Do City Attraction Passes Save You Money?
When planning a trip to a big city, like London, New York, Los Angeles or Sydney, you will come across multi-site attraction passes that provide access to a number of activities for a single price. For example, Go City passes for Los Angeles and London. They seem like a great deal, but I wanted to know if they really do save you money.
What Do You Get?
Purchase a pass for a single price, that depends on the number of days you book, and get free entry into a variety of attractions and tours. The passes often include access to theme parks, zoos, museums, tourist attractions, various tours, and sometimes equipment rentals, like bikes.
The passes offer a convenient way to plan activities and avoid waiting in line for tickets. They also may encourage you to try a tour or visit a place you wouldn’t normally have considered. Some passes also include access to public transport, which is convenient.
Read the Fine Print
It is important to understand what is covered and what isn’t, before purchasing a pass. Look at the rules for the multi-day pass before hitting the buy now button. Does the pass have to be used on consecutive days or is there a period of time before it expires? For example, a 4-day pass may expire 14 days after the first use, which means you have two weeks to use up the remaining three days.
At least one of the major pass companies has a stipulation that the pass can only be used for entrance to attractions between 9am and 5:30pm each day. This will limit the number of activities you can do in a day.
Make sure you go through the attractions list carefully to see what is included. There may be things you want to do that are not covered or there may be limitations, for example, a Los Angeles pass only includes a single day admission to Universal Studios. If a person wanted to use it for two days at Universal Studios, they would be pretty frustrated to find out about this limitation after purchasing the pass, or even worse, when they’re already on their trip.
Take the time to understand the procedure for using the pass for each activity. There may be instructions for making reservations. It would be disappointing to miss something you wanted to do because you didn’t realize you had to make a reservation in advance.
The Numbers
What I really wanted to know, for an upcoming trip to Los Angeles, is whether the pass will save me money. I recognize the convenience of bypassing lines and the ease of booking activities are also considerations, but the budget is often the number one factor.
The only way to know the value is to run the numbers. I did a cost comparison of the pass to a selection of popular activities I would be interested in. Here is how it worked out:
| Los Angeles | US dollars | ||
| Universal Studios | $129 | 2 day pass $235 | |
| Knott’s Berry Farm | $60 | 4 day pass $338 | |
| Warner Brothers Studio | $70 | 5 day pass $368 | |
| San Diego Zoo | $72 | 7 day pass $418 | |
| Santa Monica 3 hour bike | $40 | ||
| Santa Monica Aquarium | $12 | ||
| Big Bus Hop-on Hop-off | $56 | ||
| Grammy Museum | $18 | ||
| Total | $457 |
Then I did a comparison of attractions in London, England
| London | Pound Sterling | ||
| Tower of London | £34.80 | 1 day pass £67 | |
| Hop on Hop off | £44 | 2 day pass £93 | |
| Madame Tussauds | £37 | 3 day pass £105 | |
| Westminster Abbey | £29 | 4 day pass £119 | |
| Uber Clipper 1 day | £22 | ||
| Chessingtons World of Adventures | £34 | ||
| Total | £200.80 |
Cost Comparison Results
Comparing the city passes to the prices for the individual attractions in London and Los Angeles, showed quite a difference in value for the 1- or 2-day passes. The one-day pass in London is a decent deal but the two day pass in Los Angeles is not worth the cost. Since the passes are only good for entry from 9:00 to 5:30, you MIGHT be able to squeeze in enough things to get your money’s worth in Los Angeles, but you would only be breaking even. That is probably not worth the stress of trying to jam so many activities into one or two days. In London, if you can do two attractions, you will get your money’s worth.
The real value is in the 3-7 day passes. The daily cost of the pass is reduced with each additional day. The lengthier passes have the most value. In the Los Angeles example, there are around 4 days of activities on the list and the cost works out about even but if you add one or two more activities, you will be ahead. The London example has around 3 days of activities and the pass is half the cost of the individual entries.
The Final Decision
As with most things when it comes to travel planning, it depends on how you like to travel. If four days of tours and tourist attractions is a good time for you, a go or city pass is definitely worth looking into. If you are very budget conscious and want to put in the time, look at the list of included activities, write out a list of what you would like to do and compare the cost.
Although the passes do simplify activity planning, there is certainly some planning to do to maximize the value of the pass. Identify the activities that are in close proximity and can be done within the time allowed. Then compare the cost of individual tickets to the pass price to determine if it will save you money.
I have created a spreadsheet to help you calculate this comparison. Subscribe to the newsletter to receive this free download. If you don’t need the download but want an email notification when there is a new blog post, please subscribe at the bottom of the page.
Conclusion
I wrote this post to answer a question I had when researching activities for an upcoming trip. Experiences are the most important part of travel for me and I don’t mind spending a little for a memorable trip but I am still budget conscious. If I had this question, I assume others do too. I love running numbers but I think I may be fairly alone on that one, so I ran them for you. I hope you found this useful.
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