Travel Tip #23 - Take a look at CityPASS

     In an earlier blog entry, I discussed the New York Pass. When we planned our trip to Philadelphia, we looked for something similar and found the Philadelphia CityPASS. We had heard about CityPASS before, and had even looked at the New York version before ultimately deciding on the New York Pass. After looking over the Philadelphia version, and adding up the cost of the sites on our A-list, we realized that it would save us several dollars/person regardless of whether or not we would be able to see all the sites. In addition, it gave us free access to two other sites on our B-list (things we would see if we had the time).
     We used our pass to travel around the city via the Big Bus Tour and the Trolley Works. Once activated, we had unlimited access to the buses and trolley for the remainder of that day and the entire next day. Since the Big Bus had 27 stops throughout the city, it was the perfect way to travel around - especially since we got to hear great stories about the history of perhaps the most historic city in the United States instead of dealing with the stresses of navigating unfamiliar, traffic-clogged streets in search of non-existent parking spaces.

City Hall as seen from the Big Bus Tour

Open air views of Philly

State Penitentiary

Adventure Aquarium

     In addition to the Big Bus Tour, the Philadelphia CityPASS gives you access to four of six other attractions: The Franklin Institute, the Adventure Aquarium, either the National Constitution Center or the Philadelphia Zoo, and either the Eastern State Penitentiary or the Please Touch Museum. We used our pass to visit the National Constitution Center, the Adventure Aquarium, and the Philadelphia Zoo (America's first zoo), and enjoyed each of them. I realize that the current version of the CityPASS lets you see either the zoo or the National Constitution Center, but in 2012 the either/or options were different. We had totally planned on seeing the Franklin Institute, but we ran out of time. In any case, we still saved money by buying the Pass even though we only used 4 of the 5 options.

     CityPASS has offers for other cities as well: Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, New York, San Francisco, Seattle, Southern California, Tampa Bay, and Toronto. Although we haven't personally used CityPASS for any of the other locations, we wish we would have used it in Houston. Unfortunately, we had already purchased tickets to NASA before looking at the CityPASS. If we had looked at the CityPASS ahead of time, we would have saved money even though we had no intention of going to two of the sites.
     So, next time you plan on spending a few days visiting one of our nation's big cities, take a look at the CityPASS and any other value packages before you start purchasing tickets somewhere. If you are going to go to several of the sites anyway, it might be worth it to buy the pass. Then again, if you were only planning on going to one or two of the sites, or are on a tight schedule, you might want to pass on the PASS. Still, it's worth taking a look.