The NYC Traveler in NYC: Tour Flushing Meadows Corona Park, Queens, NYC
- Oct 23
- 6 min read
Updated: 4 days ago
The NYC Traveler in NYC:
Tour Flushing Meadows-Corona Park
It's the site for many famous locations that people see streamed or broadcast worldwide: baseball fans, tennis aficionados, even movie buffs. And I can see it almost whenever I want. It's a family friendly park that real New Yorkers use. Spend the day in Flushing Meadows Corona Park. Here is what you can see and do:
Tour Flushing Meadows Corona Park Queens NYC
Tip 1. Get a little learning on at the New York Hall of Science, originally built for the 1964 World's Fair. Some current exhibits are revolving or limited, so go back often. And although many travel blogs pitch the Hall as a children's museum, it's a great place to go, whether you have kids with you or not. There are interactive exhibits as well as traditional informative activities. And, joy of all. joys, there's parking! Load the car up with stuff you can use at Flushing Meadows nearby, learn a little something first and then enjoy the outdoors.
Tip 2. Become a kid again at the Queens Zoo. One of the smaller zoos in NYC, it is perfect for little ones, complete with a petting zoo. Buy a membership and get access to the other NYC zoos and the NY Aquarium. Start at the walkthrough zoo, seeing animals from the Americas, including American alligators, American bison and something called a Southern Pudu. See, we can all learn something. After that, head across the path to the farm and petting zoo side. Follow all the rules about feeding the animals. Believe it or not, the zoo is open year round, so check the website in very cold or inclement weather. And remember, this zoo is popular with school groups, especially the younger students.
Touring Flushing Meadows Corona Park Queens NYC
Tip 3. Try out your sea legs and rent a paddleboat on Meadow Lake or get a different type of workout with a surrey bike for the whole family through Wheel Fun Rentals. That park that seemed walkable gets a whole lot bigger when you're trying to navigate a surrey bike through gentle slopes of the park's paths that suddenly seem like major hills. The rental place will tell you which paths are alright for you to to drive through. Make sure an adult is in the "vehicle" and watch out for pedestrians. If you are walking, watch out for the bikes.
Tour Flushing Meadows Corona Park Queens NYC
Tip 4. Get a map of the park and search for all of the monuments, including the iconic Unisphere and Fountain and the Soul in Flight Memorial to Arthur Ashe. While you're walking, if it is not US Open season, you can see some of the practice courts of one of the most famous tennis venues in the world, the center of the tennis universe every late summer.
And if it is tennis time, take advantage of Fan Week, when the area is free. See the pros practice, catch special events and wander from the two main stadiums to the side courts to see the up and coming tennis pros make their way up the ladder to stardom or the championship. Fan Week may not have the major matches (that's the next week, when you have to pay), but the excitement will be there. Arthur Ashe Kids Day is the main event of that week, but you don't have to have a kid to attend. Game, set and match.
Tip 5. Try to find your house or hotel in the famous Panorama of the City of New York at the Queens Museum. The 1939 and 1964 World's Fair were both held in Queens. The actual museum building was the 1939 New York Pavilion. Then, it was an ice skating arena and it was actually the locale for the 1946-1951 United Nations General Assembly. Go figure.
For the 1964 fair, the building hosted the New York Pavilion again, with the then futuristic towers that are still there next door (that Men-in-Black looking thing). Seriously, the location or replicas have been used as locations for movies and television shows.
Meanwhile, inside the museum, the room-sized Panorama of the City of New York was built to display at the 1964 World's Fair: an actual 3D replica of almost every street and many buildings of the city as it was then. To this day, locals love looking at it trying to find their house or apartment building (no, we don't look for the landmarks, that's for tourists, wink, wink). The panorama has been updated periodically and the museum had decided to try to keep updating it. Symbolically, the original Twin Towers were still there as of this writing.
Tour Flushing Meadows Corona Park Queens NYC
Tip 6. Swim or ice skate year round. Subject to current safety and health closures. New York made an ambitious bid for 2012 Summer Olympics, sparking lots of infrastructure building, repairs to existing venues, stadiums and plans for many other locations. Some plans were redeveloped when we didn't get the Games but we did get updates to the swimming pool and ice skating rink that was supposed to be practice venues. Check the park's website, and enjoy the benefits of the US Olympic Committee's labors.
Tip 7. Catch an exciting soccer (or baseball, softball, cricket) game. Local leagues or just pick up games play throughout the park. Support the food trucks. It's one of the most local things you can do while visiting New York. Bring a chair, some cash for the vendors and enjoy the fun like a local. You don't have to even root for a particular side, just appreciate the actual professionalism the athletes display.
Tip 8. Speaking of pro sports: Take in a game or match of the local professional sports: The New York Mets at Citi Field (another bonus we got from the 2012 Olympic bid) and world famous tennis stars at the US Tennis Association annual US Open at Arthur Ashe Stadium. The two areas are connected by a pedestrian bridge at the Mets-Willets Point subway stop. Subject to current safety and health closures.
All jokes about the New York Mets aside, Citi Field is one of the most family friendly ball parks in the country. The park is an homage to Brooklyn's Ebbets Field when the NY Dodgers were there. When the Dodgers moved to LA (and the Giants moved to San Francisco), the Mets were born here in Queens and have been slugging it out since 1962. Starting out in Shea Stadium (the ballpark everyone loved to hate), they now have a home in the ballpark that fans like to love. Look for Shea Stadium bridge within the park and try to find Shea's home plate in the parking lot. Look for Lot B on the third base side.
Before Shea Stadium took its final bow, the Flying Monkeys chased Diana Ross, Michael Jackson and others in the cast of the movie The Wiz down those famous ramps we used to use to exit after a New York Mets game.
Tour Flushing Meadows Corona Park Queens NYC
Tip 9. Take in a little bit of history and see relics of the New York State Pavilion of the 1939 and the 1964 World's Fair, currently trying to get renovated. If you're a Universal Studios fan, you'll recognize the Men in Black attraction based on the movie. If you're a Disney fan, the 1964 World's Fair hosted the Carousel of Progress and Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln to demonstrate the now classic animatronics technology. The classic unisphere is also a souvenir of the 1964 fair. Flushing Meadows Corona Park has been the location for filming a few movies, too: some of the Men in Black franchise, Iron Man, Captain America, local film director Spike Lee's Summer of Sam, and more.
Tour Flushing Meadows Corona Park Queens NYC
Tip 10. Of course, you can cycle or jog the entire park, hike Willow Lake, have a cookout, play sports or do absolutely nothing but snooze. That's the beauty of the park: you don't have to do anything at all but enjoy it. Lots of us do.
Some ways to get there:
Public Transportation: MTA 7 train to 111 Street or Willets Point
Car: From east or west, Grand Central Parkway to Flushing Meadows-Corona Park.
Train: LIRR to Jamaica, take the E train to Roosevelt Ave-Jackson Heights, transfer to the 7.
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