- Coffee: i dont drink coffee much so i wouldnt really know but there's a cool cafe in Chinatown called Silk Road Cafe; you can get both coffee and boba/ other teas there AND theres an entire sort of "hidden" tabletop/card store in the very back where you can both buy cards and play! (There's a second floor and basement in the back too!)
- Parks:
- Columbus Park in Chinatown - it's really wonderful; there's a lot of culture there, there's really nice flowers and trees blooming there rn - there's a historical statue here of Sun yat-sen there, old folks and even kids aliks come there to play chess on the stone chess tables there, last time I was there, there was someone singing beautiful music into a microphone. This park is also near Silk Road as well as other fun entertainment places like a store exclusively full of crane games and capsule machines, a "family fun arcade" with dancing games, and more!
- Forest Park (in Forest Hills, Queens) is virtually quite literally a forest. One entrance is really close to a parkway, but otherwise, when you go deeper in, you can enjoy a lot of nature (well, at least a lot for NYC.) There are even various small trails off the main path in the "park" (Many people frequent the main path as a bicycle route!) Part of the park leads deep into a more clear (non wooded area) with an antique merry go round, benches, and a playing field for baseball, soccer, or other sports (or was it a patch of grass? I know there's a place to go biking around there.) I used to go on the merry go round all the time as a kid (I know they "replaced" it at some point but I think it's still around a century old!) -- I don't know if it's still in operation though. There is another section of the park where they actually have STABLES where they keep HORSES. There are horse riders there too. (My brother does volunteer work as someone who teaches small children to ride the horses as part of a program. He gets to take care of the horses too.) There's also a playground within the park, close to the horse stables and an entrance, that's pretty big. When I was a kid the playground used to have WOODEN play sets, but at some point they replaced em with lame plastic ones. They have a tire swing (and normal swings) though, as well as a circle of small stumps of different heights that i used to skip around on as a kid. They also have these weird two giant wooden chipmunk statues that are STILL THERE lol -- when I was a kid me and my sister would sit on top of them and pretend they were our steeds.
There's even an abandoned railroad hidden in the park! Me and my siblings used to climb over the wall and explore it lol
this park is in Forest Hills, which actually has a nice and idyllic vibe. There's a lot of flowers and nature around here. One entrance to Forest Park is actually close to Metropolitan Avenue, which is a (relatively) small avenue with nice, quaint shops along it (many have been there for a long time - Like Eddie's Sweet shop - which I think has been around over 100 or almost 100 years -, a vintage icecream parlor that hasn't changed a bit since it's establishment! From the decorations/flooring/tiling/wallpaper to the furniture, bar seats, and menu, nothing has changed. It's like stepping straight into the early 90's (or late 80's?) They even have a counter area lined with candy displays across from the actual counter behind which they make icea cream in plain sight where you can see them scooping and preparing it.
nearby Eddies Sweet Shop is actually a tiny and old movie theater that's still in operation! you could watch a movie there too! On
Metropolitan Avenue there is also a quaint indie cafe called Ellie's Place that's small and serves tea, boba, coffee, and some bread/pastries! It's run and manned entirely by the owner, Ellie (sometimes with the help of her kids.) (I've known Ellie since before the pandemic when her place used to be called Sunrise Market -- she's really sweet.)
Continue further down the avenue and past it, and you'll pass some big buildings like Home Depot, Trader Joes, Staples, Micheals, etc... keep walking further for a while, and there is actually a cemetery over there. So you can get coffee, visit an amazing park, AND visit a cemetery all in the same neighborhood! (Oh yeah, there are also a TON of restaurants/cafes with a heavy "bar" presence on Metropolitan Avenue too! I see lots of signs about "happy hour"... honestly I wouldn't know about this realm since I don't drink and am underage LMAO - there's even a novelty place there called... what was it called?... anyways, the gimmick is that you can drink AND paint there, so you can go there with your friends and try your hand at painting while drunk. (Oh, now I remember - the place is called "Painting with a Twist"!) maybe it will be fun!
Also there's a gas station on this avenue so if you're driving over to NYC or renting a car, that'll probably be helpful!
Sorry for the long post - hope I could help, and enjoy ur time in NYC! :D