Children and family math for city passes

Sellers and attractions draw different age bands

The passes we compare use 17 different child or youth age ranges between them, and the attractions 40. A pass child band ends anywhere from age 9 to age 17. Paris Museum Pass, Roma Pass and ArticketBCN publish no child price at all.

That is why the calculator asks for each child's age instead of a number of children. It prices every person on every pass and at every gate with the band that applies to that age, and shows the band next to the price.

A family of four in London

For Tower of London, The London Eye, Madame Tussauds London and London Zoo, with 2 adults and 2 children aged 8 and 16, 2 days at a relaxed pace, the two children land in different bands. The child 5 to 15 band of Turbopass Flex Pass covers the 8-year-old. The 16-year-old is past it and pays the adult pass price, GBP 112, while the Tower of London sells a youth 16 to 17 ticket at GBP 19. Prices checked October 2026.

Across all 55 passes, a 16-year-old pays a child or youth rate on 13, the adult rate on 39, and has no published price on 3. Gate prices for teenagers vary as much, so a family with a teenager can see a pass that saves money for the parents lose it on the older child.

Children below a pass band are left out

A seller that starts its child band at 6 publishes no price for a child of 4. The calculator does not guess one: it leaves that child out of that pass, the pass cost and the gate tickets both, and says so on the card. Other passes still count the child. Of the 55 passes, 18 publish no price for a 4-year-old.

For Empire State Building, Edge Observation Deck and Intrepid Museum, with 1 adult and 1 child aged 4 over 3 days, New York C3 has a child 6 to 12 band. The child is left out, and the adult alone comes out Worth it: USD 15 less than the gate (11%). Go City New York Explorer Pass counts the child in its child 3 to 12 band, but Edge Observation Deck and Empire State Building publish no price for a child of 4, so those tickets stay out of the total. It comes out Skip it, USD 80 more than the gate (63%). Prices checked October 2026.

A ticket with no published price is never counted as zero. Counting it as zero would make passes look better for young children than the published prices allow.

Where children pay nothing at the gate

20 attractions in our data let everyone under 18 in for nothing, in New York, San Francisco, Boston, Paris, Rome, Barcelona, Amsterdam, Lisbon and Chicago. In Paris that covers Musée du Louvre, Palace of Versailles, Arc de Triomphe, Sainte-Chapelle, Conciergerie, Towers of Notre-Dame de Paris, Musée national Picasso-Paris and Musée d'Orsay. A pass bought for a child there buys tickets the child would get for nothing.

For Musée du Louvre and Musée d'Orsay, with 1 adult and 1 child aged 10, Paris Museum Pass publishes no child price, so the child is left out of it, and both gates are free for a 10-year-old anyway. The adult alone comes out Skip it: EUR 39 more than the gate (84%). Prices checked October 2026.

How the calculator prices each child

1. At the gate: free when the attraction lets everyone in, or when the child is under the age it names for free entrance.
2. Inside a child or youth band with a price: that price.
3. Older than the top of every band the attraction publishes: the adult price.
4. Anything else: price not published. The ticket stays out of every total and the card lists it.
5. On a pass, the same steps without the free age. A child the pass publishes no price for is left out of that pass entirely.

The full rules are on the methodology page. Enter each child with the stepper in the calculator, one age per child.