The Best Queens One Day Itinerary for First Time Visitors

We enjoyed spending one day in Queens, the vibrant borough of New York City. Along with Brooklyn, this is one area that is seldom visited by tourists. This is a huge pity because Queens is a diverse district famous for its ethnic enclaves of Indians, Colombians, Mexicans, Chinese, and more! Consequently, it has an awesome food scene with diverse cuisines. We also saw many iconic attractions such as the Unisphere, New York State Pavilion and Flushing Meadows Corona Park. Based on our own experience in Queens, we have created a one day itinerary which will be useful for tourists visiting the first time. Also read: 9 Awesome Things to do in Queens!

Queens One Day Itinerary Map (Click to enlarge)

Morning

Hunter’s Point South Park


Our first stop in Queens was Hunter’s Point South Park in Long Island City. To reach here, we took the 7 train to Vernon Blvd – Jackson Av station and walked for a short while to the park. The journey from our hotel in Manhattan only took about 20 minutes. This scenic waterfront park has a promenade, open green space, playground, and an outdoor cafe. It is also possible to take a ferry here – you can find out more from the NYC Ferry website.

LIC Landing by Coffeed


After taking some photos, we went for breakfast at the park cafe. LIC Landing by Coffeed serves simple fare such as sandwiches, fries, burgers, bagels, coffee, tea, beer etc. The food was average, but it was a wonderful experience to have our meal while enjoying the awesome waterfront views with a cool morning breeze blowing. The cafe played relaxing music in the background which made our experience even better. This was the perfect way to start our day in Queens!

LIC Landing by Coffeed
Address: 52-10 Center Blvd, Long Island City, NY 11101
Phone: +1 347 706 4696
Opening Hours: Daily 6am to 10pm
Facebook: www.facebook.com/LICLANDING

Gantry Plaza State Park




After breakfast, we walked for about five minutes to Gantry Plaza State Park, which is an adjacent waterfront park. We saw large restored gantries here, which are what gave the park its name. This was a nice place to walk along the river and admire the beautiful Manhattan skyline. We also saw the large neon Pepsi-Cola sign, which was originally fixed on top of a bottling plant and moved here in 2009.

Communitea Cafe

From the park, we walked for about ten minutes to Communitea, a cozy quaint cafe known for its premium organic teas. The menu also offers sandwiches, salads, soups, and alcohol. This was a nice place to rest for a while and grab a quick bite before moving on to our next destination.

Communitea
Address: 11-18 46th Rd, Long Island City, NY 11101
Phone: +1 718 729 7708
Opening Hours: | Mon to Wed: 8am – 7pm | Thur to Fri: 8am – 9pm | Sat to Sun: 9am – 7pm |
Facebook: www.facebook.com/CommuniteaLIC

MoMA PS1

From the cafe, we walked a few minutes down 46th Rd to MoMA PS1 and popped in for a quick look. This contemporary art museum is famous for its exhibition of innovative and experimental artworks. However, do take note that the museum is closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

Website: http://momaps1.org
Address: 22-25 Jackson Ave, Long Island City, NY 11101, USA
Opening Hours: | Thur to Mon: 12pm to 6pm | Tue to Wed: Closed |

Afternoon

Museum of the Moving Image

Next, we took a Lyft ride to the Museum of the Moving Image, a very popular museum that is famous for its interesting exhibitions related to film, television, and digital media. Take note that it is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays.

Website: http://www.movingimage.us
Address: 36-01 35th Ave, Queens, NY 11106, USA
Opening Hours: | Mon to Tue: Closed | Wed to Thur: 10.30am to 5pm | Fri: 10.30am to 8pm | Sat to Sun: 10.30am to 6pm |

Unidentified Flying Chicken (UFC)


For lunch, we went to Unidentified Flying Chicken (UFC), a no-frills Korean fried chicken joint in the Jackson Heights neighbourhood. To get here, we walked from the Museum of the Moving Image to 36 Avenue – Washington Avenue station and took the N Train for one stop to Queensboro Plaza station. Then, we took the 7 Train for six stops to 69 St-Fisk Av Station. We exited the station and walked for about three minutes along Roosevelt Ave to UFC.

We ordered the 4-piece wings ($5) with Soy Garlic and Hot flavours, along with Garden Salad and French Fries as sides. It was delicious! The wings were tender and juicy and we enjoyed its spicy-savoury flavour. The price was super affordable too.

Unidentified Flying Chicken (UFC)
Address: 71-22 Roosevelt Ave, Flushing, NY 11372
Phone: +1 718 205 6662
Opening Hours: | Mon to Sat: 11am – 11pm | Sun: 12pm – 10pm |
Facebook: www.facebook.com/UFCchicken

Jackson Heights

Little India

Elegant Middle Class Estate

After lunch, we began our exploration of the famous Jackson Heights neighbourhood! It was truly an interesting cultural experience to explore this diverse and colourful district. We came across the vibrant Little India area that had a tidy sprawl of sari shops, gold shops, and Indian eateries. After walking for a while, we turned a corner and were intrigued to find ourselves suddenly in a manicured middle class estate lined with elegant garden apartments. We walked through the estate and turned another corner to find the landscape completely changed again: this time we had reached a Latin American and Mexican enclave. This was definitely an interesting neighbourhood! For more details, you can check out our detailed walking guide for Jackson Heights.

Flushing Meadows-Corona Park

Flushing Meadows Park

USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center

New York State Pavilion

touristy shot with the Unisphere

After that, we walked back to the 69 St-Fisk Av Station and took the 7 train for seven stops to Mets-Willets Point Station. After exiting the station, we walked along an outdoor passage for about five minutes to reach the beautiful Flushing Meadows Corona Park. The total journey took about 15 minutes including walking time. This popular public park is a favourite for Queens locals, and is also known as “Flushing Meadows Park” or “Flushing Meadows”. This park was created to host the 1939/1940 New York World’s Fair, and was also the site for the 1964/1965 New York World’s Fair. It was nice to stroll along the park path that was lined with lush trees on both sides.

After walking for a while, we saw the famous Unisphere, a colossal structure that was built for the 1964/1965 World’s Fair. I knew it was big from pictures, but seeing it in person I was blown away by how huge it actually was.

We also saw the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center near the Unisphere. This is the venue of the prestigious US Open Tennis Grand Slam! We took some photos of the stadium with our camera and drone. The stadium was not open for an inner guided tour during our visit. You can click here to see the National Tennis Center guided tour dates.

The park is home to the impressive New York State Pavilion, which was constructed to host the 1964 New York World’s Fair. The fair attracted more than 51 million visitors! However, it fell into disuse after that and we could sadly tell that the New York State Pavilion was in a bad state of neglect.

There were many other attractions in the large park which we did not visit, such as the Citi Field (home of the New York Mets baseball team), the Queens Theatre, the Queens Zoo, the New York Hall of Science and the Queens Museum of Art.

Evening

Golden Shopping Mall




By now we were famished! Our final stop in Queens was Flushing Chinatown. To get there, we walked back to the Mets-Willets Point Station and took the 7 Train for just one stop to Main-St Station. We exited the station and walked along Main street for three minutes to the famous Golden Shopping Mall. This very old-school building is packed with two floors of authentic Chinese food stalls. The building has a very obscure entrance and we had a little difficulty locating it.

After looking through many stalls, we decided to have dinner at Xi’an Famous Foods, a well-known Chinese restaurant chain in New York. This small eatery offers authentic Xi’an food such as the “biang biang” noodles, liangpi “cold skin” noodles, lamb pao mo soup, and more. We saw in one of the pictures that even Anthony Bourdain had came here before. We had the Mount Qi Pork Hand-ripped Noodles ($8), which is essentially chunks of pork meat served with the signature “biang biang” noodles and doused in spicy sauce. The pork was tender and juicy, and the noodles were bouncy and chewy with great texture. And it tasted wonderful with the feisty spicy sauce!

Golden Shopping Mall
Address:  41-26 Main St, Flushing, NY 11355
Phone: +1 917 478 4536
Opening Hours: | Daily 10am to 9.30pm |

Flushing Chinatown


Our final activity in Queens was to explore the amazing Flushing Chinatown! This was one of the most vibrant Chinatowns we had ever seen. It was a great cultural experience to stroll along this neighbourhood which was full of vigour and culture. We had visited the more well-known Chinatown in Manhattan before, but the Flushing version is definitely more charming. There are plenty of awesome eateries here too!

CoCo Fresh Tea & Juice


By now, it was getting late and so we walked back to Main St Station to catch the 7 Train back to Manhattan. But before that, we decided to buy a cup of bubble tea (known as boba in USA) from CoCo Fresh Tea & Juice! Being Singaporeans, we were naturally very excited to see this bubble tea shop just opposite the Main St Station. We ordered the classic Bubble Milk Tea, which was creamy and rich. The taste was completed with the tasty and chewy bubble pearls. With our delicious bubble tea in hand, we took the 7 Train for about thirty minutes back to our hotel in Manhattan, The Bryant Park Hotel. We were really glad to have taken the time to visit Queens for a day!

CoCo Fresh Tea & Juice
Address: 39-22 Main St, Flushing, NY 11354
Phone: +1 718 321 8566
Opening Hours: | Daily 9am to 12am |

Itinerary Summary

Time	Activity
Morning	Hunter’s Point South Park
Morning	LIC Landing by Coffeed
Morning	Gantry Plaza State Park
Morning	Communitea
Morning	MoMA PS1
Afternoon	Museum of the Moving Image
Afternoon	Unidentified Flying Chicken (UFC)
Afternoon	Jackson Heights
Afternoon	Flushing Meadows-Corona Park
Evening	Golden Shopping Mall
Evening	Flushing Chinatown
Evening	CoCo Fresh Tea & Juice

Conclusion

Thank you for reading our Queens one day itinerary for first time visitors! As you can probably tell, the itinerary is very packed. Therefore, my suggestion is to adjust the time spent at each attraction based on your interest. For example, we spent more time exploring Jackson Heights, Flushing Meadows, and Flushing Chinatown, and only visited the museums for a short while.

Also, our suggested walking guide for Jackson Heights may take up quite a bit of your time, so you can choose not to walk the entire route.

However, if you can afford the time, you can simply visit all the Queens attractions over two days instead! That would definitely be less rushed than our one day itinerary above.

And finally, I would highly recommend using the subway to explore Queens. We found it easy to visit many of the tourist attractions using the 7 Train. And that’s it! We hope you will enjoy exploring the vibrant Queens borough as much as we did.

This article is part of our completely free and fantastic Ultimate New York Travel Guide for First Timers. Why spend days researching when all your holiday information is simply a click away?