Though the park has tons to do -- there's a zoo, a science museum, a marina, two lakes, an ice skating rink, lots of soccer pitches, and a couple cricket fields -- there's a lot of ground to cover, and you won't want to walk too far from the Willets Point-Shea Stadium stop.
If you're baseball fan, exit the train north for Shea Stadium or the new Citifield (expected in 2009), which will house a baseball museum.
Or, exit south to visit the Billy Jean King Tennis Center for the US Open or even to volley with a pal. The grounds -- though not Arthur Ashe Stadium -- are open throughout the year.
Continue on the footpath past the Open, and you're soon at the most familiar Queens landmark: the Unisphere, a 140-foo-high steel globe and site of the final battle scene in the movie Men in Black. Built for the 1964 World's Fair, it's a masterwork of engineering -- and a cool spot for photographers and skateboarders.
Next to the Unisphere is the Queens Museum of Art, onetime home to the United Nations. Its biggest draw is the amazing Panorama of the City of New York, a diorama of all five boroughs, filling a large room with its 9,335-square-foot, 895,000-building scale model (1 inch equals 100 feet).
