New York Pass in 1 Day: How to Make It Pay Off

How do you use the New York Pass? It's a question our traveling friends ask us all the time.

The New York Pass is one of the most popular tourist discount cards in New York, but to make the most of it and save up to 50% on attraction prices, you need to know how to use it.

To point you in the right direction, I put together a one-day plan that shows you how to make it worth the money 🙂

If you need more detail on how it works, what it costs and which attractions are included, click through to the New York Pass.

A 1-day route

To show you how to use the New York Pass, take a look at this itinerary using the tourist card in 1 day (one of hundreds of possibilities, since it all depends on what you want to do out of more than 100 attractions).

You'll need to start early, lace up your most comfortable sneakers and eat a serious breakfast, because you'll need the energy to walk nonstop.

Then it's time to start the day looking at New York from way up high:

1. Empire State Building

In the morning, a good idea is to visit the Empire State Building: it's on Fifth Avenue between 33rd and 34th, an iconic spot.

It has been and always will be a legendary setting for all kinds of movies and shows: the famous King Kong movie, for example.

It offers beautiful views of Manhattan and New Jersey too. There are two observatories, and entry is free to the 86th floor one with the New York Pass.

2. MoMA

Next, head to MoMA, where you also get in free with the card: it sits between Fifth and Sixth Avenue.

The museum holds one of the most impressive art collections in the world, with major artists like Miró, Warhol and Van Gogh, to name just a few of the best known.

If you're short on time, bring a detailed plan of where to stop (this MoMA guide will help). Remember your New York Pass is good for one day, so make every minute count!

3. Top of the Rock

By now you'll be hungry, so this is a good moment to rest a while in Bryant Park or Central Park, grab a hot dog and recharge.

Then head back over to Fifth Avenue and on to Rockefeller Center, where you can do the Radio City Music Hall tour and then go up to the Top of the Rock observatory to see Manhattan from another perspective.

4. The Met

You can wrap up the day in Manhattan's elegant Upper East Side and visit another of the world's most important museums: the Metropolitan Museum of Art – the Met, on Fifth Avenue at 82nd Street, in the heart of the so-called Museum Mile.

How much do you save with the New York Pass?

Now that you've seen how the New York Pass works, here are the attraction prices for 1 adult so you can see how much you can save with the pass:

• Empire State: $38
• MoMA: $25
• Top of the Rock: $38
• The Met: $25
• Radio City Tour: $31

Those tickets add up to $157, and the 1-day New York Pass costs $134, so you'd pay $23 less.

The math is simple: the more visits you make, the more you save 🙂

More ideas for using the New York Pass

This is just one of the many combinations you can put together when you buy the NY Pass, a practical product designed for seeing the landmarks of Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx in a short time while saving on ticket prices.

Keep in mind that a city as big and as packed with sights as NYC is impossible to see in just 24 hours. You have to come back more than once!

Here are some day-by-day routes through New York, itineraries that will help you organize your trip and give you more ideas on how to use the New York Pass and get the most out of it.