Going to the US Open: getting to Flushing Meadows and what's around it
The last two weeks of summer in Flushing Meadows: the 7 train to the gate, the LIRR if you're in a hurry, the free Fan Week before the main draw, and the two neighborhoods either side of the park — Corona and Flushing — for food that beats anything inside the grounds.
- When
- August 30, 2026 – September 12, 2026
- Cost
- Ticketed
- Where
- USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, Queens, NY 11368
- Official site
- usopen.org
The US Open runs for the last two weeks of summer — the main draw starts on the last Monday of August and the finals are the second weekend of September — at the tennis center in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park in Queens. It is the biggest annual sporting event in the city by attendance, it is on the subway, and the park it sits in and the neighborhoods either side of it are worth more of your day than the grounds' food.
Getting there is the 7 train from Times Square or Grand Central to Mets–Willets Point, about thirty minutes, and the gates are a short walk across the boardwalk from the station. The Long Island Rail Road runs from Penn Station and Grand Central to the same stop in about twenty minutes during the tournament and is worth the higher fare in the evening, when the 7 platform is a crowd. Do not drive; there is nowhere to put a car.
The week before the main draw is Fan Week, with free admission to the grounds to watch qualifying and practice, and it is the best-value tennis in the city. The main draw's day-session grounds pass gets you onto every court but the big stadium for far less than a stadium seat, and in the first week that is most of the tournament.
The list
Flushing Meadows-Corona ParkFree
Corona / Flushing · Queens
The tennis center is inside it, and the Unisphere is a five-minute walk from the gates — the park is where to be before the session and between matches. The Queens Museum's model of the whole city is ten minutes' walk away and open during the tournament; the park is free and it is enormous.
FlushingUnder $25
Flushing · Queens
One stop further out on the 7, or a walk across the park, and the right dinner after a day session: hand-pulled noodles and dumplings in a food court for less than a grounds-pass sandwich. Most people leave the tennis and head back to Manhattan; the better move is out, to Flushing, and back later on a quieter train.
Louis Armstrong House MuseumUnder $25
Corona · Queens
Armstrong's house in Corona is a fifteen-minute walk from the park's western edge, and the stadium's name honours him — the guided tour is a morning before an afternoon session, and a reason to arrive on the 7 at 103rd Street and walk through the neighborhood to the tennis.
Queens Night MarketUnder $25
Corona · Queens
On the Saturday evenings of the tournament the Night Market is running in the northern part of the same park, a ten-minute walk from the gates: a hundred vendors from dozens of countries under a price ceiling. Night session at the tennis or the market — the market is cheaper and the food is better.
Common questions
- Subway or LIRR?
The 7 for cost and frequency: a standard fare, every few minutes, about thirty minutes from Midtown, and a ten-minute walk from the platform to the gates. The LIRR for speed, especially leaving a night session when the 7 platform is a crowd: twenty minutes to Penn Station or Grand Central, at a higher fare, from the same Mets–Willets Point stop. Many people do the 7 out and the LIRR back.
- Is any of it free?
Fan Week, the week before the main draw, is free: grounds admission to watch qualifying matches and practice sessions, with the players up close. During the tournament nothing inside is free, but the park around it is, and so is walking to the Unisphere. The day-session grounds pass is the cheap ticket — every court but Arthur Ashe Stadium, and in the first week that is most of the tennis.
- What should I eat?
Not the grounds food, if you can help it — it is stadium-priced. Flushing is one stop out on the 7 and is the best Chinese food destination in the country; Corona, one stop in, has tacos and Ecuadorian plates on Roosevelt Avenue and the ices stand the neighborhood queues for. On Saturday evenings the Night Market is in the park itself. The Queens food crawl on this site is the full version.
Who should skip this
Anyone who has not bought tickets and is hoping to walk up on a finals weekend — the main draw sells out well ahead, and the walk-up option is Fan Week the week before, which is free and worth it.