Official Review

Written by RuinMyTrip Editorial from published research and official sources, not from a personal trip. It is not a traveler review and is never counted in the community rating. How we research.

attraction · New York City

Forty-Four Dollars Before the Booking Fee, and the Best Reason to Go Is What You Can See

Review of Empire State Building

★★★★☆ 4/5

by RuinMyTrip Editorial · Aug 12, 2026

Been to New York City? This page needs you more than it needs us.

A first-hand review outranks desk research every time, and yours will sit above this one.

Share your experience

Empire State Building tickets start at 44 dollars for the 86th-floor main deck, and a 5 dollar booking charge is added to each transaction, so the real floor is 49 dollars before you have chosen anything. The counterintuitive argument for coming here rather than a taller, newer observatory is simple: this is the building everyone else is looking at. From One World Observatory or Top of the Rock you get a fine view that happens to contain the Empire State Building. From the Empire State Building you get a view that does not, which matters less than people expect, because what the 86th floor actually offers is an open-air deck in the middle of Midtown at a height where the street grid is still legible. The 102nd floor is enclosed, higher and costs more. Most people are better served staying at 86.

What was great

The 86th-floor deck is open-air, which no enclosed observatory can match: you hear the city as well as see it. Its position mid-island means both downtown and uptown are in view at once. Flexible ticket types allow rescheduling, which is genuinely useful given how much the weather decides here.

What nearly ruined the trip

Tickets start at 44 dollars and a 5 dollar booking charge is added to every transaction, so the advertised price is never the price. The upsell ladder from main deck to 102nd floor to flex tickets is aggressive. Queues at sunset are the worst of the day and that is exactly when everyone wants to be up there.

Value for money

★★★☆☆ Fair

Safety

★★★★☆ Mostly fine

Was this review helpful? 👍 Useful 0 😄 Funny 0 😎 Cool 0

More about New York City

More from New York City

Two Hundred Square Feet, and More History Than Any Room in New York · 4/5 · @ruinmytrip

Open Eight Until Eleven, and Straight Through the Weekend · 5/5 · @ruinmytrip

Oysters Under the Vaulted Tiles, Weekdays Until Half Nine · 4/5 · @ruinmytrip

Thirty-Five Dollars, Free to New Yorkers on Wednesdays, and Worth the Train · 4/5 · @ruinmytrip

Comments

No comments yet.

Join free or sign in to comment.