Hempstead

Hempstead is the most populous town in America, with a whopping 700,000 residents, located on the South Shore of Nassau County, New York. The town is highly urbanized and fragmented, containing 22 semi-autonomous villages within its boundaries, and forty other neighborhoods.

Garden City, encompassing the "Nassau Hub" region, has its own article. The other prominent communities in Hempstead include Floral Park, Hempstead Village, Valley Stream, Rockville Centre, Freeport, Merrick, and the Five Towns area.

Understand


Hempstead is the nation's most populous town, and the second most populous municipality in New York, and one of the twenty largest municipalities in the country. It is divided into 22 villages and 40 additional neighborhoods, including the following:


 * Bellmore is a fairly affluent village in the eastern part of town, close to the ocean. This isn't the place to go if you are looking for action, but if you are looking for a nice place to just hangout this is a safe area.
 * The Five Towns is somewhat of a misnomer, as it includes eight communities in the western part of town — Cedarhurst, Inwood, Lawrence, Woodmere, Woodsburgh, Hewlett, Hewlett Bay Park, Hewlett Harbor, and Hewlett Nek. They are adjacent to the New York City borough of Queens.

Get in
Although many people reach this area by automobile, the town’s urbanized nature and large population also allows most areas to have easy rail access. The Lynbrook, Rockville Center, Baldwin, Freeport, Merrick, Bellmore, Wantagh, and Seaford areas can all be easily reached from New York City by the South Shore Line ("Babylon branch") of the Long Island Railroad. However, if you are headed for the actual shore (including Freeport's Nautical Mile), most of these stations will still leave you about 2 mi inland, and local public transportation options are limited.

Additionally, downtown Hempstead, Garden City, Floral Park and Stewart Manor can be reached via the Hempstead branch. The Far Rockaway Branch serves the Five Towns with five stations serving Hewlett, Woodmere, Inwood, Cedarhurst and Lawrence, and the West Hempstead branch serves Hempstead Gardens, Lakeview, Malvern and Westwood. With the exception of the Hempstead branch, all of these branches converge at Valley Stream, which allows for much of the town to be easily accessible without a car.

Eat

 * Freeport also has numerous inexpensive casual Central American, Caribbean, and northern South American restaurants near the center of town, mostly catering to a Latino clientele.
 * Freeport also has numerous inexpensive casual Central American, Caribbean, and northern South American restaurants near the center of town, mostly catering to a Latino clientele.
 * Freeport also has numerous inexpensive casual Central American, Caribbean, and northern South American restaurants near the center of town, mostly catering to a Latino clientele.
 * Freeport also has numerous inexpensive casual Central American, Caribbean, and northern South American restaurants near the center of town, mostly catering to a Latino clientele.
 * Freeport also has numerous inexpensive casual Central American, Caribbean, and northern South American restaurants near the center of town, mostly catering to a Latino clientele.

Go next

 * Garden City
 * North Hempstead
 * Long Beach
 * South Oyster Bay
 * Jamaica