In the meantime, there are numerous sightseeing passes available in New York and it is easy to lose track or find it difficult to choose. I have compared 6 passes for you with all the advantages and disadvantages such as price and validity. Everything you need to know to choose the best pass for you can be found below, including the background and who is behind the passes. A rough overview in the table followed by a detailed description.

The Flex Pass is owned by the company Gray Line, which owns its own hop on hop off buses and also the "Konkurrenz company" including the "Konkurrenz Pass" sightseeing pass. They have been operating tourism in New York since 1910, which means they have a great infrastructure and are well known to all operators. They are volume conscious and customer service sometimes suffers, so Gray Line and City Sights NY appear as competition to the public.

The in-house pass, Flex Pass, is probably the best sightseeing card in New York at the moment. You buy the number of attractions 2,3,4... and visit the included and desired attractions without having to reserve in advance. You can also use the hop on hop off buses as an attraction 24 hours a day, except for the night loop. All in all a great offer.

Advantages :

• Lots of sights
• Only pass with airport shuttle
• Very good and fair price
• Easy to use

Disadvantages :

• You have to decide beforehand how many activities you want to buy
• Excursions and helicopter flights not included

This pass is owned by "Big Bus" so the Big Bus Hop on Hop off tours are included in the pass. The company is owned by Exponent Private Equity, a British-French investment company that attracts the thumbscrews of local, especially small, tour operators and keeps over 50% of the tour prices for itself. Since they put in a lot of marketing effort, they cooperate with many bloggers and online providers and pay them a generous commission to whitewash customers. We also receive this commission and due to high demand we have the pass in our range, but I advise against the pass. Why?

You purchase a number of days 1, 2, 3, 5...etc. During this time you can take as many sights and tours as you want and manage. The pass includes most, over 100 tickets for attractions and tours, activities. Sounds great? But the operators are not yesterday's businessmen. Firstly, New York is a big city and getting from A to B takes time. Secondly, there is a myth surrounding the pass that you can use it to get into any fastlanes and that you can use the pass to skip queues, unfortunately this is not true. You will be able to see a maximum of three sights on day two and not get your money out of it.

Advantages :

• Over 100 activities

Disadvantages :

• The price is too high, you won't be able to get your money out, it's better to buy tickets individually or get another pass
• Time pressure to visit a certain number of sights in a certain amount of time
• For example, if you purchase 3 days, you have to use the pass in 3 subsequent days, no day off in between
• Many tour providers in the pass only allow you to take part in part of the tour, and only the full tour for an extra payment. Read the small print first

The Sightseeing Pass is owned by Gray Line, which owns its own hop on hop off buses but no longer operates in New York. They use Big Bus buses instead. The “competition company” including the “competition pass” City Sights NY and Flex Pass are one and the same. They have been organizing tourism in New York since 1910 and therefore have a great infrastructure. They are volume conscious and customer service sometimes suffers, so Gray Line and City Sights NY appear as competition to the public.

The in-house pass, The Sightseeing Pass, is the counterpart to the New York Pass. You buy the number of days 2,3,4... and have the purchased number of days to visit the included attractions. You can also use the hop on hop off buses, except for the night loop. As with the New York Pass, it's not easy to get your money out. These companies take advantage of the fact that you are not familiar with the area and do not know that the hop on hop off bus is often stuck in traffic, that the queues at the sights are sometimes relatively long, that you cannot correctly estimate how long it takes from A to B, because NYC is a very big city.

Advantages :

• Lots of activities
• Easy to use
• Airport shuttle possible as with Flex Pass

Disadvantages :

• The price is too high, you won't be able to get your money out, it's better to buy tickets individually or get another pass
• Time pressure to visit a certain number of sights in a certain amount of time
• For example, if you purchase 3 days, you have to use the pass in 3 subsequent days, no day off in between
• Many tour providers in the pass only allow you to take part in part of the tour, and only the full tour for an extra payment. Read the small print first

The mother of all passes is “City Pass”. It was the first passport on the market and to this day the company is in the hands of the founders, who also own the former Sea World, which had to close due to mistreatment of whales.

You don't have to be Einstein to calculate that you can save around 40% with this pass, just add up individual prices on meintripnachnewyork.com . Included in the pass are Empire State Building, American Museum of Natural History, choice of 9/11 Memorial or Intrepid (the aircraft carrier), Top of the Rock or the Guggenheim Museum and Statue of Liberty visit or Circle Line. Great for first time visitors.

Advantages :

• 40% savings on the original price
• No time pressure, pass valid for 9 days
• Very good and fair price
• Easy to use

Disadvantages :

• Activities specified
• 3 museums, some of you don't like museums

The Explorer Pass, a kind of Blackberry cell phone of passes. It is owned by Smart Destinations, which in turn was bought by Big Bus after Gray Line came out with its own passes and the pass became irrelevant because it was the same offer but more expensive than Flex Pass. They renamed and rebranded the pass as GO City.

It works on the same principle as the Felx Pass (minus GoAirlink airport transfer). You buy the number of attractions 2,3,4... and visit the included and desired attractions without having to reserve in advance. You can also use the hop on hop off buses as an attraction 24 hours a day, except for the night loop. All in all a great offer.

Advantages :

• Lots of sights
• Only pass with airport shuttle
• Very good and fair price
• Easy to use

Disadvantages :

• You have to decide beforehand how many activities you want to buy
• Excursions and helicopter flights not included

C3 - City Pass is the bulimic pass of the City Pass family. There are only 3 attractions here which you can choose from Empire State Building, Top of the Rock, Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, 9/11 Memorial Museum, American Museum of Natural History, MoMA, Circle Line Boat Ride, Interpid Sea, Air & Space Museum, Guggenheim Museum, Edge viewing platform.

The Flex Pass is probably the best offer at the moment if you don't plan on doing helicopter flights, transfers, tours (such as the Bronx, Queens and Brooklyn Tour and Panorama Night Tour ) and day trips , otherwise it's better to have a best price guarantee mytripnachnewyork.com to book individual tickets. If you are a museum fan, City Pass is a great alternative.