New York Pass: Empire State Building and 100+ Things To Do

The best way to see New York

We went to NY for 10 days and therefore purchased a 7 day Go City Pass. I was nervous about it as you can only go by these reviews and I wasn't sure how it would all work so will try to fill in the gaps for others. I have to say apart from 2 issues - 1 only minor - it was excellent. Before we went to NY my daughter and I did spent MONTHS planning it. We worked out exactly what we wanted to see and how we could make the most of the pass. This was really important if you are trying to pack in as much as possible because what we didn't realise until we started planning was some of the activities on the pass are only available on certain days of the week or at certain times of the day. This made pre-planning pay off as if we had arrived in NY and tried to select random things to do it may not always had worked as for example our pass ran from Thurs-Wed which only gave us 1 opportunity to book certain tours that ran on a Friday for example so had we not planned we wouldn't have been able to do that particular attraction. So basically my advice is to do what we did and plan thoroughly before you go viewing the tours that are available. You can plan your whole trip in the app because it is refundable should you choose to not use the pass. It classes as being used not when you are planning and adding items to your itinerary but when you physically activate and scan your pass at your first activity. I was concerned that we would arrive at the activities and then not get into the tour due to queues etc. Again that would have stuffed us as we had so much to do that if we had not got into one thing that would have meant a knock on effect for the rest of the day so we would have not been able to then repeat that tour. However it was amazing. We literally arrived at every tour at the time we chose and got in on every one. Go City Pass is widely known in America - I was worried as was taking a punt - and at each tour they simply let you join the other paying customers who don't have a pass. It seemed understood that if you have a Go City Pass you get in so that was a big relief and worked like a dream. Also every tour we did that was a guided tour was brilliant. The various guides were friendly, knowledgeable and passionate about what they do, it was genuinely excellent. We had only 2 gripes really and 1 isn't a gripe it's just a heads up. When we arrived for the Yankee stadium tour - from memory these are on the hour 10-2 pm but only Tues-Fri at the time of year we went, we were allowed into the tour (which was great) but there was a debacle with anyone who had a Go City Pass because effectively their admin staff had to physically come out to us, create us a yankee stadium account, scan our Go City Pass, convert those tickets to a Yankee stadium ticket and then they could admit us. We got to the tour 40 mins early and it was a good job as this took ages so the tour started late and I'd imagine in peak times there would be a good chance of having to miss a tour time due to the amount of time it takes per person to convert the ticket. This however was the only tour that needed to do this and they acknowledged it was a bit of a pain too and were lovely. The other gripe I have - and it was a gripe - is that you can only book certain tours, 7-10 days in advance of your trip and 1 tour never came to fruition. One of the main things my daughter wanted to do was the 2hr Broadway & Times Square walking tour, that is why we bought the pass. Due to our schedule we wanted the tour for 8th July (it's stated on the pass the tour is available 7 days a week but one tour, 4 p.m per day). We booked everything else but had to wait to book this as it continually was not available......it didn't happen at all. I messaged Go City numerous times whilst waiting for 8th to show as available and was told it would be available on 8th but to wait a few more days as the actual company doing the tours had not released the dates that far in advance. I told go City it was meant to be bookable 10 days in advance and we were now up to 6 days in advance so I asked Go City to contact the company to ensure they would be doing a tour on 8th, Go City said they didn't have that information to contact them (complete rubbish) but to wait and it would become available. After wasting days of live chats with Go City and the only date showing as available was 7th - which we couldn't do as we had already booked up that day with other activities based on the fact I was assure the 8th would happen - I found the info online and contacted the company running the Broadway tour myself only to be told that Go City was aware that they can only do the tours if there is enough tour guides available and for the rest of July there were going to be no tours. This was GUTTING as we therefore could not do it and I wasn't happy at being fobbed off by Go City when they could easily have contacted the company and then provided me with that information. Had I known this before we booked other activities I could have then booked 7th and swapped everything else around but by then it was too late. Unfortunately therefore I would have to say that you won't be able to have confidence in the information Go City puts on the 'opening times' sections of the tours as this was incorrect for us, so do a little research yourself. Saying that we did a hideous amount during our 7 day pass and it would have cost us triple the amount we paid for the pass had we paid individually for attractions. The tours were brilliant, the self tours and attractions were quality and overall it was fantastic so I would absolutely recommend and would absolutely use again.

It was very helpful to have my trip planned out and reservations made for the sights ahead of time. The quick and easy scan of my tickets to get into the sights was great.

Very useful and practical tool that allows for maximum flexibility. On the other hand, while for almost all attractions you book directly through the App, for some others (e.g., Guided Tour of Brooklyn, Chinatown, and bicycle rental) the booking is handled by the organizational structure and you even have to provide credit card details, which implies a zero-cost charge. It would be much more appreciated

The NYC 4-day Explorer Pass is worth every penny! And the ONLY way to explore all the attractions in NYC! From the initial on-line purchase, to the reservation system, to the actual pass access on your smart phone, this is THE WAY TO GO! I am going to tell anyone who is going to NYC to book this pass. We got more than our monies worth!