What Is The Best New York Pass? NYC Pass Comparison 2025

Last Updated on 10th September 2025

This post about the best New York Pass contains affiliate links, please see my disclaimer for more.

Planning a trip to New York City and looking to save money on sights and tourist attractions in New York? Are you wondering if the New York City pass is worth it? My ultimate NYC Pass comparison guide and review includes everything you need to know about the different New York passes so you can decide whether they’re worth it or not!

It’s no secret that New York is incredibly expensive, but with so many amazing sights and attractions to enjoy in the city, it can be tricky to know what things are worth spending your money on.

Thankfully, there are many different New York passes available that can help save you money while visiting the Big Apple. Determining the best New York Pass, however, can be a little tricky, which is why I’ve put together this huge NYC Pass comparison guide showcasing all the pros and cons of each NY pass, plus the cost of each pass, what attractions are included in the New York Passes and whether they’re actually worth the money.

If you’re visiting New York for the first time and want to learn how to save money with the NYC Pass or you’re just curious about the different New York passes and how they compare to each other, you’ve come to the right place!

*Please note that the prices of each of these New York Passes and the individual attractions are likely to change frequently. I will endeavour to update this post as often as possible in order to provide the most accurate and up-to-date prices.

Get up to an extra 5% OFF the Go City Passes with the discount code GOPROMOCD!

Need extra help planning your trip to NYC? Get a copy of my Ultimate New York City Travel Guide ebook which includes over 230 pages of useful tips, advice and recommendations! You can also join my FREE New York Facebook Group for more NYC travel tips!

NEW YORK TRAVEL ESSENTIALS
Flights: Skyscanner / Kiwi.com / Expedia / Trip.com
Accommodation: Booking.com / Hostelworld / Agoda
Transport: Flixbus / Rentalcars.com / Big Bus Tours
Activities/tours: Get Your Guide / Viator / Klook / Go City
Travel insurance: SafetyWing
Hotel reviews: TripAdvisor
My packing essentials: Amazon
Luggage storage: Radical Storage
New York Passes: Go City Pass / New York CityPASS
USA eSIM: Airalo

What’s included in this NYC Pass comparison guide?

In this New York Pass comparison guide, I’ll be covering everything you need to know about all the different New York passes so you can make sure you purchase the right pass for you, including:

• Is the New York Pass worth it?
• The different NY Passes – cost, savings, pass validity etc
• Money-saving examples of each New York City Pass
• How each New York Pass works
• A list of the top sights and attractions included in each pass
• & more!

Read more: Is The Go City Pass Worth It?

Is the New York City Pass worth it? – NYC Pass comparison

In order for us to determine whether the NY Pass is worth it, we must first determine the different types of passes available.

Currently, there are two main pass providers in New York City; the Go City Pass, and the CityPASS® (there was also the New York Sightseeing Pass, but that unexpectedly closed down in 2025!).

Within the two main New York pass providers, there are six different passes available and this huge comparison post is going to help you find out which is the best New York pass and whether they’re worth the money!

New York City Attraction Passes Prices – NYC Pass Comparison Chart

• Go City All-Inclusive Pass ($154 – $399)
• Go City Explorer Pass ($84 – $289)
• New York Pass by Go City Essentials Pass ($99)
• New York CityPASS® ($146)
• New York C3 Pass ($104)
• New York C-All Pass ($229)

Top tip: Use the discount code GOPROMOCD to save an extra 5% off the Go City Passes!

Go City New York City Pass comparison

	Go City All-Inclusive Pass	Go City Explorer Pass
Cost (adult)	$169 – $424	$89 – $304
Savings	Up to 50%	Up to 50%
Attractions to choose from	100+	100+
No. of attractions you can visit	Unlimited	2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, or 10 depending on the pass
Pass validity	1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, or 10 days, depending on the pass	60 days
Buy here	Buy the All-Inclusive Pass here!	Buy the Explorer Pass here!

Go City All-Inclusive New York Pass

The Go City All-Inclusive Pass is for travellers who want to see and do as much as possible during their time in New York. The pass is intended for people who want to squeeze as many activities and attractions into their days in New York as possible.

You can choose the number of consecutive days that you want to use the pass for (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, or 10 days) and during those days, you can visit as many sights and attractions in New York as you want! It’s important to remember that some NY attractions are not able to be pre-booked in advance with any New York Pass, so you will have to bear this in mind when putting together your New York itinerary.

You can download the Go City app to your phone and then add your pass to the app and use it at every attraction you want to visit. The Go City All-Inclusive New York Pass is activated when you use it at your first attraction and is valid for the consecutive number of days that you purchased the pass for.

You can also only visit each attraction once with the Go City Pass.

Most popular sights and attractions included with the Go City All-Inclusive New York Pass:

• Empire State Building – need to pre-book your time slot through the Go City reservation portal.
• Top of the Rock Observation Deck – need to pre-book your time slot through the Go City reservation portal.
• State of Liberty and Ellis Island Cruise – need to pre-book your time slot via the City Experiences website.
• Edge Observation Deck – cannot pre-book; you need to visit the kiosk outside the entrance to reserve the next available time slot.
• 9/11 Memorial & Museum – need to pre-book your time slot through the Go City reservation portal.
• Big Bus 1-Day Downtown & Uptown Hop-on Hop-off Tour – cannot pre-book; you need to visit a Big Bus agent in front of the M&M Store in Times Square to scan your pass and get a valid ticket.
• One World Observatory – cannot pre-book; you need to visit a kiosk at One World to reserve the next available time slot.
• American Museum of Natural History – booking required via a timed entry reservation on the AMNH website (just enter your pass details at checkout).
• Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) – booking not required; you will need to scan your pass at a kiosk inside the lobby to receive a printed ticket to gain entry.

Example itinerary with the Go City All-Inclusive New York Pass:

Let’s say you purchase a 3-day All-Inclusive pass with Go City (priced from $274 for adults).

In those three days, you split the sights and attractions as follows:

Day 1

• Empire State Building – $53.35 ticket value
• 9/11 Memorial Museum – $36 ticket value
• American Museum of Natural History – $36 ticket value

Day 2

• Edge Observation Deck – $55.46 ticket value
• Big Bus 1-Day Downtown & Uptown Hop-on Hop-off Tour – $87 ticket value
• Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) – $30 ticket value

Day 3

• Top of the Rock Observatory – $68.59 ticket value
• Statue Of Liberty and Ellis Island Ferry – $25.50 ticket value
• The New York Botanical Garden: Garden Pass – $35 ticket value

The total price of attractions for a 3-day itinerary without a pass would be $426.90

Total savings with a 3-day Go City All-Inclusive Pass: $152.90 ($426.90 for attractions without a pass – $274 (cost of pass) = $152.90.

Of course, as you can visit as many attractions and sights within each of the days that your pass is valid, you can save even more money! If you decide to visit five attractions each day, you’ll be saving so much more money, but that all depends on how busy you want your New York itinerary to be!

Is the All-Inclusive New York Pass worth it?

The Go City All-Inclusive New York Pass is definitely worth the money for people wanting to experience as many of the city’s top sights and attractions as possible within a certain number of days.

Read more: One Month In New York – Cost Of Living In NYC For A Month

Go City Explorer New York Pass

The Go City Explorer Pass differs from the All-Inclusive Pass in that you choose the number of attractions you want to visit (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, or 10).

The price of the NY Explorer pass ranges from $89 for 2 attractions to $304 for 10 attractions.

The child age range for both Go City passes is between 3 and 12 years old, so you’ll have to pay adult prices if you’re travelling with teenagers!

Example itinerary with the Go City Explorer New York Pass:

To determine whether the Go City Explorer Pass is worth the money, let’s give a few examples of the attractions you might want to visit.

Let’s say that you want to visit the 9/11 Memorial & Museum and the One World Observatory.

• 9/11 Memorial Museum – $36 ticket value
• Edge – $55.46

Without the Pass, the ticket cost for these two attractions would be $91.46 (just $2.46 more than the cost of the Explorer Pass). While you would still save a tiny bit of money by purchasing the Explorer Pass, it’s not really worth the hassle of buying the pass in this example.

However, let’s say you want to experience 5 attractions in New York City and book a Pass for 5 attractions with Go City ($179 for adults).

• Big Bus 1-Day Downtown & Uptown Hop-on Hop-off Tour – $87 ticket value
• Edge Observation Deck – $55.46 ticket value
• The RIDE – $79 ticket value
• Empire State Building – $53.35 ticket value
• Best of NYC Cruise: Circle Line Sightseeing – $52 ticket value

The total price of these five attractions without the Go City Explorer 5-attraction pass would be $326.81.

Total savings with a 5-attraction Go City Explorer pass: $147.81 ($326.81 for attractions without a pass – $179 (cost of pass) = $147.81.

Read more: 30 Best Museums In NYC

Is the Explorer New York Pass worth it?

As you can see, a savings of a whopping $147.81 for 5 New York attractions would definitely be worth purchasing the Go City Explorer Pass (5 attractions).

The Explorer New York Pass isn’t really worth the money if you’re planning to visit just two New York attractions that would cost less than $89 anyway (the cost of the 2 New York attraction pass).

However, if you plan to visit more attractions whose entry ticket value would cost more without the Explorer Pass (such as in the example above), then the pass is worth the money.

Exclusive attractions available with the Go City Passes

As well as all the popular sights and attractions available with the Go City Passes, they also have a few attractions that are completely exclusive to their pass. Check them out below!

• SPYSCAPE (exclusive to Explorer Pass)
• Statue at Sunset Cruise (exclusive to both Go City Passes)
• Secrets of the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island – Walking Tour (exclusive to Explorer Pass)
• Woodbury Common Bus Tour Round Trip (exclusive to Explorer Pass)
• Harlem gospel tour by Harlem One Stop (exclusive to All-Inclusive Pass)

Read more: 30 Romantic Things To Do In NYC For Couples

Essentials Pass – New York Pass by Go City

In addition to the All-Inclusive Pass and the Explorer Pass, Go City also offer an “Essentials Pass” where you get the choice of three attractions out of a possible 13 for just $99.

You can choose between one of the four observation decks (Empire State Building, Top of the Rock, Edge, and One World Observatory), and then you can choose another two attractions from a possible nine, for three attractions for $99 in total.

As you can see from the cost of many attractions included in the Go City Passes, the Essentials Pass is more than likely always worth the money, as if most attractions range from $35+ to $55+, for just $99 for three attractions, you’ll nearly always be saving money by getting the Essentials Pass!

The pass is valid once you activate your pass by visiting your first attraction, and you’ll then have 30 days to visit the remaining two attractions. Non-activated passes are valid for one year from the date of purchase, so you can purchase your pass now, but then not activate it for up to a year!

Remember to use the code GOPROMOCD to save an extra 5% on the Go City Passes!

New York CityPASS® comparison

	New York CityPASS®	New York C3 Pass	New York C-All Pass
Cost (adult)	$154	$109	$239
Savings	Up to 41% at 5 attractions	Up to 40% at 3 attractions	Up to 42% at 10 attractions
Attractions to choose from	6 (ESB and Natural History Museum included)	11	10
No. of attractions you can visit	5	3	10
Pass validity	9 consecutive days	9 consecutive days	9 consecutive days
Buy here	Buy the New York CityPASS® here!	Buy the C3 Pass here!	Buy the C-All Pass here!

Reservations are required at the following attractions with the New York CityPASS:

• Empire State Building
• American Museum of Natural History
• Ferry Access to Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island
• 9/11 Memorial & Museum
• Circle Line Sightseeing Cruises
• Intrepid Museum
• Edge at Hudson Yards

New York CityPASS®

The New York CityPASS® is another one of the best New York City Passes that I’ve included in my NYC Pass comparison guide to help you to choose the best pass for you.

There are three types of New York CityPASS®; the standard CityPASS®, the C3 pass and the C-All Pass.

The standard New York CityPASS® offers the best value for money if you want to experience 5 of NYC’s top sights and attractions.

Let’s put together an example itinerary for NYC based on the standard New York CityPASS®.

With this type of pass, the Empire State Building Observatory ($53.35 ticket value) and the American Museum of Natural History ($36 ticket value) are included with the pass as standard.

You can then choose another 3 attractions to visit from a possible 6, including:

• Top of the Rock Observation Deck – $68.59 ticket value
• 9/11 Memorial & Museum – $36 ticket value
• Ferry to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island – $25.50 ticket value
• Circle Line Sightseeing Cruises – $34 ticket value
• Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum – $38 ticket value
• Guggenheim Museum – $30 ticket value

Let’s say on top of the Empire State Building (which you can visit twice in one day to experience it both during the day and at night!) and the American Museum of Natural History, you also choose to experience the Circle Line Sightseeing Cruises, the 9/11 Memorial & Museum, and the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum.

Including the price of the attractions that are included in the pass as standard, the total price of all the attractions without the New York CityPASS® (worth $146) would be $197.35.

Therefore, you would benefit from a saving of $43.35 with the New York CityPASS®: $197.35 for attractions without a pass – $154 (cost of pass) = $43.35.

Is the New York CityPASS® worth it?

The New York CityPASS® is worth it as you benefit from great savings (such as in the example above), but you are very limited on the number of attractions you can choose from and you also have to use the pass within 9 consecutive days, so it doesn’t give you quite as much freedom or flexibility as some of the other NYC passes featured in this comparison guide.

Read more: 25 Best Free Things To Do In New York – Free Things To Do In NYC

New York C3 Pass

The New York C3 Pass works in a similar way to the standard NY CityPASS®, but it only gives you access to 3 New York attractions over the course of 9 consecutive days from the day of first use. There are 11 different attractions to choose from, including:

• Empire State Building
• American Museum of Natural History
• Top of the Rock Observation Deck
• Ferry Access to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island
• 9/11 Memorial & Museum
• Circle Line Sightseeing Cruises
• Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum
• Guggenheim Museum
• The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA)
• Edge Observation Deck

Is the New York C3 worth it?

Depending on the 3 different attractions you choose with the NY C3 Pass, you can benefit from savings of up to 40%, which is a great saving, but not quite as much as the other NYC Passes featured in this guide.

There are also some conditions with the New York C3 pass such as the fact that you can only visit the Empire State Building during non-sunset hours. Therefore, while you can enjoy great savings, I don’t personally think this particular pass is as good as some of the others (I’d recommend the New York CityPASS® over the C3 pass unless you just want to visit 3 specific attractions during your time in NYC).

New York C-All Pass

The New York C-All Pass is also valid for 9 consecutive days, but this particular pass allows you to visit all 10 featured attractions in the pass (apart from the American Museum of Natural History).

The C-All Pass costs $239 for adults and can save you up to 42% if you visit all 10 featured attractions listed above.

Is the New York C-All worth it?

This pass is worth it if you want to enjoy a jam-packed itinerary in New York and visit as many sights and attractions as possible.

How do the New York Passes work?

Each of the New York Passes featured below differs slightly in how they work. However, most of them follow the same sort of formula in that they are intended to help save you money on sights and attractions in New York City.

Some attractions, such as the MoMA, American Museum of Natural History and the Statue of Liberty Cruise can be pre-booked in advance so you can reserve your timeslot with each of these attractions beforehand.

However, some attractions and sights, such as the Top of the Rock observation deck and the 9/11 Memorial & Museum cannot be pre-booked or reserved ahead of time, so you will have to queue at your desired visiting time in order to use your pass at these attractions.

Read more: The Best Observation Decks In NYC For Amazing Views

How much will you save if you have a New York City Pass?

The savings you can benefit from will depend on the type of NY Pass you buy. The range of savings for each pass usually falls between 30% and 65%, with savings of hundreds of dollars in some cases.

It all depends on which pass you buy and the length of the pass. I’ll cover the savings of each New York pass individually in each section below.

Does the NYC Pass include transportation?

Some of the New York City Passes featured throughout this comparison guide such as the Go City Passes include transportation options like the Big Bus Tours, but the New York CityPASS® doesn’t include any transport options.

To help you plan your trip to NYC, here are some of my New York itineraries:

• One Day In New York Itinerary For First-Time Visitors
• 3 Day NYC Itinerary
• 4 Days In New York Itinerary
• 7 Days In New York Itinerary
• The Ultimate New York Bucket List – 111 Best Things To Do In NYC

What is the best New York Pass and is it worth it?

The “best” NYC Pass is hard to determine exactly (annoying answer, I know!) because they’re all intended for different kinds of travellers looking to experience different things in the city.

If I had to recommend just one New York pass, it would probably have to be the Go City New York All-Inclusive Pass as this includes unlimited attractions, over 100 different attractions to choose from and offers savings of up to 50%.

However, it is also one of the most expensive New York Passes, so if you opt for the All-Inclusive Pass, I would recommend spending some time determining how many attractions you can realistically visit in the number of days you have planned to see how much money you’ll actually save.

Below, you can find the summaries for each of the New York passes and who they’re intended for, as well as how much they cost.

• Go City All-inclusive Pass ($164 – $414) – Most expensive pass, but arguably one of the best values for money, depending on the number of attractions you visit. Great for first-time visitors who want to experience as many sights and attractions as possible.
• Go City Explorer Pass ($89 – $304) – One of the most affordable options if you’re looking to visit New York’s attractions at a more leisurely pace.
• Go City Essentials Pass ($99) – Ideal if you just want to visit a handful of attractions (you can choose up to three and visit within a 30 day period).
• New York CityPASS® ($154) – Great if you want to visit just the top sights and attractions in NYC, but limited to a choice of only 6 attractions (2 are already included).
• New York C3 Pass ($109) – Ideal for travellers wanting to get a feel for New York’s best attractions within 9 consecutive days. It’s the cheapest option in terms of upfront cost for an NYC Pass.
• New York C-All Pass ($239) – You can visit all 10 attractions listed with the New York Pass, but you are limited to just those 10 attractions, so no off-the-beaten-track sights are included.

Read more: New York Tips For First-Time Visitors – Best NYC Travel Tips

NYC Pass comparison guide – conclusion

I hope you’ve found this NYC Pass comparison guide useful and informative! I know it seems like there’s a lot of information to read and understand when it comes to choosing the best New York Pass, but if you follow this guide, you should be well-prepared for your trip to New York City!

Related posts:

• What Is New York Known For – What Is NYC Famous For?
• 40+ Best Things To Do At Christmas In NYC
• 50+ Best Places To Eat In New York City – NYC Best Restaurants
• Where To Stay In New York City For The First Time
• Toronto vs New York City – Which Is Better To Visit?

Pin for later – NYC pass comparison

Has this New York Pass comparison guide helped you to decide which NYC pass is best for you? Let me know in the comments or in my New York Facebook Group!