When we were trying to figure out things to do in Chicago with our two small children, I was overwhelmed (in a good way) by all the museums that required tickets for admission. One thing I continually saw were ads for Go City and CityPass.
I started by making a list of all the things we really wanted to do:
-Children's Museum
-Architecture Boat Tour
-Shedd's Aquarium
-Navy Pier Ferris Wheel
-360 Chicago or Sky Deck
-Museum of Science and Technology
-Field Museum
Because of the amount of time we were going to be there, it didn't make sense for us to get the all inclusive pass from Go City and we wanted to do more than the things on the City Pass had, so I decided to buy one Go City and one City Pass for both of us - because our children were under 2, they did not need their own passes.
Here's a breakdown for admission for the family:
To compare them a little further:
The CityPass
- The CityPass was more widely advertised with museums/attractions and made it seem like there's more validity
- You can purchase your tickets ahead of time through the attraction/museum's website and have tickets in hand when you arrive
- Shedd's Aquarium is included in the CityPass 3
- The Ferris Wheel ride was included in CityPass 3
- Customer service was great when you have questions or needed to change/cancel your reservation
- Instructions to book reservations can be a bit confusing / challenging. You basically get one email to go to your "dashboard" to make reservations, but there's not a way to login to your dashboard.
The GoCity Pass:
- The Go City Pass has an easy to use app
- It's easy to get tickets for admission by scanning your phone's app
- The Children's Museum is included in Go City
- The Hop On Hop Off Bus is included in Go City
- There's SEVERAL more attractions you can chose from overall
- Was cheaper (and there's a Groupon for 5% off)
- For some attractions, you can't preorder your tickets on your phone and have to take first come first serve (360 Chicago or Shoreline Architecture Tour). However, I stopped by Shoreline and was able to make reservations for later that day.
Overall, both served our family's needs well. I can't really say one was way better than the other because they both had really good things about them and some things about booking reservations were difficult with each of them! I think it totally depends on what attractions you want to see, like if Shedd's Aquarium is #1 then CityPass would be a better fit, but if you wanted to the Hop On Hop Off Bus then Go City is better for you.