Research
What City Passes Really Include
We checked 1,327 pass–attraction pairs across 155 passes in 85 cities against each provider’s own published terms. Only 40% are plainly included. 26% are not included, and 12% we cannot confirm. Of the 562 paid attractions we have checked against at least one pass, 34% are included in none of the passes we track. And even when a sight is included, in 83% of the cases where we know who books, the traveller must still make the reservation.
Computed at build time from our registry of 155 passes and the attractions they cover. Most recent source check: 2026-10-01.
How we counted
Each row is one pass checked against one attraction, recorded with a status taken from the provider’s or the attraction’s own published terms: included, discounted, conditional, optional, not included, or not yet confirmed. We never fill a gap with a guess: a pair we cannot confirm stays “not yet confirmed”.
Two limits matter. The attractions are the ones we chose to track in each city, mostly the headline sights, not a pass’s full catalogue. And a pass listing more attractions is not a better pass: this study measures what is included, not what is good value. For that reason we publish no ranking of providers.
Fewer than half of the pairs are plainly included
Across all 1,327 pairs, 532 are plainly included. The rest is spread across conditions, discounts, extras and exclusions, which is why a pass’s headline attraction count rarely tells you what you will actually get into for free.
| Status | Pairs | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Included | 532 | 40% |
| Discounted entry | 106 | 8% |
| Included with conditions | 116 | 9% |
| Optional / extra | 72 | 5% |
| Not included | 343 | 26% |
| Not yet confirmed | 158 | 12% |
Many paid attractions are in no pass we track
Of the 562 paid attractions we have checked against at least one pass, 191 (34%) are included on none of them. A pass can look generous and still leave out the sights people queue for, so check your own list before you buy.
Included does not mean booked
For the 190 included pairs where we know who handles the reservation, the traveller does in 83% of them. Separately, 29 included pairs (5% of all included pairs) are for attractions whose official rules open with a mandatory reservation, so holding the pass still leaves a booking to make. Our guide to reservations lists them.
A few inclusions are worth nothing
8 of the 532 included pairs are for attractions that are free to everyone anyway, so the “inclusion” saves nothing. It is a small share, but it shows why we mark free attractions instead of counting them as value.
Examples (alphabetical by city)
- Basilica di San Petronio · Bologna
- St. Martin's Cathedral · Bratislava
- Museum of World Culture (Världskulturmuseet) · Gothenburg
- St. Michael's Church (Der Michel) · Hamburg
- Suomenlinna Sea Fortress · Helsinki
- Akershus Fortress (Akershus Festning) · Oslo
- National Railway Museum · York
- Grossmünster · Zurich
What this means when you choose
Start from your own list of attractions, not from the pass. Keep only the ones the pass includes outright, add up their full prices, and compare with the pass price; count conditional, discounted and unconfirmed pairs separately. Then check which of them need a timed reservation and who makes it.
Limits of this study
Statuses reflect the provider’s terms on the date we verified them, and terms change; every page shows its verification date and our public changelog records corrections. Cities differ in how many passes and attractions we track, so city-by-city percentages would be misleading and are not given.
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Frequently asked questions
What share of city pass attractions are really included?
In our data, 40% of the 1,327 pass–attraction pairs we checked are plainly included. 26% are not included and 12% are not yet confirmed; the rest are discounted, conditional or optional.
Does holding a city pass mean I skip the booking?
Usually not. Where we know who makes the reservation, the traveller does in 83% of included pairs, and 29 included pairs are for attractions with a mandatory reservation.
Which provider includes the most?
We do not rank providers on this measure. The share of included pairs depends on which attractions we chose to track in each city, so it cannot show which pass is better value.
How current is this data?
It is computed from our registry each time the site is built; the most recent source check is 2026-10-01. Corrections are listed in our public changelog.