My wife and I travel quite a bit, for both business and pleasure. When we do, we like to go on tours and see local attractions. But, we also like to save money. Enter Go Select Passes by developer Smart Destinations. The app claims to let you easily find good deals on tours and attraction in major cities, and save money on admissions.
Overview
The aim of Go Select Passes is very simple, yet extremely useful. The app acts as a collection of data like hours of operation, information, prices, and other tidbits about tours and attractions in major cities. Currently, the information is limited to the cities of Boston, Chicago, Miami, New York, Oahu, Orlando, and San Francisco. Simply select the city you’re going to visit, and you’ll be served up a list of places to visit, and things to do.
I was traveling to Chicago, so I selected the city from the menu, and was taken to a clean, informative page about popular attractions in the Chi-Town area. I’m a big fan of the Museum of Science and Industry, its probably my favorite museum in the world. I was presented with an information screen about the museum, and the opportunity to “Add to Pass”. That will add that attraction or tour to your shopping cart. After you’re finished selecting what you’d like to see and do, you can go to checkout, and that’s where you can pay the discounted amounts for your selections. (You don’t see the actual prices until you checkout.)
The app is cleanly designed, and logical to use. It will display attractions and tours in various ways. You can view the “Popular” list, view via categories, or what’s nearby. The nearby option is great for spur of the moment, “Hey, what the heck is around here?” visits to attractions.
When you checkout, you pay for the attractions and tours from within the app, After payment, you are electronically presented with an electronic ticket in the form of a barcode that is scanned by the fine folks at the attraction or tour, allowing you entry. No worry about having to print, and then possibly losing tickets. If you’ve got your iPhone with you, you’ve got your tickets.
Verdict
All in all, Go Select Passes is a great tool for the recreational or business traveler. No need to carry around a guidebook, or have to figure out where the cheapest places are to buy tickets for tours or attractions, its all in the palm of your hand.
It would be nice to have more cities available, but the company has hit the major tourist cities, and hopefully they’ll expand to other cities both inside and outside of the United States.
I would highly recommend this app to anyone who travels for fun or business. It’s a very nice tool to have in your travel arsenal.
Price: Free – Available now for both the iPhone and the iPad in the App Store (direct link).
Rating: 4/5[rating:4]
Pros
- Easy to use, with a clean interface.
- Categories give you an easy way to decide what you might want to see.
- The “Nearby” listing of attractions let’s you check out nearby things to do or see on a spur of the moment.
- Extra discounts for two or more attractions on the same pass.
Cons
- Really wish there were more cities available. Hopefully the list will expand.
- It would be nice to see the prices for the attractions BEFORE adding them to your pass.
