Queens, NY for the weekend
 

Going for a big family get together weekend of Nov 11-13. Will have days free. Any suggestions?
TIA

For whom - adults? children? both?

How many people?

Interests?

How long - a couple of hours - a full day?

How far - and assume you will have cars?

What about Queens?

Do you need accommodations or restaurants?

3 or 4 adults going. Don't need hotel. Will have car but don't want to use it unless necessary.
Am looking for places of interest... Museums, parks, theaters, live entertainment etc. Have been to Manhattan many times but never to Queens. Anything within short train ride?

the Queens Botanical Garden in Flushing Meadow Park is open year round and it's free. http://www.queensbotanical.org/general/geninfo.html .
The Queens Museum of Art, also in Flushing Meadow Park. There's Astoria(Greek area), Jackson Heights(Indian), there are alot of neat places to see and things to do in Queens.

Queens public transport is not great - esp on the weekend. Many buses/subway head from Queens into the City and back - although there are some neighborhood buses.

Travel by car is really much more practical (Queens is really one massive residential area, mostly quite suburban). What part of Queens will you be staying in?

There's also a lot to do in Brooklyn - and in Nassau county - not far - depending on where you;'re staying.

I can answer this, I'm from Queens.

Queens is not one large residential area, and it is certainly not mostly suburban. It's a little weird, but the west way to describe it is that it closely resembles the older parts of Los Angeles and Hollywood along most major streets, and contains large areas that are semi-Suburban. A substantial portion of Queens is very built up and quite urban.

Queens public transportation is very good- but it is not so outsider-friendly. Unless you really know where you are going, it may be tricky. The highways are also no prize.

To get a taste of Queens, I would suggest visiting Flushing Meadows Park followed by dinner in Downtown Flushing.

Within the Park, you can see the Unisphere (giant sculpture of a globe that is the symbol of Queens), the Panorama, which is a giant scale model of all of NYC, located in the Queens Musuem. Shea Stadium and the U.S. Open Tennis Stadium are in the park as well. The park is lovely and very walkable.

Flushing is the largest (and in my opinion best) Chinatown in NYC. It also has a huge Korean population. Out-of-towners will certainly enjoy Joe's Shanghai, the Queens branch of the classic Manhattan restaurant. There are many great restaurants along Flushing's principal streets: Main St, Roosevelt Ave, and Kissena Blvd. All can be reached by a short walk from the Subway.

All attractions can be reached easily from the #7 train. Take it to Shea Stadium for the Park, take it one more stop to Flushing Main St. for the restaurant.

If you are staying in Manhattan the end-to-end ride will take about an hour on the 7. You can also take the express to Flushing, saving some time.

If you have more time, here are other 7 Train treats (with station stops):

P.S. 1 Arts Center (Court House Sq.)- now a branch of MoMA, it shows the best contemporary art.

Jackson Heights (74th Street)- New York's Little India. Great shopping and restaurants, can be found on Roosevelt Ave and 74th.

Woodside (Woodside - 61 St)- Formerly Irish neighborhood now becoming very multicultural. As typical Queens as it gets. Note the complete lack of big suburban lawns.

Have a great time!

P.S. Thanks to everyone who didn't bother to post directions, locations, or suggestions, YOU WERE REALLY HELPFUL.

QC -

Sorry to disagree with you - but I was born in Queens and lived there until I was 12.

Compared to Manhattan (which the OP is famililar with) it is largely residential - and much of it is suburban - depending on what parts you're talking about.

The OP said they were staying in Queens - not where - Astoria, Flushing, Bayside, Douglaston, Floral Park - who knows???

And in a lot of areas public transport is not good (as compared to Manhattan - which is what the OP said they were familiarr with).

You're assumiing the OP is staying in the City - they're not. And without info on where they're coming from it's hard to give directions (How to get from Floral Park to Flushing Meadows without a car?) And they may well be interested in things in Brooklyn or Nassau as well.

The items named are fine - but without more info on location from the OP it's hard to give details.

"How to get from Floral Park to Flushing Meadows without a car?"

Take the Long Island Rail Road to Woodside and then walk upstairs to transfer to the Flushing-bound 7 train. It's not very complicated.

"You're assumiing the OP is staying in the City - they're not."

Show me where they say where they are staying. Go ahead- cut and paste it.

So far you have at least two posts where you post close to zero information about Queens (except to say thet you lived there 20 years ago- gee, I hope nothing's changed).

Show me where the words "Brooklyn" and "Nassau" appear anywhere but your posts. Cut and paste where the OP said anything about Nassau or Brooklyn.

Note to all readers: nytraveler is as useless as George Bush during a Hurricane.

f64club: regarding theatre and live entertainment, you should look into Queens Theatre in The Park - http://www.queenstheatre.org

It's in Flushing Meadow park, near the Unisphere and The Queens Museum of Art. Their website is not the best - in order to see all your choices, click on "directions" on the home page (you'll probably need the directions anyway) and then at the top of the directions page, you will see a full list of program types: theatre, dance, cabaret, etc. For some reason, the main start page does not offer links to everything.

Queens, unlike Manhattan, is easier to get around with a car than public transportation. Parking usually isn't a big issue. If you're looking for good places to eat, head over to Astoria. It's a nicer neighborhood than Jackson Heights and has some of the city's best restaurants. Astoria also has the Museum of Moving Images. Queens Botanical Gardens would definitely be nice to see but I'm not sure how they are in November. I've never been there that time of year. Eating in downtown Flushing is NOT a taste of Queens. It's an area mainly of Asian influence. If you like Asian food, then it is the place to go. Basically, Queens has many nice neighborhoods to live in, but it's not really a tourist spot. Go back to Manhattan and see some more sites there. There is always something new to see even for people who live in NYC.

QC -

Sorry - therre are a lot of areas of Queens that are easier to get around by car then by taking multiple trains, subways or buses. And we still don;t know what part of Queens the get together will be in - which may well affect how they travel.

As for Nassau and Brooklyn I fully admit they didn;t mention it - pardon me for making an additional suggestion - apparently a crime in your book - but which might be useful depending on where they are.

As for not knowing anything about Queens in the past 20 years - I drive through it on the average of once/twice a month ever since then - and I frequently visit family that still live there - even though I no longer do.

So unless it's changed drastically in the past couple of weeks - I stand by my advice.

Additionally - they could visit

Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria
Alley Pond Environmental Center
Thoroughbred racing at Belmont or Aqueduct
Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge

or a ton of other places.

If they gave more of an idea of interests it would help.

Louis Armstrong house in Corona is really neat. Sorry I don't have the exact address on hand, but you can search it easily enough. They have tours all day long, everyday.