New York, NYC, USA

The New York Pass – Is it REALLY worth it?

February 5, 2020

If you’re visiting New York City soon, you might be looking for the best deals for sightseeing and attractions. The truth of it is – NYC can be a pretty expensive city to visit, and any way you can save a little money (or a lot of money!) is good news! The New York Pass is one of the best options for saving money when sightseeing in NYC, and I’ll go through how the pass works and how you can make the most of it below. Keep reading for my advice and recommendations regarding the New York Pass.

How does the New York Pass work?

You pay a fixed priced, for the amount of time you’d like to spend sightseeing in the city. For example, if you’re visiting the city for 5 days, you may want to buy a 3 or 4 day New York Pass.

Whilst the New York Pass is activated, you’ll get access to all the ‘included’ attractions just by scanning the code on your phone. There are no extra charges once you’ve paid for your New York Pass, so essentially the ticket price is the only price you’ll pay, and you can make your way through the entire list of attractions if you want to!

In short – the more attractions you visit or enter using your pass, the more money you’ll save and the better value the New York Pass is. Most people end up saving around 40% – 50% of ticket prices, by buying the New York Pass.

You can purchase the New York Pass by clicking here.

What are the limits?

Unlike other tourist passes in NYC, there is no limit on how many attractions you can visit with the New York Pass. You can visit them all if you have time!

The only limits are:

The length of time you’ve set for your pass, so how many days your pass is active for (but you can decide this)
You can only visit each attraction once

How much does the New York Pass cost?

This depends on how many days you want your New York Pass to be active for. As you’d expect, the price goes up depending on how many days you want to spend sightseeing! If you’re in New York for a total of 5 days, I would recommend having the 3 or 4 day pass, to ensure you’ve got plenty of time to see everything!

You can see the current ticket prices by clicking here, once on the webpage, check the ticket prices per day by clicking the ‘Book Now’ button on the right.

I recommend having the pass activated for your entire stay in NYC, as you’re then totally ‘covered’ in terms of sightseeing, and you can rest easy knowing that your entrance (into all the included attractions) are included in the New York Pass and you’re not going to be worried about other big ticket prices or outgoings.

What attractions are included in the New York Pass?

There are LOADS!! Here’s the full list of attractions… I’ve highlighted some of my personal favourites in red!

Tourist classics

Empire State Building
Big Bus Tours: 1-day Classic Tour
Top of the Rock Observation Deck
Madame Tussauds New York
Rockefeller Centre Tour
The RIDE
Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island Immigration Museum
Color Factory
Bryant Park Ice Skating (seasonal)

Museums

9/11 Memorial & Museum
American Museum of Natural History
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
MoMA – Museum of Modern Art
Intrepid Sea Air and Space Museum
Guggenheim Museum
Museum of Sex
9/11 Tribute Center & Audio Tour
Whitney Museum of American Art
New York Transit Museum
Fraunces Tavern Museum
Museum of the City of New York
Museum of Jewish Heritage
Museum of Arts and Design
Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum
Skyscraper Museum
The Met: Breuer
New Museum
International Center of Photography
New York Hall of Science
Brooklyn Museum of Art
Museum at Eldridge Street
The Met: Cloisters
Ground Zero Museum Workshop
South Street Seaport Museum
Paley Center for Media
MOMA PS 1
Museum of American Finance
Staten Island Museum
LEGOLAND(R) Discovery Center, Westchester
Staten Island Children
El Museo del Barrio
Museum of Chinese in America

Tours

Madison Square Garden All Access Tour
Rockefeller Center Tour
Unlimited Biking: Central Park Bike Tour
The RIDE
Yankee Stadium Tour
Intrepid Audio Tour
Blazing Saddles: Brooklyn Bridge Bike Tour (Pier 17)
Grand Central Audio Tour
Radio City Stage Door Tour
Catacombs by Candlelight Tour
Cathedral of St. John the Divine
Wall Street Walks Tour
Harlem Gospel Tour (Wednesday Service) by Harlem One Stop
The TOUR
Harlem Gospel Tour (Sunday Service) by Inside Out Tours
Brooklyn Gospel Tour by Inside Out Tours
When Harry Met Seinfeld Bus Tour by Inside Out Tours
Carnegie Hall Tours
Lincoln Center Tour
Circle Line Downtown

Walking tours

High Line Walking Tour by NY Tours 1
Food on Foot Tour
Brooklyn Bridge & DUMBO Neighborhood Walking Tour by Inside Out Tours
Inside Broadway Walking Tour by NY Tours 1
SoHo – Little Italy – Chinatown Walking Tour by NY Tours 1
Graffiti Street Art Walking Tour by Brooklyn Unplugged
Central Park Walking Tour by On Location Tours
Greenwich Village Walking Tour by NY Tours 1
Cultural Walking Tours of Harlem by Harlem One Stop
Unlimited Biking: Central Park Walking Tour
Unlimited Biking: Brooklyn Bridge Walking Tour
Queens Experience On Foot by Food on Foot Tours
Best of Brooklyn Walking Tour by Brooklyn Unplugged
New York Slavery & Underground Railroad Walking Tour by Inside Out Tours
Midtown Architecture Walking Tour by Inside Out Tours
Street Art Tour of the Lower East Side by Inside Out Tours
NYC Holiday Market & Christmas Lights Walking Tour by Inside Out Tours
Secrets of Brooklyn Walking Tour by Inside Out Tours
Hamilton Happy Hour Tour
Secrets of Downtown Walking Tour by Wall Street Walks
Bronx’s Little Italy and Arthur Avenue Walking Tour by Inside Out Tours
Fashion Windows Walking Tour
Marvel & DC Superheroes Walking Tour by Top Dog Tours NYC
Spirits on Foot Tour

Boat tours

Circle Line: Best of New York Cruise
Circle Line: Harbor Lights Cruise
Circle Line: Landmark Cruise
Circle Line: Liberty Cruise
Circle Line: Downtown Liberty Express Cruise
New York Water Taxi: All Day Access
Manhattan by Sail: Clipper City Tall Ships Cruise
Circle Line Downtown: Statue by Night Cruise
Manhattan by Sail: Shearwater Classic Schooner

Botanical Gardens and Zoos

Staten Island Zoo
New York Botanical Garden
Snug Harbor Botanical Garden- Staten Island
Brooklyn Botanical Garden

Bike rental

Unlimited Biking: Brooklyn Bridge Bike Rental
Unlimited Biking: Central Park Bike Rental
Blazing Saddles: Bike Rental (Pier 84)
Unlimited Biking: Brooklyn Bridge Bike Tour
Unlimited Biking: Harlem Bike Rental
Unlimited Biking: Hudson River Bike Rental
Unlimited Biking: Harlem Bike Tour

Quirky days out

Luna Park at Coney Island – 24 Ride Wristband
Denos Wonder Wheel
New York Historical Society
The DOWNTOWN EXPERIENCE
Staten Island Yankees
Governor’s Island Surrey Rental by Blazing Saddles
HighFlyer Zipline at Foxwoods Casino Resort
National Geographic Encounter: Ocean Odyssey
Harlem Jazz Series – Tuesday
Harlem Jazz Series – Friday
Bagel & Cream Cheese from Davidovich Bakery
Beer at Brooklyn Brewery
Winery Tour at City Winery
Trolls the Experience

Important things to know about the New York Pass

There are a few useful things to know before booking the New York Pass, these tips will just help you make the most of your pass…

The New York Pass will be automatically delivered online via a download when you purchase it. And you access it via an app during your stay. This makes it really convenient and easy to use!
New York Pass don’t control the opening hours of the different attractions – so it’s always worth checking the opening times on the individual websites.
Your pass gets activated when you scan your pass for the first time on your first attraction. It’ll then be valid for however many days you’ve purchased.
Days are calendar days (not 24 hours) – for this reason, it’s best activate your pass in the morning – not the evening! Activating in the morning will give you so much more time!
The bus tours on the New York Pass are always super popular, so it’s worth getting there early to ensure you get a seat.
As well as your admission to all the attractions above, you also get discounts at top restaurants, shops and Broadway shows included in your New York Pass – so definitely take advantage of this too!
You can purchase the New York Pass by clicking here.

My personal recommendations

I hope this guide to the New York Pass has been super useful! It’s a great options for tourists in the city, and it really does let you see some of the best places in the city (and save money while you do it).

Personally, I would tick off all the ‘tourist favourites’ if you can, and then split your time between a few of the other categories depending on how long you’re in the city. Try and identify your favourite destinations and choose tours or activities that let you fit them in.

Personally, alongside the tourist favourites, I would try and fit in:

A boat tour – Such a good way to see the city skyline, and especially lovely if you love taking photos.

A few walking tours – I LOVE the walking tours in NYC, and the New York Pass has so many of them choose from. Walking tours are a great way to explore the city, and when you have a tour guide with you, you get to learn so much more about the city’s history and culture.

A few museums / art galleries- The museums in NYC are some of the best in the world, so make sure you squeeze a couple in if you can. You might see some incredible things.