Indoor Attractions in Queens, New York

Queens is the second-most populated borough in the city of New York, and its parks and beaches are huge draws in the summer. However, when Mother Nature makes outdoor activities uncomfortable, Queens offers numerous indoor attractions like shopping, ethnic eating, museums and even ice skating.

Museums

• Manhattan has more famous museums like the Guggenheim and Metropolitan, but Queens has its share of highly respected art houses. The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) has a sister museum in Long Island City, MoMA: PS1, that is hipper and younger than its Midtown sibling. The Museum of the Moving Image, which completed its $67 million expansion in 2011, is a media museum on the campus of Kaufman Astoria Studios, which has been used by such films as "Goodfellas" and "Hair" and by television shows like "Sesame Street." Other notable museums include Queens Museum of Art and the New York Hall of Science.

Shopping Centers

• Most people associate SoHo, Herald Square and Fifth Avenue with New York City shopping, but Queens has several of the city’s largest indoor shopping centers. The Queens Center Mall is the borough’s largest at nearly 1 million square feet, and as of 2009, it was one of the top five most profitable malls in the country. Macy’s, Victoria’s Secret and H&M are among the top retail brands filling the massive complex in the Elmhurst neighborhood. The Queens Place Mall is just a block away with another 440,000 square feet of retail shopping with stores like Best Buy and Target. Opened in late 2010, the new Sky View Mall in Flushing has 30,000 square feet of restaurants and 800,000 square feet of retail shopping, including usual suspects like Old Navy and Bed Bath & Beyond. Located in Queens' Chinatown, the mall stands out for its many Asian-themed shops and markets.

Restaurants

• Queens is considered the most ethnically diverse borough in the most ethnically diverse city in the U.S. This makes for incredibly authentic and delicious culinary experiences. Astoria is arguably the most popular neighborhood for upscale ethnic cuisine with particularly strong Greek, Cypriot, Italian and Egyptian restaurants, while Jackson Heights is home to Little Colombia and Little India. The 7 subway train, which stretches from Long Island City to Flushing in Queens, is called the "International Express" because it passes through Chinese, Indian, Irish, Turkish, Romanian, Mexican, Italian and other neighborhoods which all provide authentic dining experiences.

Ice Skating

• Central Park and Rockefeller Center are the iconic ice skating parks in Manhattan during the winter, but Queens has indoor skating all year long. The Flushing Meadows Corona Park is a huge complex with a theater, tennis center, botanical garden, zoo, museums and the Citi Field baseball stadium. Its World Ice Arena offers freestyle skating, hockey camps, private lessons, theater on ice and several other activities. Its sister site, the City Ice Pavilion, has similar activities in Long Island City. Both ice rinks are open throughout the year.

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Places to Go in Queens, New York City

When it comes to tourism, New York City's four boroughs that aren't Manhattan often get overlooked. It's understandable, but also a shame. Those other four boroughs, including Queens, contain fascinating and worthwhile sights that may fall off the general tourist's radar. But if your interests lie in sports, history, art and nature, making a few stops in Queens might be a good idea on any trip to the Big Apple.

Pro Sporting Events

• Queens is home to the New York Mets, who play at Citi Field in Flushing Meadows Park. Citi Field replaced the Mets' former home of Shea Stadium at Flushing Meadows and is notable for being a baseball-only designed ballpark that can't host football games as Shea did. The ballpark features many classic design elements reminiscent of the grand old baseball venues, such as Ebbet's Field, which once stood in Brooklyn next to Queens. Tours of the facility are offered throughout the year. Tennis fans flock to the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows each year for the U.S. Open. The 23,000-seat Arthur Ashe Stadium is part of the complex, considered the largest tennis stadium in the world.

Museums

• Not all of New York City's renowned cultural institutions are in Manhattan. In fact, Queens is home to some of the city's more enthralling and specialized museums. They may be a lot smaller than, say, the Met or the Guggenheim, but you'll find some entrancing exhibits housed in museum galleries east of the Queensboro Bridge. For film buffs, a visit to the Museum of the Moving Image is a must. If you have children in tow, the New York Hall of Science is geared toward them with its many interactive learning displays. Art aficionados should check out both MoMA PS1 -- a branch of the Museum of Modern Art devoted to displaying experimental art in a historic space -- and the Queens Museum of Art.

Parks and Green Space

• If you have time to visit only one park in Queens, make it Flushing Meadows. Not only does it contain Queens' most well-known attractions, there's also a healthy dose of green space to boot. Head to Forest Park for a stroll through a real patch of woods and to Astoria Park for amazing city skyline views from the walkway along the banks of the East River. Surprising to many first-timers, and maybe even to some locals, Queens is home to a National Park at the Jamaica Bay Unit of the Gateway National Recreation Area. The enormous, protected bay also contains a wildlife refuge that's a significant bird sanctuary and a popular spot for birders.

Historical Sites

• A good place to begin exploring area history is at the Kingsland Homestead in Weeping Beech Park. Built in 1785, it's a fine remaining example of the farmhouses that were once found throughout the area during colonial times and is now a house museum open for tours on selected days of the week or by appointment. More farm history can be found at the Queens County Farm Museum, a still-working farm dating to 1697 that claims to be the largest remaining undisturbed tract of farmland in New York City. From 1943 until his death in 1971, jazz great and cultural icon Louis Armstrong called the same house in Queens home. Today, that house is the Louis Armstrong House Museum, devoted to covering the life and legacy of the legendary musician.

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