If you’re planning a trip to New York City, The New York CityPASS may be a good option depending on what New York attractions you want to see, and how long you are staying in New York. You get free admission into New York’s most popular attractions, so this may help save money too.
Below I will share what New York attractions are offered in the pass, and what we were able to do in 4 days. Hopefully this will help you decide whether it will be worth it or not!
The list of New York attractions that are offered in the pass are:
- The Empire State Building
- American Museum of Natural History
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art
- Top of the Rock Observations Deck
- Guggenheim Museum
- Statue of Liberty & Ellis Island
- Circle Line Sightseeing Cruises
- 9/11 Memorial & Museum
- Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum
What passes to choose from
You can buy it online before you go, and there are two passes to choose from:
New York C3: You can ONLY choose 3 attractions above. This is the cheapest option.
New York CityPASS: The more expensive option, you can see a total of 6 attractions.
However! 3 of the attractions MUST be the Empire State Building, American Museum of Natural History, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. For your other 3 attractions, you must choose between:
- Top of the Rock OR Guggenheim Museum
- Statue of Liberty OR Circle Line Sightseeing Cruise
- 9/11 Museum OR Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum.
So if you want to go into Top of the Rock AND the Guggenheim, for example, you can’t go to both using the New York CityPASS – you have to choose between the two.
Which New York attractions did I see in 4 days?
On my trip to New York, I chose to get the full New City CityPASS because a lot of the attractions on the list were places I wanted to visit.
I opted to get the full pass. We were in New York for 4 days, but did not manage to do all of the attractions.
This is what New York CityPASS attractions we saw in 4 days:
- American Museum of Natural History
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art
- Top of the Rock
- CircleLine Sightseeing Cruise (goes by the Statue of Liberty and under the Brooklyn Bridge)
- 9/11 Memorial & Museum
What to Expect at each New York CityPASS Attraction
The Empire State Building
We had originally planned to go up in the morning, since with this ticket you can then return the same day later at night. This is the only attraction that we missed (we ran out of time).
We saw the Empire State Building quite a lot while we were walking around New York. We also saw it from Top of the Rock, so I personally feel like we didn’t miss out.
American Museum of Natural History
There was a line to get into the museum, but since we had our Pass we got to skip the line.
This museum is huuuuuge, so if you plan to go make sure you reserve pretty much the whole day for this. We were there for FOUR hours, and only saw 2 out of 4 floors. They have a really cool dinosaur exhibit on the first floor, which took up a lot of our time.
The museum was featured in a few movies. If you’ve watched Night at The Museum, you will recognize a few exhibits. There will probably be more people than usual taking photos if it too.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
I made the mistake of trying to see this Museum on the same day as the Natural History Museum. This museum is soooo gorgeous. I loved the artwork, and they have a rooftop bar you can go to (which also has really great views of Central Park).
Again, definitely allow yourself plenty of time to wander around this museum, since it has so much to offer. You could definitely spend an entire day here.
Top of the Rock
In my opinion, the views from Top of the Rock are better than what they would be from the Empire State Building, because from Top of the Rock you can SEE the Empire State Building! You can also see Central Park, which is really cool.
With our passes, we still had to wait. I had originally planned to go up here to see the sunset, so we arrived at 5pm. They gave us a scheduled time we would be allowed to go up (at 7pm), and by the time we got up it was 8pm. The sun had already set, so I only got to see the views at night-time. It was still beautiful, but if you want to go up at a specific time, call ahead (or visit their box office) to book your time slot.
Guggenheim Museum
This museum has impressive and modern art and architecture. Since the New York City Pass makes you choose between this attraction and the Top of Rock, we weren’t able to go into this one (unless if we paid admission to go in).
If you don’t have a lot of time, they have a route you can take so that you can see their permanent collection in an hour. But really though, why rush?
Statue of Liberty & Ellis Island
With the New York City Pass, you also have to choose between this attraction and the Circle Line Sightseeing Cruise. We chose the Cruise, but from the boat we got really close to the Statue of Liberty.
On one Island is the Statue of Liberty and on Ellis Island there is an Immigration Museum. Allow about 5 hours if you want to visit both islands. If you want to go into the crown, you will need to pay extra money.
CircleLine Sightseeing Cruise
We choose this option (instead of the Statue of Liberty & Ellis Island). This cruise departs multiple times a day, so it’s easy to fit into your schedule. There is a wait to get on the boat, and the tour is about 2 hours long.
I enjoyed this cruise since it gave us great skyline views of New York City. We went by the Statue of Liberty, and got to go under the Brooklyn Bridge.
Intrepid Museum
We didn’t go to this Museum, since we had decided to go to the 9/11 Museum instead. This museum is RIGHT next to where the CircleLine Sightseeing Cruise departs from. If you’re in the area it would be easy to do the cruise and this museum in the same day. Just like the other museums on this list, make sure you plan to be here for most of the day.
9/11 Memorial & Museum
Seeing the memorial itself is free and outside of the museum. If you want to go inside of the museum, then you will need to use your pass.
The Memorial itself is very beautiful. If you go in the evening, the pools are lit up.
We also went into the Museum, and it was honestly one of the most memorable aspects of the trip. I would highly recommend going. We were there for about 3 hours. The exhibits were very powerful, and I got a bit emotional. I still remember them to this day.
Tips for the New York Attractions
If you are going for a short trip (2-4 days), I would recommend getting the New York C3 Pass. It’s all you will probably have time for. We were there for 4 days and went into 5 attractions. (read about what else we did in New York City!)
If you plan to go to a museum, make that as your ONLY planned activity that day. I had mistakenly planned to go to TWO museums in one day. There is definitely not enough time to do two. If you do, you will have to rush, which isn’t fun.
Even though the New York CityPASS says that you skip the lines, you will still need to wait. It did speed things up, but since New York is so busy it mostly just puts you in the faster line.
Don’t Rush!! My biggest tip is to not rush. Plan 1 New York attraction per day – MAYBE 2 at the most. Experiencing New York in line-ups won’t give you that true, authentic feel of a city. So if any of the New York Attractions offered in the New York CityPASS are places you really want to visit, weigh out your options and decide whether getting the pass will be worth it or not for you.
I hope my experiences and tips helped you with planning your trip to New York! Depending on what you are planning to see, the New York CityPASS may help you save some money.
Have you been to New York, or any of these attractions? Which one was your favourite, or what would you recommend doing there? Let me know in the comments below! 🙂
