Queens, NY Road Trips

The geographical center of New York City is in nearby Brooklyn, and Queens is home to Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, the site of the 1939 and 1964 World's Fairs. The area around the park still includes an interesting museum and some architectural and artistic relics of the events (including the Unisphere, a 300-ton spherical grid of steel, the world's largest globe, as featured in "Men In Black"). The northern end of the old fairgrounds includes Citi Field, home of the New York Mets professional baseball team, and the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, home of the U.S. Open (tennis); further north one can walk along the edge of the marina along the Long Island Sound. The park also includes a science museum, a zoo, and pedal-boats, and hosts frequent special events. Discover Queens Visitor's Center, 90-15 Queens Blvd (inside the Queens Center, Subway: M/R trains to Woodhaven Blvd), ☏ +1 718 592-2082, [email protected]. M-F 10AM-6PM, Sa Su 11AM-7PM. (updated Apr 2024)

Queens is quite diverse in density and character. While western Queens (closer to Manhattan) is urban, much of eastern Queens is relatively suburban. As in every borough, the closer you get to Manhattan, the rarer it is to find a stand-alone house. The more urban clusters are in the northwest: Astoria and Long Island City (LIC). LIC also contains Queens' most prominent skyscrapers, including the "other" Citibank building, located directly across the East River from the more prominent angled-roof skyscraper in Manhattan. Rising 50 stories, the building, the result of Citibank's attempt to create a new business district in LIC, was the tallest building in New York State located outside of Manhattan... until Citibank's dream became a reality and more and more towers began to pop up. The tower is now the fifth tallest in Queens and seventh tallest in NYC outside Manhattan. There are a number of museums in Long Island City and Astoria, including the Isamu Noguchi Sculpture Museum in Noguchi's former sculpture studio, the Museum of African Art, Sculpture Center, and the Museum of the Moving Image which includes interactive exhibits on the history of video games. The area also includes a free place to view art, Socrates Sculpture Park which overlooks the East River and is next to Costco on Vernon Blvd. A general tip on NYC Museums: if you work for a large company such as IBM, GE, or Citigroup, check to see if your company is a member -- this goes for all museums in NYC; different museums have different sponsors of course.

Watch a New York Mets game at Citi Field - Flushing Go to the U.S. Open tennis tournament at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing. You can also visit the beach without leaving Queens, as the Ramones put it, "we can hitch a ride to Rockaway Beach." Rockaway Beach (on the Atlantic Ocean) is actually a fine stretch of relatively unpolluted sand on a narrow peninsula linked by bridge (bicycle accessible) and the subway (A train) to the rest of Queens (it can also be reached by road from Nassau County, Long Island, and by bridge from Brooklyn). Aside from the still-visible Empire State Building, and the frequent planes landing at nearby John F. Kennedy Airport, it is perhaps the most pastoral experience in New York City. The cleanest beach on Rockaway can be found at Jacob Riis Park, part of the Gateway National Recreation Area. Women can legally go topless at any public New York beach, although not very many do. Note: Jacob Riis is a federal beach and subject to different laws than the rest of the Rockaways. Visit farmers markets at: New York Hall of Science Farmers Market. 111th St and 48th Ave off Corona Ave. Wednesday, 10AM-3:00PM, June to November. Queens Botanical Garden Farmers Market at Queens Botanical Garden off of College Point Blvd. and Blossom St - Flushing. Friday, 8:30AM-4:00PM, June to November. Jamaica Farmers Market. 160th St. off Jamaica Ave. Friday and Saturday, 8:30AM-4PM, June to November.

The snobby feel of Manhattan may not always make it to Queens, which is one of its great appeals for those who live there. There are a few top-notch bars in Queens, but it's the restaurants that really shine, for a simple reason: If Manhattan food is Yuppie food, Queens food is created by and aimed towards genuine ethnic inhabitants. To put it another way, come here if you like spicy food. If you want a real taste of Hong Kong--or Tibet, Indonesia, Colombia, Peru, India, Argentina, or just about anyplace (including France)--you'll find it in Queens. Suggested general areas for culinary roving: Flushing for Taiwanese, Chinese and Korean (Fay Da on Main St., among others, offers reliably good Dim Sum). (The 7 line ends in Flushing - Main St., and you'll think you've gone all the way to Hong Kong). If you're driving, you'll notice an endless selection of Korean restaurants along Northern Blvd as you move in the direction of Nassau County. For more recommendations, see the Flushing guide. Woodside near 61st St is home to the Thai restaurant widely considered the best in New York, Sripraphai, 6413 39th Av. near Roosevelt Av. and 65 St, (718) 899-9599. You can access it via the 7 local or express at 61 St. or the Long Island Railroad's Woodside station in the same location. Also in Woodside is the Filipino barbecue restaurant Ihawan, 40-98 70th St near Roosevelt Av., (718) 205-1480. Quite popular with Filipinos & non-Filipinos alike for pork BBQ. Can be especially busy during holiday weekends. Jackson Heights near 74th street for Indian and Afghan.

If you like bubble tea with sago and tapioca, there are several good spots within a few blocks of the Flushing-Main St stop on the 7 train. One of the best is on the corner of Main St. and 39th Av. Queens is home to one of the most entertaining and pleasant places to sip a brew, the Bohemian Hall (known citywide simply as "The Beer Garden"), near the Astoria Boulevard subway stop. This bar, popular in the summer, covers an entire city block, is walled and filled with trees, indoor and outdoor picnic tables and a cool crowd, and serves great Czech and German beer. Drink ales by the pitcher at wooden picnic tables under leafy canopy, surrounded by hundreds. 29-19 24th Avenue, just west of 31st Street. N/W to Astoria Blvd. Woodside is home to an Irish population and is loaded with bars and cheap happy hours, as well as drinking festivities before a Mets baseball game. There are several Irish pubs by the Woodside train station. Check out the burger at Donovan's.

There are a number of hotels in Flushing that serve LaGuardia Airport, including a Sheraton. There are also many hotels near Kennedy Airport in Jamaica, but the location is generally considered undesirable for visitors, except for its proximity to the airport. Some hotels in Jamaica are listed as three stars but are nevertheless poorly kept. Other hotels are scattered through Kew Gardens, Forest Hills, Elmhurst, Long Island City, and various other neighborhoods.

Queens doesn't have any really dangerous neighborhoods anymore, though of course you should not put down your guard completely and should continue to do sensible things like use only your front pocket for valuables and keep your wits about yourself. But that said, the most dangerous thing you may do is cross Queens Boulevard, nicknamed the Boulevard of Death because of the number of people who've been killed trying to cross this broad thoroughfare which, though not a controlled-access highway, is a major artery where drivers tend to drive fast. Some measures were taken in the 2010s to improve safety for pedestrians and cyclists on this boulevard, but you should still exercise special caution when crossing. If possible, use the underpasses at the subway stations along the route.