With so much to see, and so much to do in New York, you might be wondering if the New York Go City Pass will make your life easier. In simple terms, yes. It will. They’re easy to use, save you time and money. You get up to 50% off on over 100 attractions, and you know what makes it even better? Most times, you can skip the lines and dive to the front of the queues with digital passes.
So, we asked someone who’s used this pass to actually tell us about their experience with the pass. Say hey to Iisa Hero. While she’s studying Business Administration online, she’s really a full-time traveler who’s already tapped into 42 whopping countries across the globe. Having called Finland, Australia and New Zealand home for a fair share of her life - especially Finland - you can count on Lisa to tell you all about her travels, and that too on a budget. Luckily she likes cooking, eating, and reading, so know that if you follow her, there’s more to her holidays and explorations than just monuments and landmarks.
Here’s what she has to say about this pass.
My favorite attractions on the NYC Go City pass were Top of the Rock, Edge, Empire State Building, and One World Observatory because I love visiting observation decks, especially in a huge city like New York. I also really appreciated the Pass including admission to these observation decks as they are quite expensive to visit without a pass and some of the best value on the Pass.
My typical days of using the Pass included visiting one or two observation decks (one in the morning and one for sunset/night), going on a tour (eg. a sightseeing cruise with a guide), and visiting a museum or two (eg. Natural History Museum and 9/11 Museum). I would choose attractions in about two areas of Manhattan to visit for a day.
My expectations were that the Pass would be easy to use, make admission faster, and save me a lot of money. My expectations were mostly met as the pass did save me a lot of time and money. However, there are a few misconceptions of how smooth it will be!
The pass requires more pre-planning than I expected. The admission process isn't always faster. For example at Top of the Rock where you needed to queue twice, first to receive a physical ticket and then to get in, even though I had made a reservation online in advance. That said, the city pass will save you a lot of money due to discounted admission and save you a lot of time because you won’t have to buy all the tickets separately, for most places.
I think the top experiences on the Pass are Top of the Rock, Edge (for sunset as I think it’s the only observation deck on the pass that includes sunset admission without extra cost), 9/11 Memorial and Museum, Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island Ferry, and more museums depending on the interests of the future traveler.
I would recommend making a plan on which areas and attractions to visit each day of using the Pass and making sure all necessary reservations are made on time. I would also recommend not using the Pass every single day of the trip if possible as the days can get quite hectic.
