The first time you go visit New York the questions you ask yourself are many: will I be able to see everything? How will food and touristic attractions cost? Is it better to visit this or that? And so many more.
New York is huge, massive, one of the cities with more things to see and do. For this reason time is precious (and never enough) so the itinerary must be prepared carefully. After our NYC one-week travel around Christmas time, the first advice I want to give you is to get the New York CityPASS, especially if it is your first time in the Big Apple.
New York CityPASS: prices and features
Why the New York CityPASS? Because it allows you to save money, time and includes the unmissable attractions in your first travel to NYC: yes, the ones you certainly have added to your bucket-list. A pass to get a taste of the best things the city has to offer.
The first benefit – and, let’s face it, also the one which interests the most – is economical: in fact summing up the single tickets’ prices the cost exceeds 180€ (more than 220$), while New York CityPASS only costs 107€ (price per adult). You get to save even more 80€, which you can use in many other ways (going to see a show at the Radio City Music Hall, for example). If you want to save even more, if your trip is short (3 -4 days) and you do not have time to see everything, the New York CityPASS C3 is the best choice, which includes three attractions of your choice and only costs 68€.
The second benefit is the possibility to skip the lines, since the owners of New York CityPASS have a dedicated queue – short and fast – on every attraction included in the Pass. Even if you are thinking: “I will go there early in the morning so I don’t find much people” trust me: you are wrong. New York is one of the most visited cities in the world and the crowd you’ll find is astonishing. We were lucky because we got there during the working days (we arrived on Sunday and left on Saturday) of a working month (not many people can afford to get vacations in December, especially in the days before Christmas) and we didn’t find many people waiting. Even when there were less than 10 people in line, we were happy to skip it anyway so that we have to visit everything slowly, without any crowd. We arrived on the top of the Empire State Building (not the actual top floor though, because that requires an additional ticket not included in the CityPASS) around 10 a.m., there only were a dozen of persons… it was amazing! Same thing for the Top of the Rock, which we visited at night, also during the week… luckily enough, because we went by it on the next Friday and the line was huge!
Which are the attractions included with the New York CityPASS?
Some are fixed and for some others you need to choose. The fixed ones are: the Empire State Building, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the American Museum of Natural History (the one that was in the “Night at the Museum” movie). The one that you will have to choose are: the Top of the Rock or the Guggenheim Museum, the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island (they are both part of the same ticket) or the Circle Line Cruise, the 9/11 Memorial and Museum or the Intrepid Sea Air and Space Museum. Here’s the third benefit: you can choose what to see basing on your interests and your itinerary… and you can choose in any moment, because you don’t have to declare your choices when you buy the pass!
Since its first use the pass lasts 9 days… more than enough to visit everything. On the web site you’ll find all the info you’ll need for your travel, with opening hours, addresses and the contacts of every attraction included.
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