronx, Brooklyn, and Queens (Ticket price: $79)
You do not need a reservation for the BIG BUS tour, but you must book in advance for all other tours.
🚢 Boat trips
Of all the sightseeing passes, the Explorer Pass New York offers the most boat tours. All major boat trips from the largest provider, Circle Line, are included. From May to October, you can also experience New York from the water on a tall ship or speedboat.
You will receive your tickets for the boat tours as soon as you show your Explorer Pass at the ticket counter. You can’t miss them; they are well-signposted.
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)
Apart from the tour on the tall ship, you do not need to book in advance for the boat tours. It is a good idea to be at the jetty about an hour before the start.
🎡 Sightseeing with the Explorer Pass New York
In addition to the viewing points and many museums, you can also explore other attractions with the Explorer 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
Guided 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 Explorer Pass New York:
These walking tours are included in the Explorer Pass New York:
- 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)
- Tour with more than 30 TOP attractions (Ticket price: $60)
- 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)
Important: You need a reservation for almost all of them.
🚲 Bike tours with the Explorer Pass New York
It’s fun to cycle through New York City, especially when the weather is good. And you can even do this at no extra cost with the Explorer Pass!
These bike tours are included in the Explorer Pass New York:
- 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 timed ticket in addition to your pass.
This ticket is free of charge but is required to gain entry with the Explorer Pass New York.
This mainly applies to the guided tours through New York. However, this also applies to some highlights, such as the Empire State Building, the ferry to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, and the American Museum of Natural History.
As these regulations are subject to change, you should check which attractions require a reservation before traveling.
It may be that there are no times available on your preferred date. In this case, see if other dates work.
You buy the Explorer Pass without risk. There is a 365 money-back guarantee.
You buy the Explorer Pass without risk. There is a 365 money-back guarantee.
🫰 How much does the Explorer Pass cost?
The price of the Explorer Pass New York depends on how many attractions you want to visit. The smallest pass is the two-attraction pass for 79 dollars; the largest is the ten-attraction pass for 278 dollars.
The most popular Explorer Pass is the one for seven attractions. This costs 204 dollars.
The age limit for children is 3 to 12 years.
Price Adult | Price Child | |
Explorer Pass 2 choices | $79 | $69 |
Explorer Pass 3 choices | $107 | $89 |
Explorer Pass 4 choices | $137 | $112 |
Explorer Pass 5 choices | $164 | $127 |
Explorer Pass 6 choices | $184 | $144 |
Explorer Pass 7 choices | $204 | $164 |
Explorer Pass 10 choices | $278 | $230 |
💻 Is the Explorer Pass worth it?
Admission to the attractions in New York City is not cheap. Standard tickets for the Empire State Building cost $48 without the Explorer Pass, the hop-on hop-off city tours with BIG BUS cost $60, and the boat tours cost $44.
If you would like to visit One World Trade Center, the Top of the Rock, the Edge observation deck, and the American Museum of Natural History, in addition to these three attractions, you would have to spend $316 without the Explorer Pass.
The Explorer Pass for 7 attractions costs 204 dollars. This saves you 112 dollars per person, which is a discount of 35%.
The more expensive attractions you visit, the quicker the Explorer Pass pays for itself.
👨👩👧👧 Explorer Pass New York for children
Admission to many attractions is free for children up to the age of five. If your child is in this age group, the Explorer Pass may not be advantageous for you.
These are the age limits for selected attractions:
Attraction | Child |
Empire State Building | 6 to 12 years |
Edge Hudson Yards | 6 to 12 years |
SUMMIT One Vanderbilt | 6 to 12 years |
One World Observatory | 6 to 12 years |
American Museum of Natural History | 3 to 12 years |
Museum of Modern Art | 16 years and younger free of charge |
Guggenheim Museum | 12 years and younger free of charge |
📲 Purchase, download, and free app
After your purchase, you will receive an email with your personalized passes. In this email, you will also find a digital travel guide with details of the attractions, including those for which a reservation is required.
You can then choose to either save the passes as a PDF and print them out, or use the Go City app, which is free of charge.
You can save your Explorer Pass in the app. It also works in New York City without an internet connection – so you don’t need a SIM card or Wi-Fi.
If you have purchased passes for several people, they will all be displayed in the app. Each pass is a QR code that you show at the entrances to the attractions. A little tip: You can save the individual passes as images within the app and forward them to the group members.
Although you have already downloaded the passes, they are not yet activated! We explain when and how to activate them in the following section.
🚀 Activation of the Explorer Pass in New York
Activation of the pass means the start of the first use in New York.
When you use the Explorer Pass for the first time at an attraction in New York, when it is scanned, it is activated automatically. You do not need to do anything else.
🚨 Disadvantages of the Explorer Pass
Although the Explorer Pass from Go City offers many advantages, we don’t want to withhold a few disadvantages from you.
- Price: It is too expensive if you only visit a few inexpensive attractions.
- Reservations: You have to make additional reservations at some attractions. Here you can see all the attractions where this is the case.
- No skip-the-line tickets: Although there are separate queues for pass holders, there are no VIP or fast lane tickets that allow you to bypass all queues.
- Limit: A maximum of 10 attractions are possible with the Explorer Pass.
- No upgrade: You cannot add more attractions after purchase.
- Not all attractions are available: The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Summit One Vanderbilt cannot be visited with the Explorer Pass. However, this applies to all New York Passes.
👉 Explorer Pass alternatives
In addition to the Explorer Pass, there is a very similar product, the Sightseeing FLEX Pass.
It works in exactly the same way as the Explorer Pass and offers a similarly large selection of attractions. However, the FLEX Pass does not include the 9/11 Memorial Museum and the ferry to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. Instead, the trip to the Woodbury Common Outlet is included.
If you don’t want to visit these missing attractions, the FLEX Pass is an alternative to the Explorer Pass.
We have compiled more details on this in the comparison of the Explorer Pass vs. the Sightseeing FLEX Pass.
If you want to visit more than 10 or 12 attractions, you should take a look at the New York Pass and the Sightseeing DAY Pass. With these passes, you can enjoy unlimited sightseeing and see most of New York City.
You can see which other NYC passes are available in our New York Pass comparison.
👍 My experience with the Explorer Pass New York
We have used the Explorer Pass many times over the years. On our first trips, we chose the more comprehensive passes as we wanted to experience as much of the city as possible.
In the end, however, we opted for the passes with three to five attractions, as our itinerary included fewer sights, and we had already visited many of them.
At each attraction, the Explorer Pass was accepted without difficulty, and in each case, we were able to save money.
Can we recommend the Explorer Pass New York? Yes!
🔎 Conclusion: Who is the pass suitable for?
The Explorer Pass New York is perfect for anyone who wants to see the major attractions in New York and spread their visit over several days.
It is also ideal if you want to save money on sights and tours in the city.
☝️ Questions & Answers
When will I receive my Explorer Pass?
You will receive your passes conveniently by email immediately after purchase. If you have ordered for several people (e.g., 3), the email will contain different pass numbers (3 in our example).
Each of the Explorer Passes works independently, so everyone can visit exactly the attractions they want.
Can I visit the same attraction more than once?
No. Each attraction can be visited exactly once with the Explorer Pass.
Is public transport included in the Explorer Pass?
The Metrocard for the Subway and the buses are not included in the Explorer Pass. This applies not only to the Explorer Pass but to all sightseeing passes in the city.
How long is the Explorer Pass valid for?
The Explorer Pass is valid for 60 days after the first use at the first attraction. You have plenty of time to experience the sights of NYC.
What is the cancellation policy for the Explorer Pass?
You can return the Explorer Pass without giving a reason up to 365 days after purchase without incurring any fees. Cancellations must be made via Go City customer service.
The Explorer Pass must not have been activated, and no reservations should have been made at the attractions.
