Queens: A Day Beyond the Courts

Queens is the most ethnically diverse urban area in the world, by most counts. Over 160 languages are spoken in the borough. The food, the street life, and the neighbourhood character vary dramatically within a few subway stops. A rest day in Queens — a day not spent at the tennis — is worth organising around that variety rather than around Manhattan landmarks.

The 7 train and the N/W lines are your spine. Everything described here is on or near those routes.

Take the N or W train (from Midtown Manhattan or from the 7 via transfer at Queensboro Plaza) to Ditmars Boulevard in Astoria. The neighbourhood is the centre of New York's Greek community, with a stretch of tavernas, coffee shops, and fish restaurants along Ditmars Boulevard and 31st Street that have been there long enough to be genuinely established rather than trend-driven.

The coffee shops on Ditmars are the best starting point — Greek-style strong coffee, pastries, table service, no rush. Breakfast in Astoria on a weekday morning is relaxed in a way that most of New York is not.

From Astoria, the waterfront along Astoria Park gives you the best view of the Hell Gate Bridge and the East River, with Manhattan visible across the water. The park itself is large, well-maintained, and almost always quieter than equivalent Central Park areas.

Two stops on the N/W from Astoria, Long Island City is the closest Queens neighbourhood to Midtown Manhattan — you can see the skyline from the waterfront in detail that makes you realise how close you actually are.

MoMA PS1 (22-25 Jackson Avenue, Long Island City) is the contemporary art annex of the Museum of Modern Art, in a converted public school building in LIC. Admission is free for all visitors. The summer Warm Up series (Saturdays, outdoor, music-focused) runs through August — worth checking the schedule at momaps1.org before you go.

The LIC waterfront — Gantry Plaza State Park — is free, has excellent views, and is where the neighbourhood comes to sit in the afternoon. The old Pepsi-Cola sign (a neon landmark visible from Manhattan) is at the north end.

Back on the 7 from Queens Plaza toward Flushing, exit at 74th Street-Broadway for Jackson Heights. This is the food mile covered in the separate experience — Roosevelt Avenue, the Tibetan and Indian and Mexican and Colombian corridor that runs under the elevated tracks. Late afternoon is when the street vendors are at full operation, the bakeries and sweet shops are busy, and the full range of the neighbourhood's food is accessible.

The 7 train from Jackson Heights toward Flushing connects to Mets-Willets Point for the tournament, or continues to Main Street Flushing if that's your base. The direct ride from 74th Street-Broadway to Times Square is around 25 minutes if you're returning to Midtown Manhattan for the evening.