Spending a Day in Flushing, Queens for under $30, New York, New York

Last year, one of my friends asked me to meet her at the last stop of the 7 train. We were headed out to Long Island, and she was going to pick me up there in her car. I stepped out of the train and was sure that I must have gone the wrong way. Suddenly, I was in Chinatown except I was in Queens. It was a tad overwhelming at first, but I decided to embrace the randomness of the day by grabbing a bubble tea while I waited. Ever since, I’ve wanted to go back and explore. This weekend, I finally got around to it, and it was everything I hoped for.

My best friend from high school (Sharmaine), her fiancé (Anthony), and friend (Sush) all joined in on the fun. Sharmaine’s family had introduced me to Chinatown in high school, so I knew she’d have invaluable advice on Flushing. Boy was I right!

I had never been to any of the places on this itinerary, so you might notice a theme of us getting lost a lot in this post. Thank goodness my friends were troopers about it. The Queens Botanical Garden was small but charming. We were able to walk the entire thing in less than an hour while stopping to take photos. It’s the kind of place you could have a quiet picnic or a romantic walk with your loved one. It was much smaller than the Brooklyn Botanical Garden but also a lot less crowded. We watched women doing Tai Chi and couples strolling hand in hand. There were tons of tulips in bloom and birds chirping in the distance. ...... (follow the instructions below for accessing the rest of this article).