A guide to Go City’s pass types – All-Inclusive, Explorer, Essentials and the city-branded passes, and which one actually saves you money on your trip.
Go City sells attraction passes in 28 destinations, and the whole question of whether one is worth buying comes down to a single variable: how fast you intend to move. Buy the wrong pass type and you will either leave value unused or run out of entries halfway through the trip.
There are two basic models. One charges by days and lets you visit as much as you can fit in; the other charges by number of attractions and gives you weeks to use them. Neither is better; they suit different holidays. This guide explains the difference and names the pass that fits each travelling style.
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The two core pass models, plus the city-branded pass most people actually search for.
Go City’s day-based pass: unlimited admission to included attractions across a run of consecutive days, typically from one up to ten. The biggest saving on offer if you sightsee hard.
Choose a set number of attractions – commonly between two and ten, and visit them at your own pace, with up to 30 days from first use.
Go City’s London product, sold under the city’s own brand and following the all-inclusive model across a long list of paid attractions, with an Explorer-style alternative alongside it.
Every option side by side, with the one thing that actually distinguishes it.
| Pass | Best for | Type | Key strength | Watch out for | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1All-Inclusive Pass | Fast sightseers | Day-based pass | Unlimited entries within the window | Consecutive days waste easily | View |
| 2Explorer Pass | Relaxed trips | Attraction-count pass | Long window, no daily pressure | Smaller saving per entry | View |
| 3The London Pass | London breaks | City pass | Deep list of costly attractions | Worthless at free museums | View |
| 4The New York Pass | New York trips | City pass | High gate prices make savings easy | Travel time limits daily entries | View |
| 5All-Inclusive Pass Plus | One big-ticket attraction | Upgraded day pass | Covers premium inclusions | Only in selected cities | View |
| 6Essentials Pass | Short stays | Three-attraction pass | Low commitment, no rush | Curated list may miss your pick | View |
← swipe the table to see all columns →
Three reasons a pass beats buying tickets one at a time.
Attraction admission in major cities is expensive, and three or four paid entries in a day adds up fast. A day-based pass is priced on the assumption that most people will not use it to the maximum, so if you do visit several attractions daily the saving against gate prices is real and substantial rather than marketing.
Rather than buying tickets at each attraction, comparing resellers and working out which ones need booking ahead, you buy once and show a pass. On a short city break, where decision fatigue is the enemy, removing that friction has value beyond the money saved.
This sounds like a marketing line but it is a real behavioural effect. Once admissions are paid for, the marginal cost of adding one more attraction is nothing, so people visit things they would otherwise have skipped on price. Some of those turn out to be the highlight of the trip.
How to work out which pass is right before you spend anything.
Do this on paper before you buy. List the attractions you want to visit, find each one’s gate price, and total it. Then compare that total against the Explorer Pass for that number of entries and the All-Inclusive Pass for the number of days you would need. If the attraction list is short, the Explorer Pass or individual tickets usually win. If it is long and compressed into a few days, the All-Inclusive Pass wins clearly.
The All-Inclusive Pass runs on consecutive days from first use, so a rest day, a rained-off afternoon or a long lunch is pass time you have paid for and not used. Three or four paid attractions a day is hard work and most people manage fewer. The Explorer Pass is far more forgiving because the attractions are fixed and you get weeks to use them, pick that one if your trip has any slack in it.
Pass contents vary enormously by destination, and so do the rules. Some attractions need reservations even with a pass, some are seasonal, and transport is generally not covered in the way people assume. Read the destination’s own inclusion list and the current validity terms before buying, because the headline attraction you are counting on may require a separate booking or may not be included at all.
Go City’s passes split into two families. The All-Inclusive Pass is sold by duration; a set number of consecutive days, typically from one up to ten: and lets you visit as many included attractions as you can fit in during that window.
The Explorer Pass is sold by quantity – you choose a number of attractions, commonly from two up to ten, and you get an extended window, up to 30 days from first use, to work through them. The Essentials Pass is a smaller, fixed version covering three attractions from a curated selection, and the All-Inclusive Pass Plus adds premium attractions in selected destinations.
In some destinations Go City sells under a city brand rather than the generic names. The London Pass, The New York Pass and The Paris Pass are all Go City products and are effectively the all-inclusive model for those cities, sold alongside an Explorer-style alternative.
Not every destination offers every pass type, and the number of attractions, the validity window and the inclusion list vary from city to city. Check the pass options on the destination page rather than assuming the structure you used in one city applies in another.
Ranked by how well each one delivers on what it promises — not by price.
Buy this one only if you intend to visit several paid attractions a day, every day.
The All-Inclusive Pass is the pass that produces the dramatic savings people quote, and it does so on a simple bet: you will not use it to the maximum. You choose a duration, commonly one, two, three, four, five, seven or ten consecutive days – and within that window you can visit as many included attractions as you can physically get to. For a hard-charging city break with a long list of museums, towers, cruises and tours, the arithmetic against gate prices is compelling, and the marginal cost of adding one more stop is nothing, which changes how you plan a day.
The structure is also its weakness. The days run consecutively from first use, so they keep ticking through a rest day, a wet afternoon, a long lunch or a hangover. Most people plan for four attractions a day and manage two. If your trip has any slack in it, or if bad weather is likely, you will pay for days you do not fully use and the Explorer Pass will serve you better. Inclusion lists also vary by city, some attractions require reservations even with the pass, and transport is generally not covered, so check the destination’s specific list before you count on a particular headline attraction.
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The Explorer Pass is the one most travellers should buy, because it matches how people actually sightsee.
The Explorer Pass inverts the model and in doing so fixes the biggest problem with city passes. Instead of buying days, you buy a number of attractions — typically anywhere from two up to ten, and then you have a long window, up to 30 days from first use, to work through them. The pressure disappears entirely. You can have a lazy morning, spend a whole afternoon in one gallery, or write off a rainy day without feeling you have burned money, because the entries are banked rather than expiring. For most holidays, which contain more meals and wandering than their owners admit, this is the simple choice.
The saving per attraction is smaller than a well-used All-Inclusive Pass, so if you really do intend to visit three or four things a day the other pass wins on pure value. Unused entries are not refunded, so buying a ten-attraction pass optimistically is the same mistake in a different wrapper – size it to your realistic list. The validity window is also reported inconsistently in some cities, with sources quoting different lengths, so confirm the current terms for your destination. As with every Go City product, some included attractions require advance reservations and inclusion lists differ city by city.
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London has enough expensive paid attractions to make a pass actually worthwhile, if you avoid the free ones.
London is one of Go City’s strongest destinations because the city’s headline attractions are almost all individually expensive, and three in a day will cost a considerable amount at the gate. The London Pass is the all-inclusive model under a city brand, and the included list is deep enough that a two or three day pass can comfortably be filled with things most visitors want to see rather than filler. Sold alongside it is a London Explorer Pass for travellers who want a handful of named attractions at a slower pace, so both models are available in the city.
The specifically London caveat is that many of the city’s best cultural institutions are free, and a pass gives you no benefit at any of them. If your ideal London day is the British Museum, the National Gallery and a walk along the South Bank, a pass is money wasted. Transport is also generally not covered in the way visitors assume, so budget separately for travel. Several major attractions require timed reservations even with a pass, and the reported validity window for the Explorer version differs between sources, so check the current terms on the destination page before buying.
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New York is the clearest case for a pass: its observation decks and museums are individually brutal on the wallet.
New York is where city passes make the most obvious sense. Observation decks, museums, harbour cruises and guided tours are all individually expensive, and a family doing three of them in a day will spend a startling amount at the gate. Go City offers both models here: the New York Pass on the all-inclusive day basis, with durations running from a single day up to ten, and an Explorer version where you choose a set number of attractions – commonly between two and ten – with a month to visit them. Having both available means you can match the product to your pace rather than compromising.
The city is also where the pace trap bites hardest. New York’s attractions are geographically spread and its transit, while good, eats time, so fitting four attractions into a day means a day of rushing between them rather than enjoying any of them. Several of the most popular inclusions require timed reservations, and at peak times those slots go early, so a pass does not remove the need to plan. Transport is not covered in the way visitors assume. Price your actual list against gate prices first, with two or three attractions in mind, individual tickets can still come out ahead.
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Worth it only if the premium attraction it unlocks is one you were definitely going to pay for anyway.
The Plus version of the All-Inclusive Pass exists because some attractions are expensive enough that Go City holds them back from the standard product. In selected destinations, Plus gives you the usual daily access plus entry to a set of premium attractions; typically the highest-priced experiences in the city and the ones visitors most often single out. If one of those was already on your must-do list and you had mentally budgeted for it separately, the upgrade can pay for itself immediately, because you are effectively replacing a full-price ticket with a much smaller incremental pass cost.
The decision is binary and should be made coldly. If you were not going to pay for the premium attraction anyway, the upgrade is spending money to acquire an option you will not value, and the standard pass is the better buy. Plus is also only offered in selected destinations, so it may not exist for your city at all, and the premium list varies, do not assume the attraction you have in mind is on it. It inherits every drawback of the standard All-Inclusive Pass too: consecutive days, pressure to move fast, and the reservation requirements that apply to popular venues.
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Three attractions from a shortlist; the right pass for a weekend where sightseeing is not the whole point.
The Essentials Pass is the entry point and it is honest about what it is: three attractions, chosen from a curated selection rather than from the full inclusion list. For a weekend city break, a stopover, or a trip where sightseeing is one element among several, it fits the reality of the visit far better than a seven-day unlimited pass ever could. It is also the cheapest way to find out whether the pass format suits how you travel before committing to something larger and more expensive on a future trip.
Because the selection is curated rather than comprehensive, the attraction you most want may not be among the choices, which is the first thing to check. Three entries also means the arithmetic is tight; with only three attractions in play, individual tickets or an advance-booking discount can easily come out cheaper, particularly if one of your three is inexpensive. It is worth totalling the gate prices of your exact three and comparing before you buy. And as with every Go City product, availability and the curated list differ by destination, so what exists in one city may not in another.
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The All-Inclusive Pass is sold by days and lets you visit unlimited included attractions within a run of consecutive days. The Explorer Pass is sold by number of attractions and gives you a much longer window, up to 30 days from first use, to visit them.
Fast sightseers save more with All-Inclusive. Anyone travelling at a gentler pace is almost always better off with Explorer.
Generally not in the way people expect. Passes are built around attraction admission, and transport is usually either excluded or offered as a separate add-on depending on the city. Check the destination’s inclusion list rather than assuming travel is covered.
Go City lists 28 destinations, including New York, Las Vegas, Chicago, Boston, Los Angeles, Miami, Orlando, San Francisco, London, Paris, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Dublin, Madrid, Prague, Rome, Stockholm, Dubai, Hong Kong, Singapore and Sydney, among others.
Sometimes yes. A number of included attractions require a reservation even when you hold a pass, particularly popular timed-entry venues. Check each attraction’s requirements when you plan your days, because turning up without a booking can mean being turned away.
The mistake almost everyone makes is buying for the trip they imagine rather than the trip they will take. Count the attractions, price them, and pick the pass that fits the itinerary you will actually keep to.
Check price Pass types, inclusions and validity windows vary by city and change. Confirm current details on Go City before buying.
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