The Empire State Building, the Statue of Liberty, Top of the Rock and more on
one mobile pass. Here is the relaunched CityPASS, its rivals and the single tickets, compared
so you buy the right one.
Independent guideNot affiliated with CityPASS or Go City; we compare so you book the right pass
5 of 10Attractions you choose
9 daysTo use the pass
$149Adult price (child $129)
Up to 51%Savings vs gate prices
1 yearTo start using it
$109C3: choose 3 instead
Passes & Tickets
Choose your New York CityPASS tickets
Booked through Viator: instant confirmation and a mobile pass in your inbox.
Ratings are live Viator & Tripadvisor figures.
Pick 2 to 630 days
Go City Explorer Pass
★ 4.0(2,081 reviews on Viator & Tripadvisor)
Instant confirmationMobile ticketFree cancellation to 24h
Pick a set number of attractions, from two to six, out of more than 100 on the Go City list, then take a relaxed 30 days to use them. The best fit when you only want a handful of big sights and hate a ticking clock.
The classic New York pass, relaunched in September 2026: pick any five of ten headline attractions, from the Empire State Building and Top of the Rock to the Statue of Liberty ferry, the 9/11 Museum and the new Edge deck, and use them over nine consecutive days.
View full details
5 attractions from a list of 10
Empire State Building AM/PM ticket (86th floor)
Statue of Liberty & Ellis Island ferry (grounds access)
9 consecutive days from your first visit or reserved day; 1 year to start
Go City’s all-inclusive pass: as many attractions as you can fit into 1 to 5 consecutive calendar days, with more than 100 on the list including the big observation decks, the 9/11 Memorial and bus and boat tours. Built for fast-paced sightseers.
Book on Viator or direct. The pass arrives by email as a mobile ticket; you have a full year to start using it.
2 minutes
2Open the app
Link the ticket to the My CityPASS app. Every attraction, its address and its reservation rules sit in one place.
5 minutes
3Pick five, reserve
Choose five of the ten attractions and book time slots where required. You can move a reservation if the weather turns.
Before you fly
4Scan and walk in
Show the barcode at each entrance. No ticket-office queue, though airport-style security still applies at the big sights.
At each door
5Nine days to finish
The nine consecutive days start on the first day you visit an attraction or have a reservation. Two a day leaves room for the free city.
9 days
Three observation decks on the listThe Statue of Liberty ferryNatural History for the kidsThe 9/11 Memorial & Museum
Plan Your Trip
Plan your New York CityPASS days
The ten attractions, reservations and hours, getting around and the rules that trip people up - one tab each.
Observation decks: Empire State Building (86th floor, morning and night visit on the same day), Top of the Rock, Edge at Hudson Yards (new in 2026).
Harbor: Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island official ferry (grounds and museums), Circle Line sightseeing cruises.
Museums: 9/11 Memorial & Museum, American Museum of Natural History, Intrepid Museum, Guggenheim, Whitney Museum of American Art (new in 2026).
Pick any five. The priciest combinations (two decks, Circle Line, 9/11 Museum, Intrepid) deliver the biggest savings.
Most attractions require a timed reservation in the My CityPASS app; the Guggenheim only recommends one.
Empire State Building: open daily from 9 or 10 AM to 10 or 11 PM this autumn, with entry closing an hour before; your AM/PM ticket lets you return after dark.
Museums generally close around 5 to 5:30 PM; decks stay open late, so put the museum first and the deck at sunset.
Statue of Liberty ferries leave Battery Park from the morning; take an early one, the full visit with Ellis Island takes 4 to 5 hours.
Subway: $3.00 a ride in 2026. Tap a contactless card or phone at the OMNY reader; after $35 in any rolling seven days, rides are free with the same card.
Walking: Empire State, Top of the Rock and the Intrepid are all within a 25-minute walk in Midtown.
From the airports: AirTrain plus subway from JFK, or the Q70 bus and subway from LaGuardia, beats a taxi in rush hour.
None of the passes include subway fare. The Go City passes list hop-on hop-off bus tours; CityPASS does not.
Adult prices apply from 18 on CityPASS (child 6 to 17, $129); on C3 from 13 (child 6 to 12, $89).
Each attraction can be used once. The Statue ticket does not include pedestal or crown access and cannot be upgraded.
The Empire State ticket is the 86th floor; the 102nd floor is an extra you buy on site.
Bought on Viator the CityPASS is non-refundable; bought direct it carries a 365-day refund promise. Weigh that before you choose.
Free and cheap things to slot in between
FreeStaten Island Ferry25 minutes past the Statue of Liberty · runs 24/7 from Whitehall
FreeThe High LineElevated park from the Meatpacking District to Hudson Yards · ends at Edge
FreeBrooklyn Bridge walkAbout 30 minutes each way · go early for the empty walkway
Free9/11 Memorial poolsThe outdoor memorial is always free · the museum is on CityPASS
FriWhitney free eveningsFree Fridays 5 to 10 PM · save a CityPASS slot
$3Subway to anywhereTap to pay with OMNY · $35 weekly fare cap
Where the Attractions Are
New York CityPASS attractions on the map
No meeting point: go straight in
Midtown · Lower Manhattan · Upper West & East Side
There is no tour to join. You travel to each attraction yourself and scan your pass at
the door. Group the ten attractions into three clusters and two a day comes easily.
Midtown: Empire State Building (350 Fifth Ave), Top of the Rock (30 Rockefeller Plaza), Edge (30 Hudson Yards), Intrepid and Circle Line (Pier 86 and 83, West Side)
Downtown: 9/11 Memorial & Museum (180 Greenwich St), Statue of Liberty ferry (Battery Park), Whitney (99 Gansevoort St)
Uptown: Natural History (Central Park West at 79th St), Guggenheim (1071 Fifth Ave)
When to go, the small things that matter, what not to do and the refund fine print.
April to June: mild weather, blossom in Central Park, long evenings for sunset decks.
July and August: hot and humid; save museums for the afternoon heat and decks for the evening.
September to early November: the sweet spot, with clear air for skyline views and autumn color in the park.
December: the holiday lights and the Rockefeller tree, but the busiest weeks of the year at every deck; reserve early.
Use the Empire State AM/PM ticket twice: once in the morning, back after dark for the lights.
Book the Statue ferry for the first departures; queues for security grow through the morning.
Choose your five by neighborhood: the Statue ferry and the 9/11 Museum are both downtown; the Intrepid and the Circle Line share the West Side piers; Natural History and the Guggenheim face each other across Central Park.
Check the weather before booking a deck slot; clouds at the top mean no view, and you can move the reservation.
Buy one pass per person over 6; kids 5 and under enter most included attractions free.
Do not buy a pass before listing the attractions you actually want; a pass only saves money on sights you would have paid for anyway.
Do not stand still on busy sidewalks or subway stairs; step aside to check your map.
Do not buy tickets from street sellers around Battery Park or Times Square: only the official ferry lands on Liberty Island.
Do not cram three museums into one day. Two big attractions a day is the pace that works.
Central Park after dark: stick to lit, busy paths near the edges, and note the park closes from 1 AM to 6 AM.
CityPASS and the All-Inclusive New York Pass bought on Viator are non-refundable; the Go City Explorer Pass cancels free up to 24 hours before.
Direct from citypass.com, CityPASS comes with 365-day risk-free refunds on unused passes; Go City direct refunds unactivated passes within 90 days of purchase.
Reservations made in the CityPASS app can be changed, subject to availability.
Single tickets for the Empire State Building and Top of the Rock cancel free up to 24 hours before; the Statue ferry ticket does not.
Five icons, nine days, one pass in your pocket. The city does the rest.
4.3★★★★★2,145 reviews New York CityPASS · live Viator & Tripadvisor figure
★★★★★
Fantastic way to see all the major sights of New York. This is really good value - we bought the pass for two adults and one teenager and worked out that we basically got our teenager in for free at all the venues. The app is so easy to use and allowed us to change the times of our bookings due to bad weather too.
★★★★★
Would highly recommend buying the pass. We had some rainy days and I was easily able to swap what I’d booked around! Was so easy to use!
★★★★★
Really easy to use the app and book the activities, I felt this was good value for money. I chose to book the Statue of Liberty separately to get the crown access included (note - you cannot upgrade the pass to include the crown access).
★★★★★
Excellent - value for money, easy to use. We were able to prioritise what we wanted to do but with the pass content also were able to add other things where time allowed. Perfect for our needs.
★★★★★
The pass works great, you just need to know you’ll have to buy separate tickets for other things such as audio tours or in my case to the top of the Empire State Building and the pedestal at the Statue of Liberty. Be sure to get all your info.
★★★★★
We went to Empire State Building, Top of the Rock, Intrepid Museum, Museum of Natural History and 9/11 Memorial. It was very easy to navigate all attractions and museums with the CityPASS app and reserving my times. The 9/11 Memorial was very emotional; leave time to explore it.
★★★★★
I loved the CityPASS for New York City! It was on an app and it was easy to use. Several times I had to modify my reservations for a couple of events and it was super easy.
★★★★★
So easy to use and you don’t need to print tickets. Even better that you can change most of the trip times if you arrive early or you know you’re running late. If I was going again I would definitely get this again.
★★★★★
Amazing! It’s so worth buying the City Pass, we got to see many landmarks without having to pay individually. It was super convenient.
Quotes from verified Viator bookings on the listings above; ratings shown are live Viator & Tripadvisor figures.
Only Want One or Two?
Single tickets for the big three
A pass only pays off from about four attractions. If you just want the
view and the statue, book the single tickets and skip the pass.
Single ticket1 to 2 hours
Empire State Building Ticket
★ 4.5(7,678 reviews on Viator & Tripadvisor)
Timed entryMobile ticketFree cancellation to 24h
Only doing one deck? The open-air 86th floor, the exhibition floors and the option to upgrade to the 102nd floor or skip-the-line entry.
New York is the most expensive sightseeing city in America, and the pass
companies know it. CityPASS, C3, Go City Explorer and the All-Inclusive New York Pass all
promise big savings; all of them deliver, for the right traveler. Here is how they work,
what changed in 2026 and the ticket math in plain terms.
What changed in September 2026
CityPASS relaunched its New York pass on 10 September 2026. The old format mixed fixed
attractions with either-or choices; the new one is fully flexible: choose any five of
ten. Two premium options joined the list, the Edge observation deck at Hudson Yards
and the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the price dropped from $164 to $149
for adults and from $136 to $129 for children. The pass is valid for nine consecutive
days, starting on the first day you visit an attraction or have a reservation, and you
have a year from purchase to start. Tickets live in the My
CityPASS app, which also handles reservations and lets you move them.
Everything runs through the app: pick your five, reserve slots, then scan at the door.
The ticket math, honestly
CityPASS publishes the combined gate price of its five most expensive choices as
$307.04 for an adult, which is where the “save up to 51%” headline comes
from. Real savings depend on your five. Build your list around the two big decks, the
9/11 Museum, the Intrepid and the Circle Line and you get close to the headline; pick
the cheaper museums and the saving shrinks to around $50. The break-even point for most
travelers is four attractions you would genuinely have paid for. Viator sells the
pass at the official $149 with no processing fee, but on Viator it is
non-refundable; bought direct at citypass.com you pay a $2 fee and get a 365-day
refund promise on unused passes. If your dates are firm, either works; if they are not,
buy direct. We earn nothing on direct bookings and say so anyway.
The one thing people miss: the Statue of Liberty ticket in every
pass covers the island grounds, the museum and Ellis Island, not the pedestal or crown.
Crown tickets sell out months ahead and must be bought separately from the official
ferry company.
CityPASS or Go City?
CityPASS is the curated option: ten headline attractions, one fixed price, nine days.
Go City sells breadth: more than 100 attractions including bus tours, walking tours,
bike rentals and smaller museums. The Explorer Pass (from $89 for two, up to six
attractions, 30 days) wins for long, relaxed stays and for travelers who only want two or
three specific things. The All-Inclusive New York Pass (from $169 for a day, up to
five days) only beats CityPASS if you really do three or more paid attractions per day;
reviewers who managed 13 attractions in four days loved it, and those who planned two a
day felt it was poor value. For most first-timers spending four or five days, CityPASS is
the cheapest way into the big five. The full breakdown is in
CityPASS vs Go City.
No pass includes the subway: $3.00 a ride, capped at $35 over seven days with the same tap-to-pay card.
C3: the smaller sibling
New York C3 by CityPASS costs $109 for adults and $89 for children and lets you choose
three attractions from a list of eleven, which adds MoMA to the ten on CityPASS. Valid
nine days, same app, same 365-day refund policy when bought direct. Three expensive
picks (Empire State, Top of the Rock or Edge, and the Circle Line) save around $40; three
museums save very little. More in our C3 guide.
Making the nine days work
Five attractions over four or five days, one or two a day by neighborhood, is the
rhythm that works. A classic five: the Statue ferry and the 9/11 Museum downtown on day
one, the Intrepid in Midtown West, Natural History uptown with a walk across Central Park,
and the Empire State Building on the clearest day, using the AM/PM ticket to return after
dark. Swap like for like if you prefer: Top of the Rock or Edge for the Empire State, the
Circle Line for the Intrepid, the Guggenheim for Natural History. Fill the gaps with the
free city, the High Line, the Brooklyn Bridge, the Staten Island Ferry past the statue,
and the pass never feels like homework. Our
3 to 5 day itinerary lays it out day by day.
Central Park links the uptown museums: Natural History on the west side, the Guggenheim on the east.
Yes, if you will visit at least four of its ten attractions, and especially if the Empire State Building, Top of the Rock or Edge, the 9/11 Museum and the Circle Line are on your list. At $149 for five paid attractions that each cost roughly $30 to $70 at the gate, most visitors save roughly $50 to $150 per adult. If you only want two or three sights, the C3 pass or single tickets are the better buy. The full math is in our worth-it guide.
What is the best New York City pass?
It depends on pace. New York CityPASS is the best value for a normal-speed week with the famous sights; the Go City Explorer Pass suits travelers who want a few specific attractions over up to 30 days; the All-Inclusive New York Pass only pays off if you race through three or more attractions a day. See the comparison table.
What is the difference between CityPASS and Go City?
CityPASS is a short curated list: choose 5 of 10 headline attractions, 9 days to use them, one fixed price. Go City sells two passes over 100+ attractions: the Explorer (pick 2 to 6, 30 days) and the All-Inclusive New York Pass (unlimited for 1 to 5 days). CityPASS is simpler and usually cheaper per attraction; Go City covers more niche tours and bus rides. Details in CityPASS vs Go City.
What is included in CityPASS NYC?
Since September 2026 you choose any five of: Empire State Building (86th floor, AM/PM visit), Top of the Rock, Edge, the 9/11 Memorial & Museum, the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island ferry, the American Museum of Natural History, the Intrepid Museum, Circle Line cruises, the Guggenheim and the Whitney. The Statue ticket covers the grounds, not the pedestal or crown.
How much does the New York CityPASS cost?
$149 for adults (18+) and $129 for children aged 6 to 17, the same on Viator and citypass.com (which adds a $2 processing fee). The smaller New York C3 costs $109 for adults (13+) and $89 for children 6 to 12. Children under 6 generally enter the included attractions free.
Can I skip lines with the NYC CityPASS?
You skip the ticket-buying line, not security. Every included attraction scans your mobile ticket, and most require a timed reservation made in the My CityPASS app, so you walk in at your slot. Security screening at the Statue of Liberty ferry, the observation decks and the 9/11 Museum still applies to everyone.
How to use CityPASS in New York?
Buy the pass, open the email or the My CityPASS app, pick your five attractions and book time slots where required, then show the barcode at each entrance. The nine consecutive days start on the first day you visit an attraction or have a reservation. Step by step in how to use CityPASS.
How long does a Go City pass last?
The Explorer Pass is valid for 30 days from the first attraction you visit. The All-Inclusive New York Pass lasts the number of consecutive calendar days you buy (1 to 5), not 24-hour periods, so activate it in the morning. Both must be activated within a year of purchase.
What are the top 3 tourist attractions in New York City?
The Statue of Liberty, the Empire State Building and Central Park, with Times Square, the 9/11 Memorial and the Brooklyn Bridge close behind. Two of the top three are in CityPASS; Central Park, Times Square, the 9/11 Memorial pools and the Brooklyn Bridge walk are free.
How many days in NYC is enough?
Four to five full days covers the icons at a humane pace, which is exactly the rhythm the nine-day CityPASS allows. Three days works for a first taste if you pick one neighborhood per day. Our 3 to 5 day itinerary maps the pass attractions by area.
What is the cheapest way to get around New York City?
The subway. A ride costs $3.00 in 2026, paid by tapping a contactless card or phone at the OMNY reader, and fares cap at $35 over any rolling seven days if you tap with the same card. Walking is free and often faster in Midtown; none of the passes include subway fare.
Which days are NYC museums free?
The Whitney is free on Friday evenings (5 to 10 PM) and the second Sunday of the month; the Guggenheim is pay-what-you-wish on Tuesday and Sunday afternoons (4 to 5:30 PM); the 9/11 Museum is free on Monday evenings (5:30 to 7 PM, reservations released that morning). Free slots sell out, so a pass is the calmer way in.
Ready to Book
Check dates & book
Instant confirmation and a mobile pass by email. Make your attraction
reservations in the pass app as soon as it arrives; the popular deck slots go first.
Pick 2 to 630 days
