Which New York observation deck to book, and what sunset really costs

On 11 November 2026 we read every bookable slot on two dates from the checkouts of the three decks that would show them: Tuesday 8 December and Saturday 12 December 2026. The sun sets at 16:28 on both days, so the table sets the 11:00 entry against the 15:30 entry, the slot that puts you on the deck about an hour before sunset. Every checkout price is one adult on the standard ticket and includes New York's 8.875% sales tax and any processing fee, because that is what the checkout charges. The decks' own pages advertise a lower “from” price before tax: Edge's “from $44” becomes $47.91, One World Observatory's “starting at $39” becomes $46.27 once its $3.50 fee and the tax are added, and the Empire State Building, which advertises the 86th floor “from $46”, priced the 11:00 slot at $54 before tax, $58.79 with it.

Three decks publish slot prices we could read. The Empire State Building adds $10.89 for sunset on both days. Edge adds $18.51 on the Tuesday and $14.16 on the Saturday, and its non-changeable Advance Saver ticket takes $8.71 off the Tuesday morning price and $10.89 off the 15:30 one. One World Observatory charged the same $46.27 at 11:00 and at 15:30 on the Tuesday, and on the Saturday its 15:30 slot was $5.45 cheaper than its 11:00 one.

SUMMIT One Vanderbilt and Top of the Rock would not show us their slot prices (see the note under the table), so for those two the table gives the advertised price we could read, where we read it and when, and we do not rank either deck on sunset price.

Neither deck prices sunset as a single slot. Each has a band of dearer entries, and the price steps down on either side of it. On Tuesday 8 December 2026 the Empire State Building's band ran from 14:00 to 16:15 at $69.68. The 16:30 entry, two minutes after sunset, was $58.79, and every entry from 17:00 to 20:45 was $54.44, the lowest price of the day and $15.24 less than the slot 45 minutes earlier. The city lit up after dark is the view the building is known for, and it is the cheapest one it sells.

Edge's band ran from 14:30 to 16:00 at $66.42. The 16:15 entry, 13 minutes before sunset, was $60.97, and the 14:15 entry, the last before the band, was $56.62. Edge says on its own tickets page that once you reach Level 100 you can stay as long as you like, so a 14:15 ticket and a coffee at the Skyline Bar and Cafe sees the sun down for $9.80 less than the 15:30 ticket. One World Observatory has no band at all on the Tuesday: $46.27 from 09:00 to 20:10.

The five decks stand in four different parts of Manhattan, and that decides what is in the picture. The Empire State Building is in the middle of Midtown, with an open-air deck on the 86th floor at 1,050 feet and an enclosed one on the 102nd at 1,250 feet. You look out on everything except the building you are standing on. Top of the Rock, sixteen blocks north on 50th Street, is the lowest of the five, 70 storeys up, and the one whose pictures have the Empire State Building in them, with Central Park filling the view the other way. Its top level is open air with no glass or metal enclosure, as its CityPASS listing puts it.

Edge hangs off 30 Hudson Yards on the far west side: an outdoor sky deck at 1,100 feet with a glass floor, angled glass walls and the Hudson below. Edge calls it the highest outdoor sky deck in the Western Hemisphere, and most of the visit (seven installations on Level 4, an indoor deck on Level 100) is under cover. SUMMIT One Vanderbilt, beside Grand Central, is as much an art installation as a deck: three levels of mirrored rooms, two glass ledges 1,100 feet above Madison Avenue, an outdoor terrace, and the Empire State Building framed in the south windows. One World Observatory is on floors 100 to 102 of One World Trade Center, 1,250 feet up by its own figure, which puts it level with the Empire State Building’s 102nd floor, and it is entirely indoors. It stands at the southern tip, so the harbour and the bridges are the foreground and Midtown is the distant skyline.

So: for a photograph with the Empire State Building in it, Top of the Rock or SUMMIT. For open air, the Empire State Building’s 86th floor, Top of the Rock or Edge. For a wet or windy day, One World Observatory, SUMMIT or the indoor half of Edge.

We routed each of our Manhattan and Brooklyn hotels to each deck’s entrance on OpenStreetMap, the method our evening guide uses: walking time where it is about 20 minutes or less, otherwise taxi time without traffic. Three hotels have a deck within a quarter of an hour on foot. The Fifth Avenue Hotel is nine minutes from the Empire State Building and 19 from SUMMIT. The Plaza is 14 minutes from Top of the Rock. The Beekman, A Thompson Hotel is ten minutes from One World Observatory. Hotel Chelsea sits between two: 20 minutes to the Empire State Building, 21 to Edge.

From the Lower East Side, citizenM New York Bowery and Nine Orchard are both seven minutes by taxi from One World Observatory, and 1 Hotel Brooklyn Bridge is nine. From The Carlyle, A Rosewood Hotel, Top of the Rock is the short ride at six minutes, and from The William Vale the Empire State Building and SUMMIT are 11 minutes each. The TWA Hotel is at JFK, about 30 minutes by taxi from Midtown without traffic, the figure in our evening guide.

Our guide to what a New York view costs priced the upgrade from a standard room to a room with a view for Tuesday 26 January 2027 and found a median of $126 a night more, 21%. Edge and One World Observatory already sell that date, so the comparison is exact. On 26 January, when the sun sets at 17:06, Edge General Admission was $47.91 at 10:00 and $66.42 from 15:15 to 16:45, tax included; One World Observatory was $51.72 at every slot. Two adults at Edge at sunset come to $132.84, within $7 of the median one-night premium. Two in the morning come to $95.82, and two at One World Observatory to $103.44 at any hour.

The cheapest upgrades in that guide still beat any deck: citizenM New York Bowery's view room was $18 more, and The Carlyle, A Rosewood Hotel's $82. Against the dearer ones, such as the $158 for a Manhattan View King at The William Vale or the $168 for a Bridge King at 1 Hotel Brooklyn Bridge, one sunset on a deck costs less than one night of the view, though the room keeps it until morning. The Empire State Building was not yet selling 26 January when we read it.

All five sell timed entries and all five can sell out the sunset hour: One World Observatory's 14:00 slot on Saturday 12 December was already gone on 11 November. Book the date and time once the forecast is clear, on the deck’s own site or through the GetYourGuide listings below: the five deck tickets carry between 13,650 and 62,453 reviews each.

On add-ons (checkout prices with tax unless stated), the Empire State Building's ticket for both the 86th and 102nd floors was $100.16 at 11:00 on 8 December against $58.79 for the 86th alone: $41.37 more, for 200 feet of extra height behind glass. Its Express ticket was $103.43 at the same hour. At Top of the Rock, The Beam is listed at $25 and Skylift at $35, bought on the day at the box office or on the 69th floor. Edge's Champagne Admission was $72.77 at 11:00 and $91.28 at 15:30 on 8 December, and its Flex ticket, which lets you turn up at any time on your date, was $81.66. SUMMIT's Ascent, an all-glass outdoor lift that rises to over 1,200 feet, comes with the SUMMIT Ascent ticket, advertised at $68 and shown discounted to $63 before tax on 11 November 2026, against $44 and $39 for the standard one. One World Observatory’s Late Night Saver, for the last two entries of the day, was $34.30 with tax on both 8 and 12 December, the cheapest deck ticket we read anywhere.

If you plan two decks, the New York CityPASS includes the Empire State Building and, among its choices, Top of the Rock with sunset hours included; the Empire State Building’s own store listed it at $149 an adult on 11 November 2026, with a $2 booking charge on each ticket.

For a day when the cloud is on the rooftops, RiseNY in Times Square gives you the skyline on a flying ride instead. And for the hours after you come down, our guide to New York after dark plans one evening from each hotel: a 17:00 entry at the Empire State Building leaves The Fifth Avenue Hotel's guests nine minutes from the lobby with the evening still ahead.