Is SUMMIT One Vanderbilt Worth It?
As a native New Yorker, I don’t often find myself doing typical tourist attractions in NYC. But I recently hosted an out-of-town visitor who hadn’t been to New York in many years, so we did a lot of sightseeing. And that included a visit to SUMMIT One Vanderbilt, which is a popular observation deck in NYC.
If you’re wondering if SUMMIT One Vanderbilt is worth it, this review is for you.
I should note that I’ve now visited all the biggest observation decks in New York:
- Empire State Building Observatory
- Top of the Rock
- One World Observatory
- Edge NYC
- SUMMIT One Vanderbilt
If you’d asked me before, I would have always said that Top of the Rock is my favorite (it has the coolest views, in my opinion!) But now, SUMMIT One Vanderbilt is giving it a run for its money.
This guide contains everything you need to know about visiting SUMMIT, including buying tickets, what to expect when you’re there, the best time to visit, my personal experience, and more.
What to Know About SUMMIT One Vanderbilt
SUMMIT is an observation deck atop the One Vanderbilt building in Midtown Manhattan. It occupies the 91st through 93rd floors of the building, with the highest point being 1,210 feet above ground level.
The building opened in 2020, and the observation deck opened in 2021, making it the newest of the five major observation decks in NYC. SUMMIT offers sweeping views across multiple floors, looking north towards Central Park, east towards the Chrysler Building and the East River, west towards the Hudson River, and south towards the Empire State Building and the skyline of Downtown Manhattan.
One thing that sets SUMMIT apart from other observation decks in NYC is how many unique rooms and viewing points it offers. It feels more like an immersive art exhibit than an observation deck.
Everything That’s Included at SUMMIT:
The different “experiences” at SUMMIT have quirky names, but here’s the overview:
- Transcendence 1: A giant mirrored room with sweeping views to the east, south, and west. This is the first thing you’ll see when you step off the elevator, and it is truly breathtaking.
- Reflect: A smaller room with an art installation and west-facing views.
- Affinity: The most fun and chaotic room! It’s filled with silver, floating, balloon-like orbs that you can toss and bat around, with a backdrop of great north-facing views from a wall of windows.
- Transcendence 2: Up one level, you’ll reach the second level of the first room you started in. This is a great chance to take more photos (the views of the Empire State Building are unreal!)
- Levitation: Three glass boxes that hover 1,100 feet over Madison Avenue. Note that there’s another line if you want to do this, and you’ll be limited to 30 seconds to snap photos inside the box.
- Unity: A weird room where your face is turned into a cloud projected on the wall? Yeah…
- Après: Up another floor, you’ll reach the casual cafe and bar of SUMMIT. There are great views in here to the east and south, but there unfortunately isn’t much in the way of seating.
- Terrace: Step outside from the cafe, and you’ll finally reach the only outdoor space at SUMMIT. This wraparound terrace offers spectacular views to the south and west.
- Ascent: This is only accessible if you have a ticket that includes Ascent. It’s a glass-bottomed elevator that takes you up 110 more feet. Read on to see if I think this is actually worth it.
- Boutique: Before you descend from the 93rd floor, you naturally have to pass through the gift shop!
So that’s the basic breakdown of the SUMMIT experience! I’ll go into depth below in my review of my own experience. The different names were gimmicky and confusing to me at first, so hopefully this helps.
SUMMIT One Vanderbilt Tickets
Now let’s talk about tickets for SUMMIT One Vanderbilt!
I definitely recommend purchasing your tickets online in advance to avoid waiting in line at the ticket counter when you arrive. You have to reserve a specific time slot, so if you wait to buy tickets in person, you might not be able to get a time slot until later in the day (or worse — it could be sold out entirely!)
You can either purchase your tickets directly on the SUMMIT One Vanderbilt website or on GetYourGuide. I normally use GetYourGuide for booking attractions, and I like it because you can cancel for a full refund up to 24 hours in advance if your plans change. However, I booked directly for this.
That’s because there was a special ticket deal going on that was only available on the SUMMIT website. NYC residents and Long Island residents also get $5 off tickets when booking directly online.
SUMMIT Ticket Options:
There are two main types of tickets available for visiting SUMMIT One Vanderbilt:
- SUMMIT Experience: Includes access to everything I described above, except for the Ascent elevator ride. These tickets are $44 plus an additional $3 online processing fee.
- SUMMIT Ascent: Includes access to everything I described above, plus the Ascent elevator ride to go up another 110 feet. These tickets are $68 plus an additional $3 online processing fee.
If you want to splurge like crazy, there’s also a skip-the-line ticket with a 90-minute guided tour and a digital photo package included. These tickets are $149 plus the $3 online processing fee.
The tickets I bought included SUMMIT Ascent and lunch at Après (an entrée, a drink, and a dessert) for $65 plus the $3 processing fee. This seemed like a no-brainer to me since it was cheaper than SUMMIT Ascent, but still included the Ascent elevator ride plus lunch. Tickets were only valid from 11:30 AM to 2 PM.
Honestly, I don’t think the regular SUMMIT Ascent tickets are worth it. You’re paying $24 extra (!!) to simply go up a glass-bottomed elevator another 110 feet. It’s the same view you’ve already seen… just slightly higher. And no, you don’t even get out of the elevator. It’s literally just a quick photo op.
The basic ticket is more than enough, and you shouldn’t feel FOMO about skipping Ascent. The only way I’d buy it is if there’s a similar ticket promotion going on, like the lunchtime deal I got.
It’s also important to note that there’s a $13 surcharge for going around sunset hours.
The SUMMIT One Vanderbilt Experience
When you arrive at SUMMIT One Vanderbilt, you’ll enter a line to scan your tickets. Then you’ll go into a small room to watch a quick introductory video about the building. Next, there’s another line to take a photo/scan of your face (used for later projecting your face onto a cloud in one of the rooms…) Honestly, you can just skip this part if you aren’t interested in seeing your face in the clouds later on.
Finally, there’s one more line to wait in before getting on the elevator. At this point, we were remarking to ourselves how the atmosphere was that of waiting in line for a ride at Disney World, where you move through several pre-attraction rooms and wonder when you’ll actually board the ride.
I arrived at 11:40 AM and was on the elevator to the 91st floor by 12 PM, so it really wasn’t a bad wait. It was a Saturday in the summer, which I would have expected to be more crowded, but maybe I was just lucky.
Once you get up to the 91st floor, you’ll begin making your way through each of the areas I outlined above. You can go at your own pace, but it’s important to note that the flow here is one-way only, so you won’t be able to backtrack. Each of the three floors at SUMMIT is connected by escalators.
We took our time in each room before eventually reaching Après, the cafe and bar. Here, we stopped for the included lunch. There were several choices for entrées. I chose cheese pizza. You could get any drink you wanted (soda, water, beer, or wine), and the dessert was a chocolate chunk cookie.
The food wasn’t anything to write home about, but the ambience was great, sitting by the window on the 93rd floor with a direct view of the Empire State Building. However, I want to point out that there isn’t a ton of seating. I was just lucky to snag a window table. It’s also a kind of busy, loud area.
After looking at the à la carte prices for food and drinks, I wouldn’t have gotten anything if it hadn’t already been included with my ticket. As you can probably imagine, everything is very overpriced!
Once we had taken a look at the Terrace, we made our way to Ascent. This is the glass-bottomed elevator that has an additional charge. Again, this is not something I would do again — I don’t think it’s worth the extra cost! It’s a cool view, but not much different from all the rest, and it’s a really short experience.
When Is the Best Time to Go?
When should you go to SUMMIT One Vanderbilt? I went during the afternoon (arriving around noon), and thought the views were great, even though it was a partly cloudy day. However, the lighting is definitely a lot better if you go around sunset, which is why those time slots carry a $13 surcharge.
If you can’t make it for sunset or don’t want to spend the extra money, there’s really no “bad” time to go during the day! Personally, now that I’ve seen the views in daylight, I’d like to go during sunset next time and see everything illuminated at night. But any time of day is honestly fine to go.
If you want to avoid crowds, book the first time slot in the morning. It’s also better to go on a weekday rather than a weekend, although as I mentioned, I only waited about twenty minutes, arriving shortly after my time slot began on a Saturday in the summer, which I would have expected to be a lot more crowded.
However, I’ve read stories of people waiting up to an hour! So if you’re worried about crowds, an early-morning time slot on a weekday is the best way to avoid having a long wait when you arrive.
How Long Should You Spend at SUMMIT One Vanderbilt?
I spent a full two hours at SUMMIT One Vanderbilt. This is from the moment I stepped off the elevators on the 91st floor to when I descended back down from the 93rd floor. You might want to spend ten, fifteen, or even twenty minutes in some of the rooms here. There’s no time limit once you enter, either.
As I mentioned before, the flow of the experience is one-way, so you won’t be able to revisit rooms after you leave them. Because of this, you’ll want to make sure you take your time in each place.
Since my ticket included lunch, I spent longer than I would have otherwise. But I would still allot at least an hour and a half for your visit, more if you plan to eat or drink something there. And don’t forget to account for time spent waiting in line at the beginning — anywhere from a few minutes to an hour!
Tips for Visiting SUMMIT One Vanderbilt
Finally, here are some tips and important things to know before you go…
Enter on 42nd Street. There are several entrances to SUMMIT, including one from within Grand Central Station. But the easiest entrance to find is on 42nd Street next to the green TD Bank building.
There are no bathrooms until you’re up the elevator. You won’t have a chance to use the bathroom at any point in the arrival queue, so be sure to go before you arrive or be prepared to wait a little while. Once you get up to the 91st floor, there are multiple bathrooms (and yes, even the bathrooms have incredible views).
Bring sunglasses. It can be very bright with the floor-to-ceiling windows and reflective surfaces in the mirrored rooms. Even on a somewhat cloudy day, I was very glad to have my sunglasses here.
Don’t wear a short dress or skirt. Okay, I saw this advice before I went and I didn’t heed it. But I really should have! In the rooms with mirrored floors, you can literally see right up someone’s dress or skirt from various angles. Maxi dresses and skirts are probably fine, but to be safer, I’d wear pants or shorts.
Final Thoughts: Was It Worth It?
As you can probably guess from this review, I thought that SUMMIT One Vanderbilt was 100% worth it! The only thing I don’t think is worth it is purchasing the Ascent elevator ride for an extra $24.
If you’re able to get a ticket package like I did that included Ascent and lunch for less than the price of the normal Ascent package, then go for it, but otherwise I think just getting the base ticket is fine.
SUMMIT tickets are priced similarly to tickets for other NYC observation decks, but I honestly feel like you get more for your money because of how large it is and the different themed areas you visit.
SUMMIT offers a unique, immersive experience that makes it stand apart from other observation decks. The views, especially of the Empire State Building, Chrysler Building, and Manhattan skyline, are among the best of any of the NYC observation decks (right up there with my other favorite, Top of the Rock!)
This native New Yorker highly endorses SUMMIT, and it’s a great addition to your NYC itinerary!
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