THERE'S FRIENDLY - and then there's Willy Mosquera.

Out of some 500 New Yorkers approached by the Daily News last week, this 41-year-old Queens man takes the prize for hospitality.

With tourist season in full swing, five reporters were sent into the city streets to discover whether out-of-towners get the royal treatment or a Bronx cheer in the Big Apple.

Three of four New Yorkers were willing to lend a hand - but no one came close to Mosquera.

With a big smile and the patience of a saint, he passed every test we threw at him inside Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, where he's house manager of the Queens Theatre.

And he was modest about his efforts, too.

"Why not make people feel at home?" he said. "I've gone to other places and people are wonderful. It's payback."

A hot sun was beating down when our "tourist" stopped a passerby inside the park and asked for directions to an upper West Side hotel.

That man didn't know the way but he knew a person who would - and a few minutes later, Mosquera appeared like a desert mirage.

The Ecuadoran-born father of four spread out our subway map on the parking lot blacktop and patiently explained which subways would take us to Manhattan.

When we said we needed to call a friend, out came his cell phone. The battery pack was loose, so he demonstrated how to hold it and then walked away to give us some privacy.

That would impress any Big Apple visitor, but Mosquera's kindness didn't stop there.

He brimmed with advice on which sights to see in Manhattan, and when we showed interest in Queens, he acted as if we were doing him a favor.

A whirlwind tour of the park followed, with Mosquera dispensing factoids about the history of the World's Fair grounds and the scale model of the city at the Hall of Science.

A musician in a bilingual rock band in his free time, he led the way to the New York State Pavilion, talking about how the Doors and Jimi Hendrix played there in the 1960s.

When the attractions in the park were exhausted, Mosquera let us into the theater to use the bathroom and, finally, sent us on our way with an invitation to call if we got lost - or just bored.

"You've got my number," he said cheerfully. "Keep in touch."

When we contacted Mosquera the next day to let him know he had won our contest to find the friendliest New Yorker, he didn't think he had done anything special.

In fact, about a month ago, he ran into a couple from Texas who wanted to see the pavilion, where the husband had played ball as a boy growing up in Queens.

"I let him in and we developed a nice relationship. They were here for three days and I took them to the Socrates Park, this junkyard museum in Long Island City, and I took them to a Colombian restaurant in Jackson Heights called the Red Beret," he said.

"The wife was totally in shock. She said, 'People have been so nice to us.' "

In light of that, Mosquera was actually apologetic he didn't spend as much time with The News' undercover tourist.

"You see, I was in a little bit of a rush," he said. "If I wasn't, I would have taken him to lunch."

tconnor@edit.nydailynews.com

Caption: TARA ENGBERG Willy Mosquera, at work at Flushing Meadows- Corona Park, goes out of his way to help visitors to the World's Fair grounds. "Why not make people feel at home?" he said.