I Tried the Go City New Orleans Pass - What You Need to Know (w/ a Free worksheet!)

Have you heard of the Go City pass? The pass enables you to see multiple attractions within a major city for one price and save on the overall cost of travel.

Generally, I’m an independent traveler that visits attractions on my own timeline. I don’t think that there are too many cities that require a tour to get a good feel for the town. But there are exceptions and New Orleans is one of them.

Why? Well, it’s not the size of the city. Rather, it is the breadth of experiences that one can have in New Orleans.

Some examples:

• Ghost Tours – New Orleans is full of stories of ghosts, voodoo, pirates and more. Any place that has a history has its fair share of ghosts, but most aren’t as interesting as those that have given their eternity to NOLA

• Cooking – there’s a big difference between cajun and creole cooking and both are worth the time to learn. They are also not widely taught outside Louisiana, so I definitely recommend a class

• Swamp tours – sure, I love a good kayak ride. But hell no for me to paddle through the marsh and swamp with alligators

Table of Contents:

How Does the Go City Pass work?

What Activities Are Included in the Go City New Orleans Pass?

How much does the Go City Pass cost?

Is It Worth It?

The verdict

The paddlewheel of the Creole Queen

This summer, Bill and I dropped our kids off to camp somewhere in East Texas and set off for our own child-free adventure to one of our favorite cities, New Orleans.

Looking for a mid-range hotel in NOLA with a cool vibe?

Our awesome crew at the New Orleans School of Cooking

I looked into the GoCity Pass New Orleans because it has:

• Great coverage of must-see places and activities. We have a general familiarity with the town but there are lots of activities that we’ve never done (the WWII museum, the Creole Queen, a swamp tour, etc.)

• Cost Savings. With negotiated discounts, you can save a lot of money by using the pass

• Skip the Wait We did not have to wait in long lines to use the pass. In most cases, we already had the mobile pass to use on our phone but for the

How Does the Go City Pass work?

The Go City Pass to New Orleans offers 23 activities with an option of 1,2,3 or 5-day itineraries.

What Activities Are Included in the Go City New Orleans Pass?

There are currently 23 different events included with the pass:

• 1850 House

• Adventures in New Orleans Bus Tour

• Cajun Pride Swamp Tour

• Canal Street Cemeteries and Katrina Memorial Tour

• Cities of the Dead Cemetery History Tour

• Edgar Degas House

• French Quarter Ghosts & Legends

• French Quarter History / Voodoo Tour*

• Garden District Tour by French Quarter Phantoms

• Ghost & Vampire Combo Tour

• Longue Vue House and Gardens

• Mardi Gras World with Transportation

• New Orleans Pharmacy Tour

• New Orleans School of Cooking Demo* - if you like to cook (or eat!) do not miss it

• Paddlewheeler Creole Queen Cruise*

• Presbytere

• Saints & Sinners

• Southern Food & Beverage Museum

• The Cabildo

• The National WWII Museum*

• The New Orleans Jazz Museum at the Old U.S. Mint

• Tremé Tour

• Ultimate Swamp Adventures*

* = the sites that we did while there. I would have loved to the Tremé tour but it only runs from Thursday to Sunday. There were other things that I was very excited about as well, but I just ran out of time.

A simulated kitchen at the World War II Museum

How much does the Go City Pass cost?

The cost varies by which package you choose. At time of publishing it cost:

• 1-Day Pass: $59 (adults) / $47 (kids, ages 3 to 12)

• 2-Day Pass: $99 / $69

• 3-Day Pass: $119 / $97

• 5-Day Pass: $169 / $129

Is It Worth It?

We had 4 days total and Bill was working for a portion of that. With limited time, but a long list of places to check out, I wanted to be efficient.

I created a spreadsheet with each activity listed. I then indicated which places I wanted to go and which Bill wanted to go (since he had one less day, he couldn’t do as much as I could). I organized each activity by day.

I added in all of the prices for each activity on the pass and then did a total of how much the activities that we wanted to do would total up to if we did all of them without the Go City Pass. It looked like a good deal that would save us $40 or more per person.

I bought the pass and decided to give it a whirl.

Looking for a mid-range hotel in NOLA with a cool vibe?

The verdict?

I think that it depends on the type of traveler that you will be for your trip. If you have a long list of things that you want to see and limited time, it’s a great way to go. If you only want to do one activity a day, it’s not going to be advantageous to you.

For this trip, with the limited time – and without kids – it was worthwhile for me. If I were doing more slow travel, probably not.

Important Notes:

• Check what times activities are available. Many things are closed at the beginning of the week in New Orleans. We were there the first part of the week and couldn’t go to everything that I had originally planned.

• Further, some activities took place at the same time so I had to make a choice. Despite these issues, I still came out ahead

• Looking for a mid-range hotel in NOLA with a cool vibe?

Happy Travels,

Chrissy