Will Seattle’s City Pass Save You Money?

Updated for 2014

When our family went to Seattle last month, we quickly learned about a discount program for tourists called “City Pass”. The Seattle City Pass includes six tickets to popular Seattle attractions and supposedly saves a visitor nearly 45% off the price of admission. One of the strengths of the City Pass is that it is good for up to nine days after purchase, which gives a family plenty of time to see everything.

For adults, a Seattle City Pass is $74 and $49 for children. The pass includes admission to the Seattle Space Needle, the Seattle Aquarium, the Argosy harbor tours, Woodland Park Zoo, Pacific Science Center and either the Museum of Flight OR the Experience Museum Project/Science Fiction Museum. Considering the regular admission to all six of these locations is about $134 per adult, the Seattle City Pass seems like a real savings.

Do the math first

Most visitors to Seattle don’t learn of the City Pass until waiting in line at the first attraction. This really is not the best time to be mentally adding up the cost of all the different attractions your family plans on seeing in the upcoming week, and then deciding if the City Pass will actually save you money.

A little advance planning is the best way of deciding if the Seattle City Pass is really a bargain. Before hitting the Seattle attractions, your family should decide ahead of time what sites you’d like to see. If at least five of the attractions are on your “must see” list, then the City Pass is a real bargain. Four or less, then you may discover like our family did that buying the individual tickets makes more sense.

How we saved money using other discounts

Our family decided NOT to buy a Seattle City Pass while visiting Seattle which ended up being a good decision. We ended up only having time to see two of Seattle’s six “most popular attractions” plus saw both the Museum of Flight and EMP/SFM which would have cost us extra anyway.

For us, buying individual tickets and combining them with a AAA discount or the discount coupons found in the “Favorite Seattle Attractions” guide was the better bargain. We found the Seattle Attractions guide on the Washington State Ferries and in the downtown ferry terminal. The guide can also be downloaded from the Favorite Seattle Attraction website. Coupons range from $1 to $5 off various Seattle attractions.

Slightly better than the coupon discounts were the AAA auto club discounts at a number of the attractions. Some of participating AAA attractions included the Museum of Flight and Experience Museum Project/Science Fiction Museum which knocked 20% off the cost of admission.

Visiting Seattle and taking in the sites can be expensive for a family on vacation. If you’ve got the time to see everything, then the Seattle City Pass will definitely save you money. If not, then the individual tickets with discount coupons is the way to go.

More by this contributor:

Sightseeing in Seattle: Five free attractions
Seattle For Tourists: 8 ways to save money.

resources:
www.seattleattractions.com
www.citypass.com/city/seattle.html