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Empire State Building New York: Everything You Need to Know Before You Visit

Updated August 2026

The Empire State Building has been the defining image of the New York skyline since 1931, and its open-air 86th Floor Observation Deck remains the city's most recognisable vantage point, 1,050 feet above Midtown. In 2026 the building marks its 95th anniversary, and it now runs a full museum experience across the 2nd and 80th floors that is included with every ticket, alongside a growing list of paid extras from sunrise access to a limited-run silent disco. Reservations are required for every visitor, so knowing which ticket to buy and which time slot to book is the difference between a smooth hour at the top and a long wait in three different lines.

At a Glance

How Early to Book:

Having a timed-entry ticket is required. Book a few days ahead and you'll have a good selection of entry times across morning and afternoon. Book 1 week ahead for sunset slots. Same-day tickets are sold on-site, but there will be lines to wait through.

Best Times to Visit:

The most important thing is to go when it's clear. Check the forecast ahead of time.

Ticket price:

Starting at $44.00 for adults.

Where to Book:

The Empire State Building Ticketing Website

Landmark Address:

20 W 34th St., New York, NY 10001

Do You Need to Book Empire State Building Tickets in Advance?

Reservations are required for entry, and every ticket is tied to a specific date and time slot. This is not a soft recommendation from the building, it is the entry condition.

Tickets can still be bought on the day at the ticket office at 12 W 34th Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues, but doing this in peak season can mean an hour or more between buying and actually reaching the deck, and popular slots sell out entirely. Booking online removes the ticket counter queue completely, which is one of three you would otherwise face (counter, security, elevator).

Where to book: Book directly at esbnyc.com. The official site carries the full range of ticket types, including several that resellers do not offer, and it is the only route to the Manage My Booking portal if your plans change.

How far ahead: For a standard weekday morning or midday slot, a few days is usually enough, and same-day availability is common outside peak periods. For sunset slots in summer, book 5 to 7 days ahead, since these sell out first.

Cancellations: All tickets are non-refundable. You can, however, change the date, time, ticket type or number of guests through the Manage My Booking portal using your confirmation email or booking reference, subject to availability and any price difference. That flexibility matters here more than at most attractions, because the whole experience depends on visibility. If the forecast turns, move your slot rather than writing it off.

Names on tickets: Tickets are not nominative and you do not need ID matching the booking. You can buy for friends or family you are not travelling with by entering their details at checkout.

Running late: Arrive as close to your slot as you can. If you miss it, staff will try to accommodate you, but you may be moved to the next available time either at the ticket office or through the booking portal.

How Much Does It Cost to Go Up the Empire State Building?

Prices are dynamic and rise for the most popular slots, so the figures below are the starting points rather than what you will always pay. A $5 booking charge is added to each transaction, not to each ticket.

Main Deck, 86th Floor: from $44 adult, $38 child, $42 senior
Top Deck, 86th and 102nd Floors: from $79 adult, $73 child, $77 senior
Best Value Ticket: from $39, the cheapest route to the 86th Floor
Flex Ticket: from $64, valid any time on your chosen day
AM/PM Experience: from $62, two visits in one day, one in daylight and one after dark
Express Pass, 86th Floor: from $85
Express Pass, 86th and 102nd Floors: from $120
Starbucks Reserve Sunrise Ticket: from $135
Premium Experience: from $175, a private guided tour for up to seven people
All Access Tour: from $500

What every ticket includes: access to the 86th Floor Observation Deck, the 80th Floor viewing gallery, and the full museum experience on the 2nd and 80th floors. There is no cheaper "view only" ticket, and no separate charge for the exhibits.

Free and reduced entry: Children under 6 enter free. Children aged 6 to 12 and seniors aged 62 and over get reduced rates. Active military in uniform receive free admission. Groups of 20 or more and school parties are priced separately through the group sales form.

One thing worth knowing before you compare prices across sites: the same 86th Floor ticket can vary by $10 to $20 depending on the time slot alone. If your schedule is flexible, checking a midday slot against a sunset slot on the booking calendar often saves more than any discount code will.

Empire State Building Opening Hours and Entry Information

The Empire State Building is open 365 days a year, including all public holidays, in any weather. Hours shift several times through the year rather than following a simple summer and winter split, and the last entry time is always earlier than the closing time.

May 14 to Sep 17: 9:00am to 12:00am, entry door closes 11:00pm
Sep 18 to Oct 4: 10:00am to 11:00pm, entry door closes 10:00pm
Oct 5 to Oct 8: 10:00am to 10:00pm, entry door closes 9:00pm
Oct 9 to Oct 31: 9:00am to 11:00pm, entry door closes 10:00pm
Nov 1 to Nov 20: 10:00am to 10:00pm, entry door closes 9:00pm
Nov 21 to Nov 23: 9:00am to 10:00pm, entry door closes 9:00pm

There is no time limit once you are on the deck, so a late entry does not mean a rushed visit, though staff will begin clearing the observatories at closing.

Address: The visitor entrance is at 20 W 34th Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues, New York, NY 10118. The grand Fifth Avenue lobby entrance is for office tenants, and turning up there with a ticket means walking back around the block.

What is the Best Way to Get to the Empire State Building?

By subway: 34 St-Herald Square is the closest station and the most useful, served by the B, D, F, M, N, Q, R and W lines, and it is a two-minute walk east. 34 St-Penn Station covers the 1, 2, 3, A, C and E lines and is about seven minutes west. The 6 train stops at 33rd Street on Park Avenue South, roughly five minutes east.

By PATH: The 33rd Street PATH terminal sits at Sixth Avenue and 33rd Street, making this one of the easiest Manhattan attractions to reach directly from Hoboken, Jersey City or Newark.

By bus: The M34 Select Bus Service runs along 34th Street itself. The M4 and Q32 both run along Fifth Avenue.

On foot: Bryant Park and the New York Public Library are about eight minutes north, Times Square about fifteen minutes north-west, Grand Central about twelve minutes north-east, and Koreatown is one block away on 32nd Street.

By car: Leave it if you can. The nearest garage is on 33rd Street between Fifth Avenue and Broadway, directly across from the building, and Midtown garage rates in this area are steep.

The practical tip that saves the most confusion: the entrance is on 34th Street, and the ticket office is a separate door at number 12, a few paces further west. If you have already booked online, walk straight past it to number 20 and go directly to security.

The infamous needle at the top of the Empire State Building was constructed specifically to moor giant zeppelins, although it was only used once.

How Much Time Should I Spend at the Empire State Building?

Allow 90 minutes for a standard visit to the 86th Floor. That breaks down roughly as 10 to 15 minutes for security, 20 to 25 minutes for the 2nd and 80th floor exhibits, 5 to 10 minutes of elevator queuing, and 30 to 45 minutes on the deck itself.

Adding the 102nd Floor takes the total closer to two hours, since the glass elevator up from the 86th has its own queue and the deck itself only takes 15 to 20 minutes to enjoy properly.

An Express Pass compresses the whole thing to around 45 minutes by skipping the exhibits and both elevator lines, though you can still double back to the exhibits afterwards if you want them.

If you are the kind of visitor who wants to read the exhibit panels rather than walk past them, budget two hours for the 86th Floor alone. The Otis elevator exhibit and the construction gallery reward slow looking far more than their placement on the way to the lifts suggests.

What is the Best Time to Visit the Empire State Building?

Best time of day: The two busiest windows are the first two hours after opening and the hour immediately after sunset. The quietest reliable window is 12pm to 2pm, once the morning rush clears. Late evening is the other sweet spot: after 10pm the crowds thin considerably and the wait to reach the top can drop under 20 minutes.

Best days: Monday and Tuesday are consistently the calmest. Saturday afternoons are the worst combination of crowds and dynamic pricing.

Best season: Late winter, particularly January and February, is the quietest stretch of the year. The open-air 86th Floor gets cold and windy, which puts people off, but outdoor heaters are installed for the winter season and the air is often at its clearest. Spring and autumn balance comfort against crowds well.

For sunset: Book a slot roughly 45 minutes to an hour before actual sunset. That gives you golden hour, the sunset itself, and the city lights coming on, all on one ticket. These slots go first and cost the most.

For night views: From Thursday to Saturday a saxophonist plays live on the 86th Floor late in the evening, usually from around 10pm. It tips the deck from a viewing platform into something closer to a date, and it is the single most underrated reason to book late rather than early.

Weather matters more here than anywhere else in the city. On a low-cloud day you can pay full price to stand inside a cloud. Check the forecast the evening before and move your slot through the booking portal if visibility looks poor.

What is Inside the Empire State Building Observation Deck?

The 86th Floor is the reason most people come, and it earns its reputation. It runs the full way around the building, open to the air on all four sides, with a 360-degree view that takes in Central Park to the north, the Statue of Liberty and Brooklyn Bridge to the south, the Hudson and East Rivers on either flank, and up to six states on a clear day: New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Delaware. Coin-operated binoculars by Tower Optical are dotted along the parapet.

The route to the top is a museum in its own right, and it is included with every ticket rather than sold as an extra.

The Site in the 1920s opens with a black-and-white panorama of the original Waldorf-Astoria site, with building surveyors that bring the late-1920s streets into full colour.

Construction is the standout. Inspired by Lewis Hine's photographs of the ironworkers, it drops you into the middle of the build with life-size bronze figures, moving steel and the noise of the site, alongside three copper models showing the tower at different stages.

World's Most Famous Building is a 72-screen, 180-degree surround theatre running a montage of 600 clips from films, television, adverts, comics and games. It is the exhibit children reliably stop dead in front of.

Kong lets you touch the hands that have punched through the wall and feel them shake as he growls, with biplanes circling outside the windows exactly as they did in the 1933 King Kong.

Stephen Wiltshire's drawing sits on the 80th floor: an extraordinarily detailed panorama of New York the artist drew entirely from memory in 2017, after a single 45-minute helicopter flight over Manhattan.

Also on the route are the Otis elevator exhibit, which includes a replica of the original mast car that ran between the 86th and 102nd floors until 2018, the Opening Day scene, the Celebrity wall, the Modern Marvel sustainability gallery, and the Scenes of NYC viewfinders on the 80th floor.

Do not skip the 80th floor viewing gallery on the way up. It is enclosed, warm, far less crowded than the 86th, and the window seats there are the best place in the building to sit down and actually look at the city rather than photograph it.

The 102nd Floor Observation Deck

The 102nd Floor is the highest point open to visitors, sitting at 1,250 feet, and it is a completely different experience than the 86th. It is fully enclosed, climate controlled, and reached by a glass elevator that runs up from the 86th Floor. Floor-to-ceiling windows replaced the old chest-high walls in the 2019 renovation, and on a clear day the view stretches up to 80 miles.

It costs extra. The Top Deck ticket combining both decks starts at $79, against $44 for the 86th Floor alone. If you have already gone up on a standard ticket, self-service kiosks on the 80th Floor and outside the 102nd Floor elevator let you upgrade on the spot, though availability at busy times is not guaranteed.

Whether it is worth it depends on what you want. The space is small and the experience is more intimate, which cuts both ways: fewer people crowding the glass, but also less room to move and a shorter natural dwell time. Because it is enclosed, photographs pick up reflections and any marks on the glass, so if photography is your main purpose the open air of the 86th is the better deck. If the weather is cold, wet or wildly windy, the reverse applies and the 102nd is the more comfortable place to be.

There is one quirk worth flagging: the 86th feels like standing on top of a very solid building, while the 102nd, with the mass of the tower falling away below you, feels more like hanging in a pod. If anyone in your group is uneasy with heights, the higher deck is the one likely to tip them over.

Is the Empire State Building on the New York CityPASS?

Yes, and it is one of the passes where the math actually stacks up if you are visiting several attractions.

New York CityPASS includes the Empire State Building alongside four other attractions of your choice, starting from around $164 for adults with a $2 booking charge per ticket, and saves up to 42% against buying separately. The CityPASS version of the ESB ticket is particularly good value because it includes the AM/PM Experience: daytime admission to the 86th Floor plus bonus same-night re-entry in the three hours before closing.

New York Pass by Go City also includes the Empire State Building, starting from $89, covering 100-plus experiences across a set number of days. This suits people planning an intensive sightseeing run rather than a relaxed few days.

The Sightseeing Pass and Go City's Explorer Pass both list the building as well, though terms differ between products.

Two things to note. First, passes cover the 86th Floor only. The 102nd Floor is an upgrade you pay for on top, on site or at booking. Second, pass holders still need a timed reservation, and on some passes that reservation has to be made separately before you turn up. Sort that the moment you buy the pass rather than the morning of your visit.

New York City's Observation

Decks, Compared

Are CityPASS and Museum Passes Worth it In NYC?

New York City's Observation Decks, Compared

Are CityPASS and Museum Passes Worth it In NYC?

Are There Discounts on Empire State Building Tickets?

Sort of…

Children and seniors: Under-6s go free, 6 to 12 year olds and over-62s pay reduced rates on every standard ticket type.

Military: Active military personnel in uniform enter free.

New York residents: The Locals ticket takes 25% off the 86th Floor price with proof of NYC residency.

Best Value ticket: Starting at $39, this is simply a standard 86th Floor ticket at off-peak times, and it is the cheapest real entry that is offered.

Family bundles: Multiple bundle configurations are available, which usually beat buying four separate tickets.

Groups and schools: Groups of 20 or more and school parties, including NYC Title 1 schools, are priced separately on application.

What does not exist in any meaningful form: working promo codes, Groupon deals, or AAA and student rates on the official site. Third-party resellers advertising heavy discounts are generally selling the same timed tickets at a markup with a coupon applied on top, and they cannot access the Manage My Booking portal if you need to change your date. Travel agents do not receive a discount either, though CityPASS trade arrangements cover entry.

The real saving is structural rather than promotional: book a midday weekday slot instead of sunset and you will pay noticeably less for the identical ticket.

Is the Empire State Building Express Pass Worth It?

The Express Pass roughly doubles the price of a standard ticket, from $44 to $85 for the 86th Floor, and the only advantage is the removal of the security and elevator queues rather than any different view.

It earns its money on weekends, public holidays, school breaks, sunset slots and any day where your schedule is tight and a 90-minute visit turning into a two-and-a-half-hour one would wreck the rest of your plans. On a Tuesday morning in February, it is close to money thrown away, because there is barely a queue to skip.

There is a trade-off beyond price. The Express route bypasses the 2nd floor exhibits, which are one of the better parts of the visit. You can go back to them afterwards, but plenty of people with an express ticket and a tight schedule simply do not.

My personal opinion: if you are visiting in July or booking a sunset slot in any month, you might want to splurge for the Express Pass. Outside those times, put the difference towards the 102nd Floor upgrade instead. You get something extra rather than something removed.

Sunrise at the Empire State Building

The Starbucks Reserve Sunrise Ticket is the most interesting version of ticket that the building sells, and it is the one most visitors never hear about. It opens the 86th Floor Observation Deck before public opening, capped at a small number of guests, with reservation times shifting through the year to track the sunrise and generally starting somewhere between 4:45am and 6:30am. It starts at $135, and it includes a Starbucks Reserve ESB Microblend coffee and a pastry, plus pre-opening run of the exhibits.

It runs on select days only, seasonally, so it will not fit every itinerary and it does sell out.

What you are paying for is not a better view, it is a different building. The deck at 5:30am with a few dozen people on it, watching the light come up the avenues and the streetlights switch off block by block, is the closest the Empire State Building gets to feeling private. If you are the kind of traveller who is up at that hour anyway with jet lag, it converts an awkward morning into the best hour of the trip.

Guided Tours at the Empire State Building

There is no standard guided tour of the observatories, and none is needed: the exhibits are well signed and self-explanatory, and a free multimedia guide app is included with every ticket and worth downloading before you arrive rather than fighting Midtown signal on the day.

Premium Experience: From $175, a private guided tour for groups of up to seven, with skip-the-line entry included.

All Access Tour: From $500, the VIP option, with a private entrance, the celebrity green room, a guided tour and refreshments.

Third-party operators run small-group walking tours that pair early access to the 86th Floor with a guided walk around Midtown, typically taking in Macy's, Bryant Park and Rockefeller Center, sometimes with a Top of the Rock ticket bundled in. These work well as a first-morning orientation to Midtown, but check whether the ESB ticket included is a standard or express one before comparing prices.

Is the Empire State Building Worth Visiting?

It is absolutely worth visiting, if it's a clear day. If it's not a clear day, you are getting scammed.

I'll be direct about the case against visiting. This is a busy, expensive attraction in a city that now has four major observation decks competing for the same visitor (you can read our blog comparing the 4 decks here). The view does not include the Empire State Building itself, which is the argument people make for Top of the Rock, where you get the ESB in your photographs and a straight shot down at Central Park. Edge and Summit One Vanderbilt both sell a more contemporary, more Instagram-shaped experience. And on a bad weather day, the money is simply gone.

What the Empire State Building has that none of them do is the thing itself. The Art Deco lobby, the 1931 build story told properly through the exhibits, the open air on the 86th, the sense of standing on a building that has been the symbol of the city for nearly a century. Visitors consistently rate the experience at the top of its class, and Tripadvisor's Travelers' Choice awards have placed it first among US attractions on the strength of tens of thousands of five-star reviews. That is not marketing, it is aggregate visitor sentiment, and it holds up.

For first-time visitors, it is the one to do if you only do one. The exhibits give the view context that a pure observation deck cannot.

For families, it works better than most Midtown attractions. The Kong exhibit, the 72-screen theatre and the bronze ironworkers hold children's attention on the way up, which matters when the alternative is 40 minutes of queuing with nothing to look at.

For photographers, the open-air 86th beats the enclosed decks elsewhere in the city, and sunset from here is the shot. Tripods are not permitted, so plan around handheld.

For repeat visitors and New Yorkers, the honest answer is that it is a different attraction after 10pm than it is at 2pm, and the late-evening version with the saxophonist is the one worth coming back for.

For anyone on a tight budget, if you can only afford one deck in New York, this is defensible but not automatic. Top of the Rock is cheaper and gives you the ESB in the frame. Choose based on which building you would rather be looking at than standing on.

Where Should I Eat Near the Empire State Building?

The immediate block of 34th Street and Fifth Avenue is Herald Square tourist territory, and the chain restaurants there are exactly what you would expect. Walk two blocks in almost any direction and the food improves sharply.

Inside the building:

STATE Grill and Bar sits on the ground floor at 21 W 33rd Street and is a proper restaurant rather than an attraction cafe, with a marble-heavy Art Deco room and American cooking to match. It is the sensible pre-booking lunch if you want to stay put. There is also a Tacombi, a Chipotle and Sushi Beauu at ground level for something faster.

A short walk away:

Keens Steakhouse, 72 W 36th Street, four minutes north, has been open since 1885 and has more than 50,000 clay churchwarden pipes on its ceilings, left by members over a century. The mutton chop is the thing to order and it is enormous. Expensive, and worth it once. Book ahead.

Koreatown on 32nd Street is one block south of the building and the single best value radius around the ESB. Jongro BBQ does the tabletop grilling properly, and Her Name Is Han is the calmer, home-style Korean option a couple of minutes further east on 32nd. Both fill up from 6pm.

Xi'an Famous Foods, 14 E 34th Street, is the cheap answer and a good one. Hand-ripped noodles, the spicy cumin lamb burger, counter service, under $15. I have eaten here before an evening slot more than once and never regretted it.

Tonchin, 13 W 36th Street, is the ramen pick, five minutes north, tight room, excellent tonkotsu.

Ai Fiori at 400 Fifth Avenue is the upscale choice, Michelin-recognised Italian and Riviera cooking in a hotel dining room. Reserve well ahead and dress accordingly.

One warning: the block of Fifth Avenue directly outside is thick with tourist-priced diners and pizza slices that cost double what they should. Nothing you eat within 100 feet of the entrance is worth what you will pay for it.

What Else is There to Do Near the Empire State Building?

Macy's Herald Square, two minutes west, is the world's largest department store and still has the original wooden escalators running up to the higher floors, which are a small piece of 1902 New York hidden inside a shopping trip.

Koreatown, one block south on 32nd Street, packs karaoke rooms, bakeries, skincare shops and late-night restaurants into a single dense block. It runs later than almost anywhere else in Midtown.

The New York Public Library and Bryant Park, eight minutes north on Fifth Avenue, pair well with an ESB morning. The Rose Main Reading Room is free to enter and one of the most beautiful interiors in the city.

The Morgan Library & Museum, ten minutes east on Madison Avenue at 36th Street, is J.P. Morgan's private library preserved intact, with three tiers of walnut shelving and a Gutenberg Bible. It is the best small museum in the neighbourhood and rarely crowded.

Madison Square Park and the Flatiron Building, ten minutes south down Broadway, give you the other great early skyscraper and a park to sit in afterwards.

Top of the Rock, twenty minutes north at Rockefeller Center, is the obvious pairing if you want a second deck, and the view back at the Empire State Building is the reason to do it. It requires its own timed booking.

Rules, Bags, and Security

Bags: Large bags, suitcases, carry-on luggage and oversized packages are not permitted. Critically, there are no lockers or storage facilities anywhere on site, so anything refused at security cannot be left behind. Do not plan a visit between hotel checkout and a train with your luggage in tow.

Prohibited items: Weapons of any kind, glass items, alcohol, cans and bottles, sports equipment, musical instruments, spray paint and markers, costumes and masks, and outside food and drink. Anything confiscated is not returned.

Photography: Handheld cameras and phones are fine throughout. Professional camera equipment and stands, including tripods, monopods and bipods, are not permitted, which affects long-exposure night photography on the 86th.

Children: Under-6s enter free. Strollers are welcome and lifts are available, but they must be folded on the observation decks.

Re-entry: Standard tickets are valid for single entry only. Same-day return is available only with the AM/PM Experience or a CityPASS ticket, both of which build a second evening visit into the product.

Accessibility at the Empire State Building

The building is fully ADA-compliant.

The main visitor entrance at 20 W 34th Street is wheelchair-accessible, and ramps run throughout the building. Both motorised and non-motorised wheelchairs are permitted.

The 86th Floor Observatory has accessible restrooms, lowered viewing walls and binoculars set at accessible height, so the view is usable from a seated position on the open-air deck. Note that the observatory restrooms are on the 86th Floor only.

Service dogs are welcome throughout the building.

Strollers are permitted and lifts are available, but they must be folded once you are on the observation decks.

For visitors arriving by car, the nearest garage is on 33rd Street between Fifth Avenue and Broadway, directly opposite the building.

Final Tips for Visiting the Empire State Building

Book a specific time slot online before you travel, and check the forecast the night before. A cloudy day is the single most common way this visit goes wrong, and moving your booking through the portal is free.
Enter at 20 W 34th Street, not the Fifth Avenue lobby. The grand Art Deco entrance is for office tenants, and the visitor door is around the corner.
Choose a midday weekday slot if price matters, because the same 86th Floor ticket costs materially less at 1pm on a Tuesday than at sunset on a Saturday.
Stop on the 80th floor on the way up. It is enclosed, warm, quiet, and has window seats. Almost everyone walks straight through it to the lifts.
Skip the 102nd Floor if photography is your priority, since the enclosed glass causes reflections. Buy it if the weather is rough or you want the higher, calmer room.
Go after 10pm on a Thursday, Friday or Saturday if you want the version of this attraction that New Yorkers actually rate. Shorter queues, thinner crowds, and a saxophonist playing on the open deck.
Bring a layer, whatever the month. The 86th is open on all four sides and the wind at 1,050 feet is a category of its own. Heaters go up in winter, but they only do so much.
Pair it with Koreatown one block south for dinner, or with the Morgan Library ten minutes east for a quiet hour afterwards. Both are better than anything on the block outside the entrance.