NYC offers its visitors passes to visit the main attractions of the city, you can order them on the internet, and they are delivered to your home in a few days. Once you’re there, you don’t need to take out your money, you don’t have to wait in line at certain attractions, but above all, you save a lot of money. Your New York Pass allows you to discover the most interesting sites in the city: museums, the Statue of Liberty, the Empire State Building, etc. Among all the existing offers, we have selected five for you:
All of the above passes are detailed at the bottom of this article, but if you don’t have time to read everything, check out the comparison chart that follows and you’ll get an overall picture of which pass will best meet your expectations. The five tickets don’t really compete with each other, because even though they offer a common base of attractions, some will be more for the busy traveler who will be going through the city at a fast pace while other cards will be more for tourists who want to take the time to stroll around and save money at the same time. Our comparison table shows you the differences and then we explain which one is the best for your stay.
The top 4 are:
- 🎟️ The New York CityPASS is valid for 9 days and costs $129. It allows you to visit 5 major sites in New York from a pre-established list. This list contains the most important sites and monuments.
- The New York Pass is a flexible package in terms of day and therefore terms price. It includes 80 different sites.
- The Go City: Explorer Pass is valid for 60 days. It is also flexible, allowing you to visit 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 or 10 attractions for as little as 70 euros. 5% discount code with : NYCFR5
- The New York Sightseeing Pass has unfortunately announced the suspension of its operations. More information here.
New York Pass Comparison
Please hold your smartphone in landscape mode to see the whole picture, you can move from left to right.
| For flexibility | To visit a Maximum | ||
| Name of the PASS | Go City | The New York Pass | CityPASS |
| The Passes in image |  |  |  |
| In detail | Take your time | Visits at your convenience | Practical for a 1 or 2 days stay |
| Our review | Perfect for alternating between visiting attractions and relaxing | Very good to make many visits and a cruise | Few attractions but maybe the one you want to see |
| Cost savings | 51% | 50% | 39% |
| Our rating | A+ Very good | A Good | C Not bad |
| Reviews | 4.6 1736 reviews | 4.4 734 reviews | 3 14322 reviews |
| Available attractions | +90 | +115 | 8 |
| Attractions to choose | 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 ou 10 | Unlimited | 5 |
| Valid for ¹ | 60 | 1, 2, 3, 5, 7 ou 10 | 9 |
| Price | from $69 | from $139 | from $129 |
| Benefits | - Many boat tours - Very flexible | - Unlimited visits - Pass on mobile | - Empire State Building day and night tickets |
| Disadvantages | Summit One Vanderbilt not included | Summit One Vanderbilt not included | - A very limited choice - No hop-on hop-off bus - Summit One Vanderbilt not included |
OBSERVATORY PLATFORMS |
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| Empire State Building | Express lane | ||
| Top of the Rock | Express lane | ||
| Edge Hudson Yards | |||
| One World Observatory | |||
| Summit One Vanderbilt | |||
MUSEUMS |
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| American museum of Natural History | |||
| MET | |||
| Guggenheim Museum | |||
| 9/11 Memorial museum | |||
| Madame Tussauds | |||
| Museum of Modern Art | |||
| Intrepid Museum | |||
| Whitney Museum | |||
| Statue of Liberty & Ellis Island | |||
HOP-ON HOP-OFF BUS TOURS 2 |
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| Name of the PASS | Go City | New York Pass | CityPASS |
| Big Bus - Uptown tour | |||
| Big Bus - Downtown tour | |||
| Gray Line - Night Tour | |||
| Gray Line - Brooklyn tour | |||
| Gray Line - Best of Manhattan | |||
| 1st Exp - Brooklyn, Bronx & Queens (non hop-on hop-off) | |||
BOAT CRUISES |
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| Circle Line - Monuments 1h30 | |||
| Circle Line - Best of NYC 2h30 | |||
| Circle Line - Harbor Light | |||
| Circle Line - Liberty Cruise non-stop | |||
| Circle Line - Super Express Downtown | |||
| Hornblower - Statue of Liberty | |||
| Hornblower - Alive after five | |||
| Manhattan by Sail - Sunset Sail | |||
| Manhattan by Sail - Daytime Cruise | |||
| Manhattan by Sail - Statue Sail | |||
| Name of the PASS | Go City | New York Pass | CityPASS |
GET YOUR PASS |
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| By post | |||
| Printable version | |||
| Mobile version | |||
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1 The validity period starts from the day you make your first visit.
2 With a Day Pass, you can ride Hop-On Hop-Off buses as long as your pass is valid. For attraction-based passes, you may ride each tour once. Except for the Big Bus which is only valid for one day.
The two main families of Passes
As you may have noticed, there are two families of Passes, those for which you will buy a number of days of visits and the other Passes for which you will buy a number of entries in the attractions they offer.
The New York Day Pass
There are two day passes: The New York Pass and Sightseeing Day Pass. The advantage of these passes is that you can do a large number of attractions by preparing your program well. You have to take the time to look at all the attractions they offer and take note of all the ones you are interested in and then prepare your program according to their location so that you don’t have to cross Manhattan every day. They are very profitable as soon as you enter 3 to 4 attractions per day. They are the preferred pass for tourists who want to visit as many attractions as possible.
New York Passes at the Attraction
If you like to discover the city at your own pace, and like to visit an attraction from time to time, then the Attraction Passes may be more for you. You already know the 2 to 12 places you want to visit and you go to NYC for 6 to 12 days. Indeed, the Go City, the Sightseeing Flex Pass, or the New York CityPASS are more suitable for you. You don’t need to do your 2 to 12 visits in 2 days, you have 60 days for the two first mentioned and 9 days for the New York CityPASS.
Which New York city pass to choose?
As you can see in the comparison table above, they do not offer the same thing as they were designed to meet personal and different needs.
1st visit to New York
If you are visiting “The Big Apple” for the first time and want to enjoy the attractions but also the parks, cafes, and restaurants we recommend you choose the New York CityPass. With this pass, you can visit 5 attractions from a list of 8, these are the must-see monuments in NYC. To visit them, it will cost you $216. If you buy a CityPass for $129, you save $87.
Back in New York
You’ve already been to New York and you’ve decided to visit as many attractions as possible in less than 11 days! The New York Pass is for you, you can take it for 10 days and visit as many attractions as you can. It’s $329 and if you visit 3 attractions a day you save about $700. And finally, if you’ve been here before and you want to enjoy New York at your own pace by visiting less crowded places, the Go City Explorer Pass is ideal, you have 30 days to visit 10 attractions for $259. All passes are personal, the pass holder cannot let another person in. Considered a priority ticket, a pass allows you to avoid waiting in line. To visit New York City, passes are ideal. They save time and money.
Presentation of the different Passes
- New York SightSeeing Pass
The end of an entrepreneurial adventure Sightseeing Pass, an American company specializing in tourist passes founded in New York in 2016, announced on June 19, 2025, the permanent suspension of its operations. This sudden decision marks the end of a company that employed around 20 people and offered passes to visit New York. The Flex… - The New York Pass
Without a doubt, New York City is one of the most tourist cities in the world, and every year it welcomes visitors from all over the world, hoping to discover the characteristics of this marvelous city that has become a real reference thanks to the media and Hollywood movies. Several companies are specialized in offering… - New York CityPass
As one of the largest cities in the world, New York is a dream attraction for tourists from all over the world, as the city offers wonders, which can quickly drain your bank account if you are not prepared. For this reason, several companies offer special passes to access the majority of places while allowing… - New York Go City Pass
When you are about to visit one of the world’s greatest cities, it makes sense to plan your stay beforehand. In order to prepare for your stay in New York City, you need to plan your sightseeing tour to see all the iconic places in the city. Taking into account a large number of attractions,…
What are the differences between the New York CityPASS and The New York Pass?
To know which of these two passes is best for you, you will have to take into account the number of days you will spend in New York and the time you will allow to visit attractions.
If the New York CityPASS is the best-selling pass, it is first of all because it is valid for 9 days and which corresponds to the average length of stay of tourists. It allows you to visit up to 5 attractions of your choice for $138. This package will interest those who only plan to visit a few sites while taking their time.
For a period of 10 days, the New York Pass costs $384, but it allows you to see up to 115 different attractions. The New York Pass has the advantage of being flexible. Thus, 2 days of visit cost only 189 dollars and you always have access to the 115 attractions. This package will be of interest to those who plan to visit as many monuments as possible in a short time.
Because of the differences in the prices and the monuments offered, it is impossible to say which of these two cards is the best. It is mainly your personal program and budget that will guide you to one or the other. In a simplistic way, we can say that the New York CityPASS puts the entrance ticket to the monuments at $27.6 ($138 for 5 attractions) and that at best, the New York Pass puts the entrance ticket at 3.3 dollars (384 dollars for 115 attractions).
In any case, both of them allow you to save money compared to the normal ticket and above all they allow you to avoid the queues.
