Chicago CityPASS

Fantastic experience: Chicago CityPASS is an excellent value for visiting the Windy City, between skipping long lines for tickets to in-store purchase discounts, you really can't beat it.

Negative experience: Really lame that you cannot use this CityPASS to visit the same attraction again, even if you visit on different days.

Fantastic experience: This was amazing! What a savings. We used every ticket on this pass and saw so much of the Chicago attractions we would have not seen otherwise! Skydeck was awesome, but i doubt i would have gone if not on the pass. Excellent value! This plus a 7 day subway/bus pass made logistics in Chicago a breeze!

Negative experience: Completely ripped off by Chicago city Pass. Refused our 4th excursion because it said we had used them all. We hadn’t as we had planned our days, but we were offered a “free tour” as an addition from them. Clearly misled and have the email to prove it. Tried to contact the call centre, no help as only able to read from a script. Very disappointed and please be aware this company wants to mislead you and it’s then not capable of dealing with any issues leaving you out of pocket - AVOID

Positive experience: A bit of a hassle to use, especially when this attraction is not covered by "this kind " of pass.

Negative experience: The pass should be redeemed before 9 days. It is only worth if you are completing all 5 attractions in 9 days. I bought the pass at the attraction and was given wrong information that we can reserve for future dates within 9 days and I hhad purchased 3 passes and my friend 6 passes. We were not able to reserve for future days as system is not allowing and was not able to complete 5 within 9 days. We lost money no help from customer care stating terms and conditions.

Fantastic experience: Well worth the money for this pass. We did 5 activities in 2 days because that is all the time we had but would definitely loved to have spent more time in the City and on each activity.

Fantastic experience: Have not used the pass yet. Customer service was fast and helped me get to my tickets. thumbs up for Christy!! i didnt wait long on the phone!!

Fantastic experience: CityPASS is definitely the way to go your first time in Chicago. I got to see several of the major sites with ease, plus the CityPASS gives you priority access to certain things (additional perks at certain attractions). Amazing value compared to buying individual tickets. Just be sure to pay attention to which attractions require advance reservations. That said, we had no problem booking same day for 2 people.

Negative experience: Second time using CityPass Chicago. I would definitely not recommend CityPass during Spring Break; they way OVERSOLD IT. We purchased the 5 Attraction Pass and could only use three of the five things we wanted to do because all the time slots were taken. Some of the attractions said there was no reservation needed, like the Planetarium, then when we arrived everything was already BOOKED and we were haggled by the museum staff when we mentioned we had not used all five passes, and no I don't care that you opened things up so that guests could get around using the two mandatory ones... it was still oversold and too late. CityPass really needs to get it together and make better updates to their system. NOT a good Value this time around and frustrating.

Fantastic experience: City pass was very convenient. The customer service number gals were very knowledgeable and advised which attraction required a reservation and to do it asap, which was good to know. Thank you CityPASS!

Negative experience: I found out that tickets are more limited through the pass than by booking directly through the attractions, but I did not discover this until I already bought the pass. If you are looking at buying this pass without planning far enough ahead to make sure the pass has more reservations, then it might be better to book directly through attractions.

Negative experience: Would have been cheaper to buy a membership at some of the museums so you could see all the exhibits.

Negative experience: We purchased the city pass, most of the attractions have required reservations now. And you have 2 that you don’t get a choice with. We requested a partial refund because the sky deck is unavailable the week we are here, and they canceled all of our reservations. We are unable to get in to those attractions now while here. This used to be a great way to save money, and now it’s an obscene headache.

Fantastic experience: This is so worth it! Definitely recommend

Fantastic experience: Very easy to redeem your tickets and all of the attractions were amazing.

Fantastic experience: Enjoyed all the perks and benefits. Saved alot of money was the deal breaker.

Fantastic experience: The pass worked perfect! I was able to get into every atraction super fast. Easy to use!

Fantastic experience: Great way to save money if wanting to see the city attractions. The support service was really helpful when needed. Easy peasy! We had fun Chicago. Thank you!

Negative experience: I waste my money with CityPASS Chicago, I wanted to use my pass and I couldn’t because 3 of the 5 attractions that I wanted to do were closed. They don’t tell you nothing until you want to do reservations, I used 2 times and didn’t worth it. I could have spent less if I had only paid for the tickets to the places I visited.

Fantastic experience: Great buy and you will save

Fantastic experience: it is well recommended to get the CityPass if you are going to numerous places to visit in Chicago.

Fantastic experience: Worth the money ! Great service and value

Fantastic experience: Chicago it’s a beautiful city, with many places to visit, and the food is excellent. the City Pass helped me to visit all the places. It Was amazing to go to Chicago.

Negative experience: I was misled by representative on call, I made reservations and when called to ask if i could do alder planetarium instead of shed they said yes and later on I was denied entry into shoreline sightseeing when I reached the reservation. So I wasn’t informed about the fact that my other reservation is being cancelled and that I would be denied entry into the reservation I was most excited about. This is terrible misinformation and misleading way of treating me and my partner and it’s ruined our trip really badly. I requested multiple times over the call and still haven’t gotten any help from the team. This is truly frustrating and disappointing.

Fantastic experience: Everything worked as it should. We were able to do our 3 events in one day. Skydeck, Architecture Boat Tour, and the Science Museum.

Fantastic experience: Saved us so much money! Convenient to use!

Fantastic experience: Well worth it if you are inclined to visit these sites anyway.

Fantastic experience: It's a very good deal if you're planning to visit everything they offer. With the Citypass, you get free entry to Skydeck (with expedited entry) and Shedd Aquarium. Both are worthwhile. You can choose another three options among six that are given. They also include, apart from the basic admission, one special option that you usually pay extra. The Field museum and the river tour are highly recommended.

Fantastic experience: Chicago as a Tourist My brothers (19m and 21m) and I (26m) do an annual trip together. This year we chose Chicago as our destination. I went to Chicago for the first time in late 2021 and really fell in love with the city. I’ve been to other major cities in the U.S. but Chicago has a certain charm to it that is a little hard for me to pinpoint. It’s like a city environment that doesn’t have a feeling of being extremely overcrowded. The purpose of this post is to share the things we did as tourists to maybe help future tourists gain some ideas for things to try. Also, if any locals want to share things for future Chicago visits, please let us know. To start, we stayed from Friday 8/25 to Sunday 8/27. We flew in and out of Midway. We purchased the 3 day CTA pass for $15 per person when we arrived at Midway. During the trip we almost exclusively used CTA and had no negative experiences. The CTA was extremely user-friendly and we did not encounter any situations where we felt unsafe. We used 3 Ubers throughout our time there, but we only used them  because we needed to cut down the travel time to our next destination slightly or it was too late for CTA. We also used Metra once. I’ve seen it in this sub before, but if you’re planning a trip here, there is no reason to rent a car. The public transit is a bargain and very effective. We stayed at The Freehand Chicago at 19 E Ohio St. **Places we ate:** Wildberry Pancakes and Café at 130 E Randolph St. Frontera Grill at 445 N Clark St. Goddess and the Baker at 44 E Grand Ave. Ja’ Grill Hyde Park at 1510 E Harper Ct Pequod’s Pizza 2207 N Clybourn Ave. RAMEN-SAN at 59 W Hubbard St #2. Al’s #1 Italian Beef at 548 N Wells St. I'm not going to go in depth on each place, but I will say that we did not have a bad meal while we were there. When I come back, I would definitely go back to any of these spots. **Activities we did:** Walked along the Lake Shore Explored Millennium Park Shopped at Exile in Bookville (book store) The Chicago Music Exchange Chicago River Architecture Tour through Shoreline Sightseeing Skydeck Chicago in the Willis Tower The Museum of Science and Industry A stand-up comedy show at the Laugh Factory The Art Institute of Chicago Now that I’m writing it out, the list of activities doesn't seem like much, but we had a lot of fun and had virtually zero downtime. I feel like we really took advantage of our time and got the most we could out of a weekend trip. A tip to other tourists planning a trip, locals looking to suggest an option to visiting family members or even to use themselves. We used an online service called “CityPass.” CityPASS services multiple cities, with Chicago being one of them. The Chicago CityPass was $136 per person with tax and gave us access to 5 different attractions from a designated list. The Shedd Aquarium and Skydeck Chicago were required and then we were able to choose 3 more activities from this list; The Field Museum, The Art Institute of Chicago, The Museum of Science and Industry, The Adler Planetarium, 360 Chicago Observation Deck, and Shoreline Sightseeing Architecture River Tour. I assumed when purchasing the CityPASS tickets that they would just be base level tickets with no extra perks. To my surprise, the tickets gave us expedited entry to Skydeck Chicago and a free 30 minute movie at the Museum of Science and Industry. I will definitely use this service again in the future. Due to time constraints, we didn't get a chance to check out Shedd Aquarium. To close, we walked approximately 60,000 steps over these 3 days. A lot of those steps occurred on the public streets, through CTA stations and inside of the attractions we visited. Minus one homeless guy at the base of the Willis Tower (an outlier in my opinion), not once did we feel unsafe. We had a great experience and left knowing that there is so much more to explore and learn about the city. Thank you to anybody who took the time to read through this and thank you Chicagoans for sharing your city with us.

Fantastic experience: We love having the pass. First time in Chicago and we saw it all. This even gets you VIP entrance to the Skydeck. Great value for 5 attractions Do it!

Positive experience: I would have given a 5 star had we been in expedited lines as advertised.

Fantastic experience: Very well worth getting the citipass

Negative experience: Does not allow to rebook, and claimed that I have used the ticket and in fact I never have used it.

Fantastic experience: This was excellent value. We used the five attraction pass and it saved us money. Consider what you actually want to see and do the math to see if it adds up for you before purchasing. For us it was a great value. Also, if you buy the 5 attraction ticket it gets you the express tickets for the Sears Tower, which saved us a ton of time. Make sure you read the fine print, some of the attractions require your to book a time slot, Shedd, river cruise, and the Sears Tower.

Fantastic experience: We are so happy we got the Chicago CityPASS! We were in Chicago for about 3 days and able to get our money’s worth. Using our pass, we went to the Field Museum, Shedd Aquarium, Skydeck, Art Institute, and Architecture River Tour. Note that the Museum of Science and Industry is a bit further than the other attractions (otherwise this would have been one of our top choices). The Field Museum, Shedd Aquarium, and Adler Planetarium were all right next to each other - which makes for an easy day if you plan on going to 2-3 of them! Each attraction we attended was very CityPASS-friendly, with a few having separate lines.

Fantastic experience: Great bus service hop on and hop off options. Friendly staff and bus drivers. Covers almost all 11+ major attractions... Good experience...

Fantastic experience: The architectural tour was exciting. But it also includes the aquarium, Field museum, Willis Tower, and more.

Fantastic experience: We got the C5 and was able to do 5 sites in 4 days. The app is very convenient for booking times for museums and Skydeck. The fastpass for Skydeck gave us a great experience with no wait time for anything, totally worth it!

Negative experience: DO NOT PURCHASE!!! I always purchase GoCity but decided to try CityPASS such a HUGE MISTAKE! Spent $288 for 3 attractions in Chicago (4/10/23) but ran out off time due to weather, we only did 2 attractions. I didn’t notice the fine print regarding the “expiration info”, apparently the tickets expire 9 days after the first attraction is scanned. I assumed it was the same policy as GoCity which do not expire for 365 days after purchase!! They are also valid for 2 years from purchase date if not activated. Disappointingly we were in Chicago in June of 2023 and attempted to use the 3rd attraction (BTW the app showed the tickets still “available” and not expired until 2024!) but when the attendant tried to scan them they came up as expired. That was the 1st and definitely the last time I will ever purchase CityPASS! Way to expensive, huge disappointment, not consumer friendly or considerate. Zero stars should be an option.

Fantastic experience: It's really worth it! Respected everywhere with expedited (fast) access. You save hundreds of dollars!

Fantastic experience: City Pass!! Best bang for your buck $$$ . Tori was a guild, very knowledgeable about all the buildings

Fantastic experience: This was very necessary. 3 day planned vacation and attractions were on the to do list. I recommend purchase, saves money, saves time, schedule your time wisely. Put on your comfy shoes and pack an umbrella and some waters. Enjoy the CityPass in Chicago "She is beautiful city"!!

Positive experience: Definitely worth the price but it showed sold out for Skydeck and some other places, even though they had availabilities and we were able to reserve it but had to buy tickets for skydeck separately. I suggest planning ahead, like at least a week!

Fantastic experience: Amazing you save time and money

Fantastic experience: Would definitely suggest the pass for anyone visiting Chicago, especially if you are going to stay for 5 days or more. Wish they have more options to let us go to a place again. Chicago has great many places and this pass gives you the opportunity to visit upto 5 of them for less than half the price of visiting them individually.

Fantastic experience: You get such a great deal. You are able to purchase tickets for different places to attend without the hassle of buying from each company separately. All one pass to access simple and fast.

Fantastic experience: Amazing job done. You can visit 5 places with a decent amount of money.

Fantastic experience: I took 5 attractions explorer pass from Go city, and took big bus hop on hop off as one attraction ,which is worth money I could see 4 places missed one went for 2 days only go for "Go City" offered Chicago city pass

Fantastic experience: Chicago CityPASS is the perfect way to plan a vacation. We spent a week in Chicago and with CityPASS, we had an event to plan our day around every single day. The events offered by CityPASS are some of the top attractions in Chicago. I will definitely use CityPASS for the next city I visit.

Fantastic experience: The absolute best cost saver for us was that it covered all extra exhibits at the Field Mus. It also covered an architectural river cruise that was fabulous and we would never have taken otherwise.

Positive experience: recommend to get the pass if you have time to go most place

Fantastic experience: Great choices when going to attractions with City Pass. There are expedited lines for City Pass in certain attractions

Fantastic experience: Really easy to use and you do save a bunch of money, providing that you visit enough destinations. Also make sure to check when attractions are open, we were hoping to go to the Art Institute for example but it's closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays for some insane reason. We went to the SkyDeck, Field Museum and the Planetarium, all were excellent

Fantastic experience: Chicago was not at all what I expected, stay off social media and experience all this awesome city has to offer

Fantastic experience: This is a great deal! Also, I love that it gives you priority entry to the various venues. I did this also in New York. Very happy with the places to choose from and all the amenities. I recommend it.

Fantastic experience: Really a good deal for the top attractions in the windy city

Positive experience: Its okay - One still has to make RESERVATIONS for basically everything one does pass or not - and i think it ended up saving us about 5 bucks each for the attractions we saw.

Fantastic experience: Worth every penny, good discount for the most interesting sites.

Fantastic experience: Such an economical way to enjoy the cultural, & sight-seeing activities of Chicago! Looking forward to trying the CityPASS in other metropolitan cities soon!!

Fantastic experience: Helped us save quite a bit of money

Fantastic experience: Smartest, most affordable way to experience Chicago! The expedited access at some places was a life-saver!

Fantastic experience: I messed up a reservation, and they fix it for me within the hour. The mistake I made is specifically called out against their terms of service and they still took care of me. Awesome!

Positive experience: Tickets for the coal mine did not come up. Site never gave tickets. That said it was still a good value. I don't like having to reserve a Time. There is no need for it and most of the time we were late due to not knowing the city & transportation. Reservations caused undue stress.

Fantastic experience: A must in any big city! The City Pass never disappoints. It’s easier than ever with being able to store it in your Apple Wallet. I was able to do the Architect River Tour, 360 at the Hancock Building (I’m from Chicago so it will always be called this.), the Art Institute, and the Sears Tower Skydeck. I left the city or would have done my 5th attraction. Get the CityPass!

Positive experience: Really great and reasonable. A little confusing but easy to pay. Unfortunately they only use Apple Wallet and not Google Wallet which makes things difficult

Fantastic experience: The best deal you'll get in Chicago and very much worth it! We visited 5 things for $114 a piece! The Skydeck & Aquarium alone was worth it ♥️

Fantastic experience: When visiting Chicago the city pass is well worth the money to see the amazing attractions!

Fantastic experience: This is a great experience and savings as well I toured the Skydeck, Shedd Aquarium and the Museum of Science

Fantastic experience: This was a great value and we are so happy we got it. It gave us a discount a gift shops, expedited entry to some venues. Highly recommend.

Fantastic experience: Great value. You save a lot, get to skip most queues, and the 5 attractions we visited were great activities. A must buy for tourists trying to tick off some of the "must-see" attractions in Chicago whilst saving money!

Negative experience: Skydeck city pass — They sold expedited tickets for extra money but in the end expedited entry is closed. You wait so long, no clear directions, bad organization and no respect for time. Why we have to pay for expedited entry if they don't offer it here at the skydeck venue.

Fantastic experience: It’s not a cheap ticket BUT if you are going to do 2 or more of the attractions it’s worth it both for the savings and the convenience of getting better entry times !

Fantastic experience: The customer service is fantastic. One of our attractions was closed due to weather, we contacted them and they refunded a portion of our pass. Highly recommend everyone use the city pass to see attractions during their visit.

Fantastic experience: Fabulous excursions, I just wish I had more time to do everything. Museums close early and the MSI is not near the other museums so plan accordingly. You'll definitely want a full day if you plan to go to MSI, it has a lot of cool stuff.

Negative experience: What a horrible marketing ploy. We went to the Shedd Aquarium and used a credit card for the tickets but the cashier convinced us to use our cash to buy city passes, little did we know that last weekend was the Chicago marathon and Every attraction had already been booked and we spent even more money on taxis going from one to another just to be told there were no openings. Of course the people at city pass refuse to reimburse us because we went to the Shedd Aquarium

Fantastic experience: CityPass provided a great way for our family to visit the go to sites in Chicago. Our kids (ages 11 & 9) loved every minute. The Museum of Science and industry is hands down the best science/history museum out there and the Art Institute of Chicago, Field Museum, and Shedd Aquarium are remarkable as well! I highly recommend CityPass for seeing Chicago and especially if it’s your first time.

Fantastic experience: We used these and it was well worth getting around to enjoy all what chicago has to offer

Fantastic experience: This pass was a great way to see the city in a weekend! Highly recommend reserving times, we did 360 deck at night and the sky deck in the morning for different pictures.

Positive experience: You save a couple of bucks with the City pass, also it includes some features inside the attractions that otherwise you would have to pay, for example, in the Field Museum, it included all areas, so you dont need to pay extra, in the science museum, it included a show. Only problem is that I thought I didnt need to wait in line once you have city pass but it turned out that you need to make the same line as everybody else to get your tickets.

Fantastic experience: Perfect experiences all over. As we were facing an issue and reached out to the support, we were contacted immediately and a solution was offered. Very happy customers, would definitely buy again.

Negative experience: Don't buy city pass and visit the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago. There were 2 lsnes to enter, one was just for City pass holders (there was no one in the second lane). City pass line was super long, and on a hot day it's terrible. We waited in line for 30 minutes even though we reserved our timeslot ahead. Once we got up to the counter they tried to upsell us. After we declined we were free to enter the aquarium. Ridiculous! We were made to stand in line with little kids in heat (90 degrees) for 30 minutes just to upsell us.

Fantastic experience: Future travel plans and the CityPass allows us to visit popular tourist sites. Looking forward to the mini vacation

Fantastic experience: I’ve used this previously and was great. Going to use it again this year. Make sure to pre book your tickets for required ticket entry through city pass. And make sure if you want to go to the Chicago art exhibit exhibitions you need to book that entirely separate if you’re interested. (Go on art institute Chicago website. Add general admission, then add the exhibitions ticket, then remove the general admission because it’s included in city pass and just only purchase the exhibit.)

Fantastic experience: CHICAGO! Had a great time at Sky deck, Navy Pier Ferris Wheel, and the observatory. I wish I had seen something else instead of the observatory because the view is similar to the Skydeck view. Skydeck is just higher up. If you like looking at skylines, it would be great for you. Maybe I should’ve gone to the observatory at night and the Skydeck during the daytime. That may have been worth it! I LOVED how the sky deck had “the ledge” for pictures. However, I went to both locations in the afternoon and looked at the same views. This is why I wish I had done the sky deck alone. Hope this was helpful.

Fantastic experience: Worth every penny. The expedited entries were awesome. Definitely saved so much time at the skydeck. We were let in early at the art museum. Just overall a great way to experience Chicago. I will be looking for more of these when I visit other cities.

Positive experience: Costly but worth it! Bought C3 passes for a group of 5 adults & 1 toddler to visit 3 attractions. Cost more than anticipated (>$400) but considering the price of 3 attractions separately I saved money opting for the C3 passes so I'd definitely recommend them. It was easy to scan from my device at the attractions and it reduced the wait time in lines. If you are visiting these attractions on short notice like my group was, I recommend you call ahead to schedule or see if you'd be able to visit same day as walk-ins aren't always permitted. We weren't aware of this until after we had made our purchase. Also didn't appreciate that my review while not highly critical didn't meet CityPASS's standard so I'm deducting a star for what I see as dishonest and not trustworthy on their part.

Fantastic experience: one stop shop for all my tourist needs! The passes also let you use the expedited lines at some of the busiest stops in Chicago! I have used City pass in NYC and would use them again on my next travels

Positive experience: There some limitations on attractions, otherwise good to have citypass. It's lot convenient if you plan in advance

Positive experience: Great for family but if you are short on time and want to experience Chicago, then this pass is not needed. If you are a museum person, this pass is a great choice.

Fantastic experience: Great value and easy to reserve our spots at popular tourist destinations! Wait for Groupon deal for even better savings.

Positive experience: I enjoyed my use of the CityPass. I used it to go to the Art Institute of Chicago, and Chicago 360. I really wanted to go to Shedd Aquarium, but I missed out on that. I think there should be some form of transportation between the CityPass locations. If they could make an option of Hop On Hop Off bus trips discounted it would help greatly.

Fantastic experience: Enjoyed everything! Amazing value for the package.

Negative experience: TOTAL WASTE OF MONEY BECAUSE WHEN I SPOKE TO SOMEONE ON THE PHONE THEY DID NOT BOTHER TO TELL ME THAT YOU HAD TO MAKE RESERVATIONS FOR MOSE OF THESE PLACES. ONCE YOU FIND THAT OUT AND YOU ARE ONLY IN THE CITY FOR A FEW DAYS AND THINGS HAVE ALREADY BEEN BOOKED UP YOU ARE OUT OF LUCK. BIG DISAPPOINTMENT

Negative experience: My wife has been on the phone most of the trip trying to figure out what is accepted under which package. We first bought a pass for around $500 to find out boat tours were not included in that pass. Then we had to buy tickets for the boat tours for almost $200. Spent $700 in 10 minutes. In their defense after another phone call they did refund the cost so we could but the other pass. Today we were trying to do the skydeck to find out they only take so many passes per day. Do your research before buying so you can plan your trip around the pass. This trip has been more work than enjoyment. Thank you CityPASS.

Fantastic experience: An absolutely economical way to experience done of the best Chicago had to offer.

Fantastic experience: Such a great time. Loved every minute in this city. Shed aquarium is the best

Fantastic experience: Very convenient, even though we could not enjoy all 5 sightseeing spots.

Fantastic experience: When planning a family trip to Chicago, we decided to get the City Pass. Given the cost of the attractions, we felt this was a good value. When we realized we got add ons like expedited entry to the sky deck, movie experiences at the museums, etc. All in all, we’d consider getting a similar pass for other cities and I would definitely recommend to other families.

Positive experience: Didn't buy a pass. It would be well worth the money for the attractions that we are going to see. But we are only spending 1 day.