Weekend Guides for the Curious Traveler
Queens

It may take a while to reach your first destination of the day, but it's well worth the trek. The Welling Court Mural Project, which covers entire city blocks of wall space with eye-catching street art, is a good 20-minute walk from the nearest subway station. It started in 2009 and has been growing ever since, with a fresh slate of visiting artists coming in each year to leave their mark. There are now roughly 140 murals in the collection, so leave yourself plenty of time to explore the neighborhood. 

On the edge of the East River you'll find Socrates Sculpture Park, a small outpost dotted with monumental sculptures. The park is relatively modest (as always in New York, space is at a premium), but it's home to fascinating sculptural works year-round. Be sure to head to the back of the park, where huge metal installations that aren’t technically on display can be glimpsed like caged animals behind shrubbery and a fence. If you still need more art, note that the Noguchi Museum is less than a block away. Founded by the artist Isamu Noguchi, the museum offers a uniquely serene atmosphere. Don’t let the fact that it's across the street from a big-box shopping center deter you.

Jackson Heights is incredibly diverse, and the food options in this area reflect that. You can't go wrong at Lhasa Fast Food, a tiny, five-table Tibetan spot tucked away behind a cell phone store. Delicious traditional dishes including spicy beef glass noodles and momo dumplings are served in the no-frills backroom. There are only two photos on display at Lhasa Fast Food: a large picture of the Dalai Lama hanging over the counter, and a snapshot of Anthony Bourdain, who once paid them a visit. If you can't snag a table here, the acclaimed Jackson Diner is just across the street, offering family-style Indian food.

Wandering through Flushing Meadows–Corona Park, you never know what remnants of the future you might stumble across. The most iconic attractions are the Unisphere and nearby World’s Fair Pavilion, famous for their appearance in the movie Men In Black. But there's plenty more to see here that many visitors miss. Closer to the action is the bronze sculpture known as Rocket Thrower. Also worth a look is Forms in Transit, a dilapidated retro-futuristic spaceship, which can be found near a service road behind the New York Hall of Science.

At the foot of the Unisphere is the Queens Museum, home to the Panorama of the City of New York, an incredible scale model of the city that's been painstakingly updated several times since 1964. Conceived as a celebration of municipal infrastructure by World’s Fair President Robert Moses, the Panorama was originally built by a team of more than 100 people over the course of three years. Be sure to stay for an entire dawn-to-dusk lighting cycle, and note the tiny airplanes that take off and land at little La Guardia airport. 

The famed magician's grave can be found in the Hungarian section of the sprawling Machpelah Cemetery in Ridgewood, Queens. The cemetery itself is a rangy Jewish burial ground spanning multiple blocks. Among tall weeds and jumbled gravestones is a wide cement horseshoe that marks Houdini’s final resting place. The monumental bench is topped with a bust of the magician—it's actually been stolen and vandalized in the past. Just below that is Houdini’s grave, a spot where pilgrim illusionists leave cards, coins, and even handcuffs for the deceased escape artist. Tensions between the cemetery and the magic society that once cared for the grave have allowed it to become somewhat overgrown and run down, but its current state only serves to make the site seem all the more supernatural.

Keep the spirit of Houdini going and stop by the nearby Houdini Kitchen Laboratory. While the restaurant might not hide as many tricks up its sleeves as its namesake, it does offer wood-fired pizzas from inside an old brewery. Located in a traditionally industrial area of the neighborhood, it’s not the first place you might think to go for artisanal Italian food, but it does the trick.

Start the day with some peaceful contemplation at the Ganesh Temple in Flushing, also known as the Hindu Temple Society of North America. Ornate religious stonework rises from the top of this long, squat building. Inside the temple, the glimmering statuary is no less jaw-dropping. Once you’ve removed your shoes, you can enter the main hall, which is home to dozens of shrines to individual Hindu deities, represented by golden idols adorned with jewels, flowers, and other offerings. An active place for worship, the long main hall is also blissfully silent. Ganesh claims to be the first traditional Hindu temple in the United States—whether this is strictly true or not, it's without a doubt an unforgettable experience. If you’re hungry, the canteen in the basement offers traditional dosas and other South Indian dishes that are both authentic and inexpensive.

Not far from the temple is one of the borough’s sometimes overlooked green spaces. The Queens Botanical Garden offers an open and wide-ranging experience, from a tiny forest to a rose garden where the air smells divine. The garden is a welcome respite from the relative insanity of the neighborhood’s nearby main street. Take some time to relax. If you’re looking for a private spot in all the greenery, look out for the somewhat hidden path that leads to the roof of the visitor’s center. The entire roof is its own little garden, fed by rainwater. A serene mix of plants and architecture.  

Queens' original Chinatown offers an overwhelming plethora of options for food and shopping, much of which isn’t advertised in English. The epicenter of it all is the bustling Golden Shopping Mall food court. This basement bazaar has received some attention in recent years thanks to visits by the late Anthony Bourdain, but it still maintains its often impenetrable (unless you speak Chinese) charm. Like the streets above, the space is packed with people, but the noodles, dumplings, and specialty dishes on offer are like nothing else in the city. 

After you’ve filled up, head out to the open fields and overgrown ruins of Fort Totten Park. Located in the farthest reaches of the borough’s northeast corner, the park is a hilly lump of land right on the water, which holds the remains of a disused Civil War battery. Initially built to defend the East River from Confederate naval attacks, the base remained in use until the 1970s, when it was converted into semi-public space. Now you can walk through the ruins of the old concrete defenses and take in stunning views of Little Neck Bay and the Throgs Neck Bridge. The ruins themselves are sometimes locked up in the morning, but if you get there too early, you can still check out the nearby historic buildings left over from when the fort was operational.

The Queens County Farm Museum is a working farm with vegetable crops, livestock, and even a replica windmill, located on the longest continuously farmed piece of land in the state, with a history that dates back to the 1600s. You can feed the alpacas, tucked away in a paddock at the back of the farm, or pet the soft wool of the lambs nearer to the front. They also have a seasonal market where you can buy some of the farm’s homegrown produce. Every so often, hints of the surrounding city manage to creep in (is that a streetball court just beyond the goat enclosure?), but for the most part, it’s easy to get the feeling that you’re out in the country. You’ll probably want to splurge on a taxi to take you to and from this stop, as it’s slightly out of the way, but well worth the trip.

Indulge in something sweet at the only remaining outpost of a once-widespread New York franchise. Jahn's has been around in one form or another since the 19th century (the first location opened in the Richmond Hills neighborhood). The franchise made its name thanks to its signature “Kitchen Sink Sundae,” a massive pile of ice cream flavors meant to feed a group of people. Today the only remaining Jahn's is located in Jackson Heights, but they still maintain the historic atmosphere, even as they’ve expanded the menu to include diner-style offerings.