The Best Independent Living Communities in Queens County, NY

"Coterie Hudson Yards is very nice, but it's very expensive. I went on a tour of their assisted living and the rooms are beautiful, the staff is very friendly, and the food is wonderful. It's almost like a restaurant-type atmosphere where you can order drinks with all types of food and entertainment. You have the piano player going while you're eating. The people are polite and professional. I also had a meal with them. They have a wonderful menu and a chef right on the premises. Their rooms are not shared, but they also accommodate couples. They take the residents on tours down to Manhattan and go to different places and different restaurants. It's a wonderful place."

"It was great. It was the first place I went to see, but it was not assisted living -- only independent living. They were really fantastic, and the people were very friendly. They had everything, including a pool. The rooms were nice but not that big."

"Atria Riverdale is very, very nice. The area is nice. They showed us a room, and it was a nice room. I saw people outside sitting down and enjoying themselves. I really, really like it. The staff was very, very nice. She knew how to explain everything, and she showed us everything. She was very, very good. The dining area looked very nice, very clean, and very professional. The food is the way it should be. It's separated, not together. It's very nice."

"My mom is in Wartburg. She went there for rehab, and they have an assisted living program right there, so we transferred her from rehab right to assisted living. To me, the place is excellent. They have excellent care there. She had excellent care in the rehab center. They have excellent ratings. She is in senior housing now. The staff is wonderful. I haven't had a problem. They're very pleasant and very easy to talk to. They take care of my mother, which is the main thing. She has a studio apartment and she's very happy. Her room is excellent. It's clean. They come in constantly to do housekeeping. They're very excellent. Basically, they remodeled the place and it's beautiful. The grounds are beautiful. She is getting very good care there. The food is good. There's three meals a day. If you don't like what they're serving you, you can get plenty of substitutes. Whatever you want, the chef makes it for you. Right now, because of the COVID, they only have a music program, trivia, and Jeopardy. They don't have too many activities. They can't have anybody from the outside come in. The music program is nice. They have somebody coming in twice a week to do music. It was also the most reasonable place that we checked out."

"I would rate RiverWalk Senior Apartments highly. The condition of the place and the staff is good. If I could, I would have moved there but they only had one bedroom and I wanted a big apartment. They give you trials. You can come in for maybe two months and see if that's the place you want to live. The staff took me to 4 different apartments in 4 different sizes. I thought the apartment was clean and ready for a move-in. He said if you want to, you could buy your furniture. The dining room looks like a five-star restaurant. It had tablecloths and nice rugs. It was very nice. They even have a pool and a beautiful garden."

"Divine Serenity Assisted Living looked like it was a residence that they converted to individual rooms. The time I was there, as far as I know, the residents were either on a trip or going to the doctor, so there were no residents there. The lady showed me the area where they would be doing work in the building. She also showed me a room. She answered all my questions. She told me how they take care of the residents. They have a nurse that comes in and a doctor. If the resident has to take medicine they take care of that too."

"I toured The Willows Home. It's lovely. I talked to a couple of residents, and they're very happy there. The nurse said that they have three meals a day, entertainment, and a beautiful common room. The bedrooms were very nice. The entire place is clean, but it's not what we're looking for right now. The dining area was lovely. They have a beautiful dining table, and everyone has a place at the table. She showed me the well-stocked kitchen. They have three hot meals a day, plus snacks are available to the residents. The staff was very gracious and very understanding. She showed me around, a very nice lady. The facility was very clean and had a very pleasant smell. The bathrooms were clean. The toilets were clean. I have nothing bad to say about it. It was a very nice place. They're somewhere I would consider if they had the accessibility that my father needs right now."

"We toured The Esplanade at Palisades. The people there looked very happy and were very involved in whatever activity was happening when we were taking the tour. The staff was very friendly and welcoming and stopped to give us feedback on their responsibilities as we passed. The size of the room is fine. We saw a studio that had an independent bathroom. We saw what they used as a model, so I don't know what the actual rooms look like. The administrator told us there were some areas where they were upgrading. Some things looked old, but they were in the process of upgrading. Everything looked fine, and they offered housekeeping. The dining area looked very nice. It looked like a cafeteria-style place."

"Gladhaven Club is a small community. There are only about 12 to 15 people there. It's located in an old house so it's very homey. I feel like it's a nice community to be moving into. My tour experience was very good. The rooms vary in size, but they're all quite nice and they are very nicely furnished. If you prefer, you can bring your own furniture too. It appeared to be very well kept. The dining area is communal dining. I didn't have any food, but they said it was all home cooking. I'm hoping it's going to be good. They don't have activities like they do in some places. They have parties occasionally, but they don't have regular activities."

"The person I visited at The Knolls really likes the place. It has a very big Olympic-sized swimming pool, and she is a swimmer, so she really loves that. She can drive her car and everything, so she is kind of on her own, and she likes that of course. She has a two-bedroom that has a really nice kitchen, and she can cook her own food if she wants. She has a washer and dryer in the bathroom, and there's one room that is set up like an office with a desk, and she can use that. I saw the dining room, but no one was eating in it. I didn't meet any staff, but my friend showed us the place herself. The facility is not brand new, but it's not really old either, so it's nice."

"We liked everything about Villas of Holmdel. We picked out a two-bedroom apartment, played with the long-term care policy for almost a year, and then they finally said, "No way." This place felt very homey and wasn't huge. The residents looked about our age. The food was excellent, and we had lunch there. We loved the two-bedroom apartment, and I felt we would have been comfortable living there. The lady who gave the tour held that apartment for us. She stayed in constant contact with my son and worked with us. I gave her a deposit. She tried so hard to get us there. The dining area was very nice. They had a nice movie theater, a grandchildren's night, an ice cream bar, a spa, a beauty parlor, an exercise room, and outdoor seating."

"We toured Thrive at Montvale. We liked the amenities, and we liked the fact that it was very new and very fresh. It was very nice. The staff was great, and we enjoyed the tour. We liked their meal plan and the size of the facility. It was not too big and not too small. We liked the fact that they could move from independent to assisted living if they needed to. The staff was very knowledgeable and friendly, and they wanted to get to know my parents, which was good. The cleanliness was great. We liked the courtyard quite a bit. They had a garden room and a giant LEGO area for families to play in, and they had water features, but the units were a little bit on the small side. The atmosphere was vibrant, and we liked the setup, the layout, and the spaces."

"I'm very impressed with Birchwood Suites. I liked it very much, but I want to see other options, and the price was high. I want independent living, and I'd like to have a place to sit outside, and I am coming with my cat. I like that I had kind of my own cottage with two entrances, and it had an outside little tiny patio where I could sit. I spoke to the director, Natasha, and she led me around the place. She was very nice and very encouraging. The facility looked pretty good. I had a separate bedroom, a separate living room, and a small kitchenette. The bathroom looked good."

"I toured the Heritage of Clara Barton, and I liked the location. The lobby was very nice and expansive. I liked that they had a separate laundry room, a very nice common area, a stove, and a refrigerator. The staff was very nice, and she made me feel very welcome. I liked the size of the kitchen, but I thought the living room and the bedroom were small."