Is the New York Pass Worth the Money?

People visiting New York City for the first time are always shocked by the shear cost. The get a sense that most of the major events that everybody wants to see, from the Empire State Building, to visiting a museum is going to set you back twenty dollars on average. This is per person, per event. Sure, children are typically less but two adults and two kids will leave still leave you paying $60 for one attraction.

When people come to New York they always have the dream of seeing everything there is to say. The truth is though, they're only going to get to about four or five attractions in a day, depending on when you start and when you decide to pack it in. Part of the reason is due to the lines to get in to certain places, e.g., the Empire State Building, could have you waiting in lines in excess of two hours. This is no joke. I have personal experience in this.

If you want to reduce your cost when visiting New York City then you should consider picking up a New York Pass. As I stated before you may only get four or five attractions in for a day. If you take the average of $20 per person, that's $80 to $100 that you would have shelled out to visit those attractions. The New York Pass costs $75 for a one-day pass and $110 for a two-day pass, $140 for a three-day pass and $180 for a seven-day pass. So you can see how you can really save if you in the city for multiple days.

Now there are a few things to think about when considering whether to buy a New York Pass. There are a lot of things to do for free, like going into Central Park or window shopping on 5th Avenue or visiting FAO Swartz or the Sony Plaza. You could spend a considerable amount of time doing these things so a New York Pass would be a waste of money in that situation. Also, make sure that you call all of the places that you are planning on visiting as there is a fair amount of these attractions that are being renovated. Some of them, like Lincoln Center at the time of this writing, is not doing any tours because of renovations.

My wife and I met up with some of our college friends in the city about a month ago. I convinced the group to get a New York Pass for each person (it cost less for children). We save money after the first three events (the Empire State Building cost $20 followed by the New York Skyride which would have been $35 and then Madame Taussaud's which would have cost $29. That's $84 and we didn't even get to lunch yet. My wife and I also had the two-day tickets so the savings were really spectacular. If you are planning on hitting all the major attractions on your visit to New York City the New York Pass will definitely save you a lot of money!