Travel: 2012 May New York Pass

Before I arrived at Manhattan, I actually did not do a lot of planning except seeking advice from a friend who just got back from New York (NY). The best piece of advice she gave was to purchase the NY Pass[1] online and collect in NY. Why? Because it costs less than buying either the NY pass or admission tickets over the counter in NY itself!

You can match the duration of the NY pass to your stay. They offer 1, 2, 3, 5 and 7-day NY pass. I got myself the 7-day NY pass because I was there for a week. It came with a free guidebook, which was informative and small enough to fit into most bags.

For my 1st day in NY, I arrived just in time to collect the NY pass from the Times Square[2] Planet Hollywood. Purposely chose there to make sure that I visit the iconic Times Square at least once to soak up the Broadway atmosphere.

While at Times Square, I took a while to visit the NY tourist information counter to understand how their Metro subway system works. I also visited Madame Tussauds NY which is in the vicinity.

Times Square

To make the most out of the NY pass, I headed back to the hostel and spent the rest of my 1st night planning to squeeze in as many places as possible. Some quick tips on how I planned:

1. Select those places (usually the walking tours) which require online reservations and book ahead. Do note that some are not available daily, while others have limited slots. So, (personally I feel) it is best to plan your other visits around them;
2. Select as many places that I want to visit and start grouping them by location;
3. Indicate the Must-Go places.

The trickier part, as usual, was weather. To make the trip worthwhile, I cleared as many trips which are weather dependent as possible on days where the sky seemed clear. Such trips are rooftop view of Empire State Building and Top of the Rock (Rockerfeller building). 

View from Empire State Building
(aka King Kong building)

As for those pre-booked walking tours, I prayed hard that the weather would be good that day. Luckily for me, I booked 2 walking tours and both days were sunny days. As for the remaining days, I cleared places such as museums, libraries, Grand Central Terminal, etc. 

Here are some of the places I conquered during my 1-week stay in NY:

Rockerfeller building, Empire State building, Madame Tussauds NY, Central Library (where Day after Tomorrow was shoot), Grand Central Terminal, Central Park, NY Skyride, Radio City Music Hall, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, America Museum of Natural History, The Museum of Modern Art, Museum of the City of NY, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Sex, The Charging Bull, Trinity Church, Times Square, Ground Zero, etc.

There are more places which I wished I had time to visit. That will have to wait until the next time I set foot there then.

Before I end, do note that the NY pass is valid for one admission per attraction (unless they change their terms and conditions) and it is activated for consecutive calendar days when used at your 1st attraction.

So if you are going NY, I hope this post has been of some help :)
Enjoy the Big Apple!

References:

1. Official New York Pass
2. Wikipedia - Times Square