Remember when there was a higher season and a lower season?
These concepts are now as obsolete as silent movies or Napster. Today, with the help of AI, the prices of various attractions (observation decks, museums, ski resorts, etc.) are shifting hourly.
So, it is shocking that it is almost impossible to find the price range of tickets on many attractions websites now.
I discovered this brave new world booking world during my 2026 edition of the study A guide to the New York City Summary (will appear in autumn). When I tried to set admission fees for Rockefeller Center Ice Rink, Empire State Building, Broadway Museum, Circle Line Tours, and dozens of other attractions, I found that the exact prices were no longer listed on the website during business hours.
Instead, the traveler is required to enter the date and time of day, after which the price is Only within a specific time period surface. On most sites I’ve seen, nowhere says prices will vary by hours of day, days of week, month and months of year.
Now, every attraction has an incredible price.
To help Frommer readers, I ended up spending 10 hours this year just clicking on the website purchase section of New York City Attractions, creating a spreadsheet of what I found, and looking for patterns so I can better advise readers on upcoming books and provide this site.
Key Points to Buy Tickets in the Age of Dynamic Pricing
All inspections are not redundant either. Prices vary widely – I’m talking about the difference between visits is $15-2 The first thing in the morning ((Almost always the cheapest timeespecially for viewing decks) and sunsets or other peak hours.
turn out to be Tuesday is the cheapest day During the week of sightseeing, prices rise on weekends (Friday, Saturday and Sunday) and Monday. The last point surprised me. I think more people are expanding their long weekend stays to include the first working day of the week.
I also looked at different sightseeing pass systems to find out how they handle the new pricing specifications.
CityPass Different levels of passes are now available, some of which feature prime time entry (e.g., the Empire State Building during the Sunset). Other levels of passes require visitors to “close” hours.
If you choose Go to the city By, additional fees may be required to view attractions within high visit times, many of which require bookings through the pass holder.
Bottom line: If you think it’s difficult to make a vacation budget, it’s even worse exponentially. Because AI is able to search for historic purchase data and cut it into small amounts of time to hours per day, travelers around the world will soon charge robots to determine the highest price of tickets the market will support.
This may mean we have to change our thinking about the itinerary and arrange the most popular attractions in the least popular period. The current situation should make relying on Frommer’s guide (not only telling you where to go, but a strategy to provide you with savings) wiser than ever.