WELCOME!

New York is a vibrant city. You probably have heard, it never sleeps. And as Frank said again and again: "If you can make it here you can make it anywhere."

It's a concrete jungle where dreams are made. More than 8.5 million people from all over the world call the Big Apple home, and another 60 million or so visit it every year.

That happens for a good reason: no matter what you love or which are your interests – art, food, architecture, photography, shopping, sightseeing, theater, music, romance, adventure, exploration – New York is the place where you can find it all and much more.

It's a new surprise on every corner, every day. It's a dream in every heart. Just have your eyes and sensibility open. In New York you can learn a new thing every single day. In New York you can make your dream come true. So, why not give it a try?

7 Wonderful Reasons to Fall in Love With Queens

7 Wonderful Reasons to Fall in Love With Queens

Taste food from around the globe, watch Mets baseball and US Open tennis, see cutting-edge art and more in one of the world's most diverse places. Queens is a lot of fun, surrounded by diversity.

Rich Diversity is synonymous With Queens

Food and culture visual storytelling by Lucas Compan


While there is no precise count, some experts believe New York is home to as many as 800 languages — far more than the 176 spoken by students in the city’s public schools or the 138 that residents of Queens, New York’s most diverse borough, listed on their 2010 census forms.

“It is the capital of language density in the world,” said Daniel Kaufman, an adjunct professor of linguistics at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. “We’re sitting in an endangerment hot spot where we are surrounded by languages that are not going to be around even in 20 or 30 years.”

So here is our list of (at least) 7 reasons to visit this awesome New York City's melting pot.

1. Queens is a 24/7 food feast 

Queens is the place to go to explore ethnic cuisine in New York City's most diverse borough. You can eat your way through the world cuisine. Take your pick: Italian, Indian, Armenian, Brazilian, Greek, Turkish, Colombian, Peruvian, Cuban, Argentinean, Egyptian, and more.

Everyone knows New York City is the culinary epicenter of the United States. And while Manhattan gets Michelin stars and Brooklyn gets blogger hype, real culinary fanatics know that authentic ethnic food experiences happen in the restaurants of Queens. There, New York's celebrated ethnic diversity is the most potent, with more than one million foreign-born residents. This means food lovers can travel the globe without using any vacation time: take a culinary tour of China, sip a frappe in Greece, dine on authentic Italian sausage, make a toast with the original Brazilian caipirinha—all without ever leaving Queens.

2 – Two minutes from Manhattan

Queens is closer than you think. From Grand Central Station to Long Island City – where you can enjoy awesome views – is a two-minute subway ride on the 7 train. You can also take the N or Q trains and after just 12 minutes you are in Greece, I mean, in Astoria-Ditmars.

Astoria Park, Triborough Bridge, and Manhattan skyline reflecting on the East River waters

Long Island City Piers, an oasis: the Empire State Building (left), United Nations (center), and Chrysler Building (right).

3 – You find art and music

MoMA PS1, in Long Island City, and Manhattan skyline

MoMA PS1 is one of the oldest and largest art institutions in the United States dedicated solely to contemporary art. It was founded in 1971 by Alanna Heiss as the Institute for Art and Urban Resources Inc., an organization devoted to organizing exhibitions in underutilized and abandoned spaces across New York City.

The Museum of Moving Image

The Museum of Moving Image rivals the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for fun. You can also learn about the history of hip-hop or take the Jazz tour to see where Dizzie Gillespie and Louis Armstrong lived.

4 – World Culture

Latin Dance Festival 

Visit Astoria-Ditmars to listen to Greek music. Or go to Little India and shop for Indian condiments, hear Bukharam music in Rego Park, smoke Hookah on Steinway Street or attend the Latin Festival.

5 – Watch the U.S. Open and visit the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center

The United States Open Tennis Championships is a hardcourt tennis tournament which is the modern version of one of the oldest tennis championships in the world, the U.S. National Championship, for which men's singles was first contested in 1881.

Also, visit Flushing-Meadow Park

The park was created from the former dumping ground, which was characterized as "a valley of ashes" in F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. The site, known at the time as the Corona Ash Dumps, which was being filled with ashes from coal-burning furnaces, as well as with horse manure and garbage, was cleared by Parks Commissioner Robert Moses in preparation for the 1939-1940 World's Fair. The original name for the new parkland was "Flushing Meadow Park."

6 – Watch a New York Mets baseball game at the Citifield

Citi Field is a stadium located in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park in Queens. Completed in 2009, it is the home baseball park of Major League Baseball's New York Mets.

Citi Field is reachable via mass transit systems such as the New York City Subway 7 train at the Mets – Willets Pointstation, and the Long Island Rail Road station on the Port Washington Branch also called Mets – Willets Point. New York Water Taxi operates a free ferry to the stadium from Pier 11/Wall Street and the East 34th Street Ferry Landing before every game.

Citi Field was built as a replacement for the formerly adjacent Shea Stadium, which opened in 1964, next to the site of the 1964-1965 World's Fair.

Completed in 2009, it is the home baseball park of Major League Baseball's New York Mets.

7 – Knockout views on both ways

To go to Citi field to watch a Met's baseball game or to the U.S. Open to watch a tennis match, to visit the Billie Jean King Tennis National Center and the Flushing-Meadow Park you take the 7 train – and also enjoy wonderful views of Manhattan skyline (like this one below)

The 7 trains takes you to several places in Queens: Long Island City waterfront, Citi field, U.S. Open, Flushing-Meadow Park, and the Billie Jean Tennis National Center. To go to Astoria, take the N or Q trains. This photo was taken from 40th Street stop.

The city seen from the Queensboro Bridge is always the city seen for the first time, in its first wild promise of all the mystery and beauty in the world.
— F. Scott Fitzgerald

You can enjoy great views from from the 7 train when you reach Queensboro Bridge (Queensboro Plaza station). From  N or W trains (from Astoria) the view is even better (above).

After having a lot of fun, filling your belly with great food, satisfying your soul with art and music, watching baseball and tennis, and also learning one or two words in more than one different languages, take the train back to the city. When you think you've seen everything, there's be more.  If the weather is good, you will have the chance to enjoy some awesome sunsets and views from Queensboro Bridge.

Have fun! Divirta-se! ¡Que te diviertas! Divertiti! 玩的开心!

RELATED STORIES


EXPLORE MUCH MORE

The Oldest Video Footage of New York City

The Oldest Video Footage of New York City

Sightseeing: The Best Spots To Photograph New York (Part 2)

Sightseeing: The Best Spots To Photograph New York (Part 2)