Queens, United States

Queens is a crescent-shaped (with a tail) borough traversing the north-to-south width of Long Island and including two of the major New York City area airports, LaGuardia (LGA ^IATA) and John F. Kennedy International (JFK ^IATA). It also carries the largest ethnic diversity in its area of any region in the world, with many small enclaves. Jackson Heights, for example, includes a huge Indian area, followed by a Colombian area, and then a Mexican area. Each offers a wide array of authentic shops, native-style cuisine, and festivals modified only slightly by the generally colder New York City experience.

The geographical center of New York City is in nearby Brooklyn, and Queens is home to Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, the site of the 1939 and 1964 World's Fairs. The area around the park still includes an interesting museum and some architectural and artistic relics of the events (including the Unisphere, a 300-ton spherical grid of steel, the world's largest globe, as featured in "Men In Black"). The northern end of the old fairgrounds includes Citi Field, home of the New York Mets professional baseball team, and the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, home of the U.S. Open (tennis); further north one can walk along the edge of the marina along the Long Island Sound. The park also includes a science museum, a zoo, and pedal-boats, and hosts frequent special events.