Everything You Wanted to Know About the Rockaways

Amongst the many worlds contained in NYC, the Rockaways is easily the most beautiful. It really is a world all its own. It's the pennisula of the archipelago that is the city, sprouting out of the southeastern part of Queens into its own magical land.

There are nine neighborhoods that make it up, almost all of them beach communities that feel more like Miami or Southern California than the Big Apple. About 130,000 people live there, enjoying a different kind of life than most of their fellow New Yorkers. The beaches are vast and beautiful, the streets mostly quiet. And, in a city that operates on high octane neuroses, it's a calm, chill, blissed out oasis.

There's A LOT to learn about the Rockaways. In fact, The New York Times did one of their "36 Hours In ..." features on just the Rockaways alone. The history of this pennisula is profound -- it literally began as a vacation resort for many city residents, a relaxed beachy escape contained within the city limits where people had second homes. Robert Moses, of course, got his mits on it, constructing roads and bridges that directly connected it to the rest of the city. And, more recently, it got hit hard by Hurricaine Sandy, and, although it survived, it is still recovering.

So, if you really wanna know more about the Rockaways ...

Read about its history.

Read about the experience of a young teacher who worked at a Catholic School there.

Read about what you can do there in 36 hours.

And read Mr NYC's own past Rockaways coverage and coverage of Sandy back in 2012.

New York City is a place you can never stop discovering.