“What to do in Queens?”

The beautiful Unisphare at Flushing Madows in Queens

My wife asked me exactly this question when we were in New York last time. We were just here for a stopover. We arrived late at night in La Guardia and had to be at JFK at 2 p.m. for our flight to Europe. So I decided not to book a hotel in Manhattan but between both airports so that the ways with our massive luggage we had would be short. In my eyes it was not worth to spend money on taxi rides and expensive hotels in Manhattan if we had just 3 hours in the morning to do something. So I chose a hotel near Jamaica station close to the Airtrain to JFK and with a good connection to the metro, saving on the hotel rate which is much lower than in downtown Manhattan and saving at least two hours of time compared to take a taxi to get to Manhattan and back.

Because we saved those two hours of time on taxi rides we had five hours in Queens instead of three hours in Manhattan before we had to go to the airport and my wife still didn’t understand why we where here and not in Manhattan. I didn’t care about any sightseeing program in Queens before we arrived. I was sure that we would find something to do in Queens in our guide books or travel apps on the iPhone or iPad. But there was nearly nothing. And everything we found in the books was not on the map because all maps ended at Long Island. So I had really no answer to her question “What to do in Queens” and so I was in a really uncomfortable position. May the force be with me and so we took the few spots we had found and left the hotel to discover Queens. And what should I say: It was amazing! After the five hours were over and we were back in the hotel to pick up our luggage even my wife was really happy with my decision to stay in Queens. But what did we do? 

Looks like Asia: Main Street in Flushing, Queens, NYC

Out of one book we had the information that there is a huge Chinatown in Queens which is NYC biggest and compared to the one in Manhattan still authentic and not only a tourist trap and market for cheap t-shirts and faked watches and handbags. So we took the Q44 bus from Jamaica station and started our trip through Queens. First we passed some rude areas were I would not advice to stroll around after it is dark but than we came to really nice areas with authentic neighbourhoods on Main Street and had an uncommon feeling in New York: Not to sit in a bus with 99% of other tourists but with real New Yorkers. We passed an area with mostly jewish neighbourhood with lots of kosher markets, restaurants and cafes. And the only reason why we didn’t leave the bus to look around here was that it was quite early on Sunday morning and the shops were still closed. Just a few minutes later we arrived at Chinatown (Metro: Flushing Main Street). My wife and I are both huge fans of Asia and we loved the place from the first second. All shops and all products, the smell, the food, the people and the whole sight were just as in Asia. There was an amazing variety of Asian products in the shops and supermarkets that were even selling durians. We really felt like in Asia. At this time I felt for the first time that my wife might be glad at the end of the day that we stayed in Queens. This feeling got stronger when we found an Asian style bakery were we bought some Chinese style baked buns. One of the my wife’s favourites and really hard to find outside Asia and when she said they tasted like the ones we had in Kota Kinabalu (Malaysia), I was sure that the day would be great.

Perfect for a picnic or just to relax: Flushing Madows, NYC

After our stroll through Chinatown we walked down the Roosevelt Ave to Flushing Madows. The way was not that nice except of the crappy bridge we passed which we liked for some reason, humming the theme melody from “King of Queens”. But it also be a good alternative to take the metro line 7 or the LIRR for one station to Mets – Willets Point station. As we arrived at the park we first had a look towards the new stadium of the New York Mets Baseball team before we entered the park. On the right you will first see the famous Tennis Stadium of Flushing Meadows where the US Open takes place each year in xy. Then we walked through the nice alleys of huge trees and with nice meadows where many families picnicked, played ball or just relaxed. Finally we went to the great sculpture Unisphere. We were both really impressed by this sculpture and the shining metal of the sculpture matched the deep blue sky on that day perfectly. Afterwards we enjoyed ourselves at the park, took a rest and had a great picnic. So we were ready for the last part of this stroll across Queens. By a short taxi ride we went to the Queens Center, a large shopping mall at Queens Boulevard/59^th Ave. Here we took the chance to do the last shopping. I really needed some new Adidas Samba trainers J. And after that our walk through Queens was over. We took a taxi to our hotel, picked up our stuff and went to JFK by the airtrain. After some really good sandwiches and drinks at the Senator Lounge we enjoyed a good and safe trip back to Europe with Lufthansa. 

Airfield view fron the Lufthansa Senator Lounge at JFK

Saving in New York City

NYC by night

Every time I am in NYC I always have not enough: Not enough time, not enough money, not enough energy, not enough of anything in this awesome city. So I am always happy if I find a way to save time, money, energy or anything else in New York. So this blog should help you to save when you are in NYC.

The first thing is always the trouble to find a place to stay in NYC. It is always far too expensive. So if you need to save on the hotel you should take some time and try out the possibilities of Priceline. If you are from the US it might be nothing new to you but for everyone else it is. At Priceline are you able to choose one or more parts of the city and the stars the hotel should have and giving a bid how much you would pay for this hotel. Within seconds you will get a respond if there is any hotel which is accepting your bid. If there is one the hotel is immediately booked for you, if not you are able to extend your search (more areas, less stars, higher bid). The whole process is described in several forums. Priceline is only available for US citizens. How you will be able to book at www.priceline.com if you are not US citizen: Just google it. 

Wallstreet

As an example: On our last trip to NYC we got a 4 star hotel near the Wall Street in downtown Manhattan for 130$ per night instead of 195$ per night as it was on all booking sides. So we saved 33% and had more money for shopping.

And here we are at the second matter where you have great possibilities to save: Shopping! The recommendation you will find in each guide book is to use the outlet shops and centre. This is of course true - and if you visit Century 21 in downtown Manhattan and see the flood of tourists carrying lots of huge Century 21 shopping bags out of the shop you will agree. A not so well-know advice is that it is also possible to save money in the worlds most famous department store Macy’s. Macy’s is a must do for every tourist in NYC and every woman wants to buy something in here at least to get one of these nice and famous Macy’s shopping bags with the red star. Here you can save money as a foreign tourist. The deal is 10% saving on all your shopping which is not too bad for Macy’s I think. All you have to do is visit the customer service at the gallery, show your passport and you will get a coupon which entitles you to a 10% discount on all your shopping at Macy’s for the next month. Very easy and a good deal!

MoMA: Modern art and nice architecture

After a shopping tour a must do is sightseeing! Museums, parks, theatres and much more are waiting for you. A very smart idea is to visit the websites of the attractions you want to visit. Often you are able to pre-book tickets and so you are able to save time and money or often both. Just two examples out of many: The hop-on-hop-off bus company Gray line offers a lot of different routs and tours through NYC. On all tours you can save 5$ per person if you pre-book on the website. You will get a voucher by mail which is valid for one year. These voucher you have to exchange for a ticket at their ticket office near the Times Square. A good advice is to change the ticket not in the morning because the queues are very long. At noon or later there is no one waiting so you save time. Important is that you also don’t loose travel time for example for a 48 hours ticket for all loops if you show up at noon or later. The ticket is exactly 48 hours valid and not two calendar days so you are able to travel the same duration as if you have to wait and queue up in the morning. The second example is the MoMA. Here you pay 22.50$ instead of 25$ for the entrance of an adult. The smart thing is, that you print your ticket at home. So you are allowed to pass the whole queue (and when we arrived it was a looooooooooooooong queue) and proceed directly to the entrance. I guess so it took us just 2 minutes to get in instead of 45 minutes without a pre-booked ticket – by even saving 5$ at the same time! So just think about what you want so see in NYC and save time and money by pre-book your tickets.

Amazing Time Square by night

An activity were you are not able to save money by pre-booking are Broadway musicals (although travelzoo.com sometimes has some pretty good deals, too. But if you are not keen on seeing a special musical you are also able to save here. At the Times Square there is a ticket box which sells available musical tickets for the same day every day. The savings here are often 40% or more on the original ticket price and often you have a chose between many different musicals. Please check the operating hours of this office. Because of the first come first serve principle, the best tickets are available just after the opening and so it is good to show up early. For those who still can not or are not willing to pay the prices for the shows Ellen´s Stardust Diner at the 52^nd at Broadway might be a good place. Here do they serve typical American cuisine like burgers and sandwiches. The clou is that the servers are singing all the time. They are all actors (or to-be actors) from Broadway who do not have any assignments at this time. So you can dine here at affordable prices and listen to several musical and other songs from professional singers. Really great and I think something special. This is a really good tip especially for your first evening in NYC, in case you are jetlagged – this is a dinner place that does keep you awake :)

My last one enables you to save really a lot of time. You are able to see whole NYC exactly in one hour. You are asking yourself how that is possible. I have the solution. The Marriott Marquis hotel at the Times Square has a revolving bar and restaurant in the 42nd floor. You will get there by express elevator and normally you will not need a reservation. The nice staff guides you to your table and it doesn’t matter if you will chose the dinner buffet, just the nice dessert buffet (with a chocolate dwell and lots of fresh fruits, cakes and cheese) or only a drink: Whole NYC and parts of Jersey will pass your table behind the window within one hour. This experience is not the cheapest but it is worth to do and a nice ending for a beautiful day in the city that never sleeps.