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Queens, New York City — Area Guide & Where to Stay
Immigrant kitchens and ballfields fill Queens, the largest borough of New York City by area and the most linguistically diverse place in the world.
About Queens
Where to stay in Queens
Not every neighbourhood fits every trip — here's what each one is good for.
Queens spreads across the width of Long Island, and its neighborhoods offer very different bases for a stay. Jackson Heights sits near the center, close to the Indian, Colombian, and Mexican enclaves and the elevated trains that run west toward Manhattan. The food is the draw here.
Flushing anchors the eastern side around the parkland of the Queens Museum, the Queens Zoo, and the Flushing Meadows Carousel, a good base for John F. Kennedy International and the ballfields nearby. South and west the mood shifts again. Forest Hills gathers quieter streets around the West Side Tennis Club and The Church-in-the-Gardens, while Jamaica keeps older congregations such as the First Presbyterian Church in Jamaica close to the JFK-bound trains.
Stay in Jackson Heights for the food. If you want park views and easy airport access, Flushing near the Queens Museum suits you, while travelers after a leafier, residential base gravitate toward Forest Hills and the West Side Tennis Club.
About Queens
What are the main landmarks in Queens?
Queens gathers its landmarks in parkland, older village cores, and the enclaves that make it the most diverse borough of New York City. The Queens Museum and the Queens Zoo sit in the former world's-fair grounds, near the hand-carved Flushing Meadows Carousel and its counterpart the Forest Park Carousel. Two airports serve it.
LaGuardia and John F. Kennedy International sit within the borough's bounds along the width of Long Island. Sport has deep roots too. The West Side Tennis Club hosted major championships in Forest Hills, while congregations such as the First Presbyterian Church in Jamaica and St. Monica's Church trace the colonial villages.
The Indian, Colombian, and Mexican districts around Jackson Heights carry the flavors of the world.
What is the history of Queens?
Queens took its name and its charter in 1683, one of the original counties laid out across western Long Island. Farm villages came first. Jamaica, Flushing, and the other hamlets grew around churches such as the First Presbyterian Church in Jamaica and the First Reformed Church, tied to New York City by ferry and road across the East River.
Consolidation folded these villages into the modern borough at the close of the nineteenth century. The twentieth century brought the world to Queens. World's fairs left the parkland and the Queens Museum in Flushing Meadows, airports rose on the tidal flats, and wave after wave of immigrants filled Jackson Heights and the surrounding enclaves.
That arrival made the borough what it is. Its blocks now hold more languages than any other place on earth, a diversity built village by village over three centuries.
Where is Queens?
Queens occupies the western end of Long Island and is coextensive with Queens County. It is the largest of New York City's five boroughs by area. Water defines its edges. Brooklyn borders it to the west and Nassau County to the east, while maritime borders link it to Manhattan, The Bronx, and Staten Island across the surrounding tidal waters.
Good for
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Updated July 2026