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SAN FRANCISCO Discount Cards
LOS ANGELES Discount Cards
SAN DIEGO Discount Cards
Sightseeing Passes: When to use them, when to skip them
Even California locals like to use tourist discount passes, when they’re good ones. If you’re sightseeing in the city (San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego), combo passes can be just the thing, especially the new and improved passes. The best ones let you save on just the places you want to go, over 9 to 30 days (and you can show on your smart phone for entry).
SAVVY TIP: Browse my California Attraction Discounts category for many other ways to save at Theme Parks, Zoos, Aquariums, and other California attractions.
Save with California Sightseeing Passes
SAN FRANCISCO Attraction Discount Cards & Passes
Review of San Francisco Discount Cards & Attraction Passes
If you’re visiting the San Francisco Bay Area (or entertaining visitors from out of town), attraction passes and ticket booklets are a frugal way to hit all the local museums and attractions (and the popular tourist traps for first-timers). Here are the most popular San Francisco passes and coupon books.
1. Go San Francisco Pass:
{Deal details} With the most SF attractions and activities available, you now can choose between the All Inclusive pass, and two custom passes. My favorite is the “Build Your Own” option where you choose any two or more and save 20% to 55% (the more you pick, the more you save). And check out their custom Explorer Pass where they suggest the most popular attractions that get you the best savings.
Passes are now valid for two full years, and you have up to 90 days to cancel any passes you haven’t activated yet. You have 30 days to use Go San Francisco passes from the first time you activate (your first visit).
Go San Francisco Pass includes free admission to:
Alcatraz Cruise
California Academy of Sciences (Golden Gate Park)
Aquarium of the Bay
Exploratorium
Six Flags Discovery Kingdom
California’s Great America
Golden Gate Bay Cruise
Madame Tussauds Bay
Muir Woods and Wine Country Tour
Conservatory of Flowers (Golden Gate Park)
de Young Museum (Golden Gate Park)
Legion of Honor
USS Hornet Museum
Asian Art Museum
Hop-On/Off Trolley
And more …
2. San Francisco CityPASS:
{Get it HERE best price} A favorite discount card among locals, this attraction pass booklet offers free tickets to a select group of five popular attractions that you can use over a week, Saves you 45% on gate prices and you can skip most of the lines, too.
San Francisco CityPASS includes free admission to:
3-Day Muni Cable Car and Bus Passport
California Academy of Sciences
Blue & Gold Fleet Bay Cruise Adventure
Aquarium of the Bay
Option Ticket: Exploratorium OR SFMOMA (San Francisco Museum of Modern Art)
LOS ANGELES & ORANGE COUNTY Attraction Discount Cards & Passes
Los Angeles & Orange County Discount Cards, Attraction Passes
If you’re visiting the Southern California (or entertaining visitors from out of town), attraction passes and ticket booklets are a savvy way to hit all the top attractions in the Los Angeles area. Here are the most popular SoCal passes so you can choose the one that works best for you and your family:
1. Go Los Angeles Pass:
{Deal details} This popular combo discount pass for SoCal includes 39 attractions with their “All Inclusive” pass. It saves you up to 55% off the gate prices, and in many cases skip the line at the front gate. Savvy Tip: If you visit them all you save around $135.
Now you can also choose one of their custom passes. The “Build Your Own” option let’s you choose any two Southern California attractions or more and save 20% to 55% on each.
Passes are now valid for two full years, and you have up to 90 days to cancel any passes you haven’t activated yet. You have 30 days to use Go Los Angeles passes from the first time you activate (your first visit).
Go Los Angeles Pass includes free admission to:
Universal Studios Hollywood
Knott’s Berry Farm
Knott’s Soak City Waterpark
LEGOLAND California
Six Flags Magic Mountain
Aquarium of the Pacific
The Queen Mary
OUE Skyspace LA
California Science Center IMAX
Pacific Park on Santa Monica Pier
Madame Tussauds Hollywood
Warner Bros. VIP Studio Tour
Sony Pictures Studio Tour
Hollywood Movie Star Homes Tour
LA Zoo and Botanical Gardens
And more …
SAN DIEGO Attraction Discount Cards & Passes
Balboa Park (photo: Bernard Gagnon)
Review of San Diego Discount Cards, Attraction Passes & Coupons
If you’re visiting the Southern California (or entertaining visitors from out of town), San Diego attraction passes and ticket booklets are a savvy way to hit all the top attractions in San Diego. SAVVY TIP: Sometimes these passes are on sale, so you can get them at a better price and enjoy even more savings.
We’re on the list to receive updates on coupon codes special offers for the cards below, so we’ll add that info here as it comes our way.
1. Go San Diego Pass:
{Deal details} This San Diego sightseeing pass gives you up to 55% off with one ticket to 50 attractions and activities in San Diego. No one does them all, but if you choose wisely, you can save a ton, more than with any other discount option — the more you see the more you save.
Only want to visit a few? Their new Go San Diego “Build Your Own” option lets you choose any two or more from 55 things to do in San Diego.
Passes are now valid for two full years, and you have up to 90 days to cancel any passes you haven’t activated yet. You have 30 days to use Go San Diego passes from the first time you activate (your first visit). Print at home or show on your smart phone.
All Go San Diego Pass includes free admission to:
San Diego Zoo
San Diego Zoo Safari Park
SeaWorld San Diego
LEGOLAND California
Knott’s Berry Farm
Knott’s Soak City
USS Midway Aircraft Carrier Museum
Belmont Park Unlimited Rides
Coronado Bike or Kayak Tour
Whale Watching Cruises
Birch Aquarium at Scripps
Reuben H. Fleet Science Center + IMAX
San Diego Air & Space Museum
San Diego Art Institute
San Diego Natural History Museum
San Diego Automotive Museum
Miramar Speed Circuit
And Many More …
2. San Diego’s Fab 4 Combo Card Deal
{Get it HERE & Save} Combo Pass includes 1-Day San Diego Zoo ticket, 1-Day San Diego Zoo Safari Park ticket, 1-Day Legoland California and up to 7 consecutive days at SeaWorld San Diego. Enjoy San Diego’s major attractions!
The best thing about this pass is that it’s simple to use and offers savings at four popular SoCal attractions for families.
Fab 4 Card includes FREE admission to:
San Diego Zoo
San Diego Zoo Safari Park ticket
Legoland California
SeaWorld San Diego
3. Balboa Park Explorer Pass:
{Deal details} This Combo card lets you experience the Balboa Park museums PLUS one-day admission to the San Diego Zoo (includes One-day admission, guided bus tour and Skyfari aerial tram). You get free admission to 17 Balboa Park museums, and is valid for seven days.
Balboa Park Explorer Pass includes free admission to:
Japanese Friendship Garden
Mingei International Museum
Museum of Photographic Arts
Reuben H. Fleet Science Center
San Diego Air & Space Museum
San Diego Automotive Museum
San Diego Hall of Champions
San Diego Model Railroad Museum
San Diego Museum of Man
San Diego Natural History Museum
San Diego Museum of Art
And More
Sightseeing Passes: When to use them, when to skip them
Anyone who looked into these in the past might just take a pass on the tourist pass. Has anything changed since then? The short answer is yes, and no.
Typically combo attraction discount cards offered too many choices of activities — more than we could possibly do in a short time. So we felt pressured to play or pay for things we weren’t going to do. Plus they added shipping charges, and you had to order well in advance and hope they came in time.
So we checked out the new combo offers to find out what’s savvy and what’s still not so great.
Are attraction discount cards and combo passes savvy or sorry?
The good news is today’s discount cards are way more convenient to use.
- They’re available right away, with no shipping fees.
- You can show them on your smart phone.
- You can sometimes customize your choice of attractions to just the ones you want to visit.
- You have longer to use them — nine to 30 days from first use, depending on card.
If I buy one of the discount cards reviewed above, do I have to pay anything else to get in?
Once you have the card, admission is free to everything on the list. These cards and passes are your tickets in. And if there are two lines at the attraction, you can usually skip the first one (the ticket line).
The discounts posted are what you can expect to have saved over the gate prices if you didn’t have a card to get you in free.
Which Discount Attraction Pass is Best?
That depends. Want to save at 20 to 55 percent or more on just a couple of activities you can do over a month? I’d go with the custom option of the Go City pass. Their custom option gives you the choice of just the activities you’re interested in, as few at two attraction. It activates the first time you use it and is good for 30 days.
What if I’m a local?
The new discount cards appeal to both visitors and locals, planners and procrastinators. I’ve used the San Francisco attraction cards mentioned above to catch up with museum exhibits in the Bay Area. SoCal locals often buy San Diego passes or Los Angeles passes for family trips to popular theme parks, and to entertain guests visiting from out of town.
When to skip them?
Whether you live in California or are visiting, these bundled attraction are sometimes attractive and sometimes not. If you know exactly which attractions you want to visit and two or more or included on a combo attraction card, great.
But if the usual travel itinerary doesn’t apply to you, going à la carte is savvier.
The best savings on the discount cards are for the more expensive attractions like Universal Studios, Disneyland, and Knott’s Berry Farm. The savings on some of the cheaper activities on the list may not be worth it to you unless you’re planning on visiting at least one big attraction as well.
Best for savvy skippers?
If you’re looking for a less commercial more authentic experience, you’ll probably want to skip the attraction cards. You can still find savvy ways to save.
- Residents (and sometimes nonresidents) can often save with free days and discounts offered by California museums on certain days. Compare the savings with those offered by the discount attraction cards.
- You an often save a little on one of the new small group tours, particularly the foodie tours and adventure tours. For inspiration, check out our California Tours Worth Taking category.