THE UNITED-NATIONS-OF-QUEENS TOUR

Comedian Rodney Dangerfield would have expressed it this way: "Queens don't get no respect!" In a sense, that's true. While the travel section at Barnes & Noble offers perhaps a dozen volumes covering Brooklyn, you won't find even a single book detailing the pleasures of New York's largest and most varied borough. We simply can't imagine why.

Queens is not only huge. It's also America's single most diverse county, in terms of ethnic and religious groups. What's more, Queens is chock-full of fascinating neighborhoods, great shopping opportunities and absolutely wonderful food.

During the course of this six-hour adventure, you'll see:

> Astoria (including an outdoor beer garden opened by Czechs a century ago, several blocks lined with Egyptian hookah cafes and a sensational array of eateries offering Greek and Italian home cooking)

> Flushing (one of the earliest Dutch settlements but now a bustling community filled with Chinese, Korean and South Asian families)

> Forest Hills (among the most admired planned communities in the United States – and still every bit as green and gracious as it was in 1913)

> Jackson Heights (designed as New York's very first garden community – and today a microcosm of the world, with cuisines from three dozen countries available for sampling within a relatively concentrated area)

> Roosevelt Island (splendidly isolated in the middle of the East River and once home only to TB hospitals and lunatic asylums – but today the location of walking paths, parks and gleaming apartment towers; linked to Manhattan by a thrilling aerial tramway)

OK, we confess. This Queens tour is our favorite, largely because those who come along with us are always so surprised and delighted by what they experience.

You’ll receive a detailed listing of the most prominent sites we see during this outing; printed suggestions on great ethnic restaurants in the various Queens neighborhoods we visit; and information of other worthwhile New York attractions you might not discover on your own.

Reservations are required. Tours often sell out well in advance.

Check available dates and purchase tickets online.

To purchase tickets by phone, call Zerve at 212/209-3370.