How we review city passes

We start with the pass model

City passes come in two fundamentally different structures, and confusing them produces wrong analysis. Before writing a single word of review, we identify which model applies.

Credit-based passes (sometimes called Explorer Passes) give you a fixed number of attraction choices — typically 2 to 7 — valid for 30 days from first use. You pick which attractions to use your credits on. There is no daily pressure and no requirement to visit on consecutive days.

Day-based passes give you unlimited attraction access during a consecutive window — typically 1 to 10 days. The value calculation is different: you need to visit enough attractions per day to justify the daily rate, which creates a different kind of trip structure.

The break-even maths, the "who should buy" guidance, and the practical gotchas are completely different for each model. We identify which applies before any analysis begins.

We price every attraction individually

A pass lists 90+ attractions with equal visual weight. That is not useful information. What matters is which attractions are worth a credit and which are not — and that requires knowing what each attraction costs to visit independently.

We price every included attraction at the gate price or standard online price and sort them into three tiers:

• Tier 1 — attractions whose individual price is high enough that a single credit covers the pass cost or makes a meaningful contribution toward it. These are the attractions to prioritise.
• Tier 2 — attractions with a solid individual price that represent good credit value as second or third choices.
• Tier 3 — attractions whose individual price is low enough that buying a credit to cover them is poor value. These should be purchased individually if visited at all.

The tier thresholds are destination-specific, set relative to the pass's cost-per-credit for each tier option. We publish this analysis explicitly — not buried in a table, but in the editorial prose — so you know which credits to use first.

We run the break-even calculation

The break-even point for a credit-based pass is the average individual attraction price needed across your chosen credits for the pass to save money versus buying tickets separately. We calculate this for every tier option (2-credit, 3-credit, 4-credit, and so on) and present it alongside a realistic itinerary that achieves it.

The interactive calculator on each destination page lets you build your own itinerary and see in real time whether the pass saves money for your specific combination of attractions. The buy CTA only appears when the pass is genuinely the cheaper option for the itinerary you have selected.

We name what is not included

Every destination has one or two attractions that visitors search for most — and some of those are not on the pass. We identify them explicitly, because discovering that the attraction you most wanted to visit is excluded after you have bought the pass is the most common source of negative reviews.

We also identify the free attraction problem for each destination. London has an unusually large circuit of world-class museums with free admission. Paris, Amsterdam, and other cities have their own versions. A pass only saves money on paid attractions — so a city with a strong free circuit narrows the pool of attractions where the pass can deliver value, and we quantify that directly.

We give a verdict with a specific condition

PassVerdict uses three verdict ratings:

• Worth it — the pass saves money for most realistic itineraries in this city, with no major caveats.
• Conditional — the pass saves money, but only under specific conditions that we name explicitly. The most common condition is choosing the right credit tier and prioritising Tier 1 attractions.
• Skip it — the pass does not save money for most visitors to this city, or the practical friction outweighs the saving.

"It depends" is not a verdict. Every rating comes with the specific threshold, itinerary, or condition that drives it. If the verdict is Conditional, we state what the condition is and why it matters.

We check prices quarterly

Pass prices and attraction admission fees change. We verify all figures on a quarterly schedule — January, April, July, and October — with January being the most important check, as most major attractions and pass providers reset their pricing at the start of the year.

Every destination page carries a verification date. This is updated on every quarterly check, even when prices have not changed, as a signal that the page has been actively reviewed. If a price has changed materially since the last check, the review is updated before the next scheduled cycle.

All prices on this site are quoted in the local currency of the destination. We do not convert prices — booking platforms handle currency at checkout automatically, and conversion rates change daily.

What we do not do

We do not accept press passes, complimentary access, or payment from pass providers in exchange for coverage. We do not reproduce provider marketing copy or attraction descriptions at length — our job is analysis, not cataloguing. We do not give a single positive verdict across an entire programme: each destination is reviewed on its own maths.

We also tell you when a pass is the wrong choice — when individual tickets work out cheaper, when the city's top attraction is not on the pass, or when a different pass type suits your trip better. An honest "skip it" is more useful than a forced recommendation.

Last updated: June 2026