- Location: Main entrance of the building, 20 West 34th Street, Manhattan
- Who it’s for: All visitors
- Average wait time: 10 to 30 minutes
- Skip-the-line: Mandatory for all visitors
Skip waiting in multiple long queues after you enter, and follow the marked lanes on the red-carpet-style flooring directing you to the 86th-floor observatory deck.
You will be required to pass through the mandatory airport-style security screening at the very beginning.
The Empire State Building is one of the most popular tourist attractions in NYC, drawing an average of 4 million visitors per year.
Peak hours (mid to late afternoon), weekends, and especially during the summer, visitors can end up waiting for an average of an hour or more before they access the elevator line to the observatory.
Avoid waiting in multiple lines, and save your energy to take in the Manhattan skyline views from an iconic NYC landmark.
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The ticket provides fast access to the 86th-floor observatory deck, red carpet lane access, Art Deco lobby access, high-power binoculars, audio guides, and free Wi-Fi. For an additional upgrade, you can also access the observatory deck on the 102nd floor.
Skip-the-line tickets grant you priority access, reducing wait time significantly compared to regular tickets, which may require standing in lines. This ticket lets you bypass most queues (except the airport-style security screening which is mandatory for everyone) and head straight to the observatory.
No, a guided tour is not included in your Empire State Building skip-the-line ticket. However, you get access to an audio guide available in multiple languages including English, Spanish, French and Mandarin.
No, the skip-the-line tickets to Empire State Building cannot be canceled or rescheduled once booked.
Without skip-the-line tickets, you can expect average waiting times of 45 minutes to 1 hour at the Empire State Building. During peak periods, such as weekends and summer months, these wait times can even exceed an hour.
No, all your skip-the-line tickets are timed and you must visit the Empire State Building during the selected time slot mentioned on your ticket.
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