Big Apple Greeter

Where do I start? I first met my GG (Great Greeter) Phil, in Palm Springs Ca. He and his wife were looking over a map of the city deciding on what to do on their last day in town. I gave them some ideas and chatted with them for a few minutes. Found out that they were from NY. I told him that my wife and I would be in NY in about 3 weeks for a little vacation. That’s when he told me about BAG (Big Apple Greeters) duh… And that he was a greeter himself. We arranged to set up a tour. Granted, our reservation almost got lost, but Phil was awesome in fixing the hiccup.
On the morning of our tour, our GG greeted us with a warm smile and hello. As we walked he asked what we were interested in and would like to see. My wife and I are very laid back and are always in the mood to learn and try new things. We gave some suggestions and told him to surprise us.
WOW!!! I have never been given so much information from one person not hosting a 2 hour history channel show. The knowledge our GG had of the city and little side streets, out of the way shops and below ground restaurants that we visited was amazing.
We’ve been on plenty of tours. Most of the time the tour guide is just going through the motions, spitting out gibberish he read in some handbook. Counting the minutes he can cut us loose and go hang with his friends. Our GG was far from the typical tour guide.
I am not sure if they BAG does automobile tours? Ours was a walking tour and man, did we walk… and walk and walk and walk. My wife and I both loving walking, but man, we almost started to take the batteries out of our GG. Phil is a walking machine. I have to say, after 7 hours of walking (took 45 minutes for a lunch break) my dogs were barking big time.
We plan on visiting NY again in April and plan on see another part of the city. And you can believe we will be calling BAG.

Although I’ve been to New York a number of times I haven’t done anything like this before so I decided to give it a shot.
I contacted Big Apple Greeter about a month ro two ahead of my trip. I requested a guided tour for a Friday and I was matched with a greeter. I was a little confused why the pairing process involved them asking where I would be staying and calling my friend to confirm my stay. It felt like a background check, but I guess there is some purpose to it. I was paired up with Mary who turned out to be an outstanding guide. She showed me around Greenwich Village, Chelsea and the Meatpacking district. Even though I was familiar with some of the neighborhoods it was refreshing to go around with her and hear all the tidbits she had to share and to see these neighborhoods through her eyes. We were chatting the entire time and we were together for almost 4 hours which felt like it flew by!
I love that New Yorkers love their city so much that a handful of them volunteer to show people around. This non-​profit operates on a donation basis and is a great alternative to all the other cookie cutter guided tours. This tour will be tailored to you and what you want to do and see. It’s a great way to get to know the City through the eyes of a resident.

Don’t count on them! They may have been good in the past but not now. If I could have given them 0 stars I would. — We were excited about the greeters and made a request a few months in advance. Were very flexible re the time and location– offered both a weekday and a weekend and not on a holiday to give them lots of flexibility. Didn’t hear anything until after the first date past and eventually heard that they didn’t have anyone for the weekend. Definitely didn’t feel welcome. Made the mistake of making a nice contribution to the organization in advance because we thought it was such a good idea.

If I could give Big Apple Greeter 10 stars, I would. The experience was just that fantastic.
Basically, you submit a request for a greeter during your trip to the city. You suggest some dates/​times that work best for you, and then Big Apple Greeter looks for volunteers whose availability matches your visit/​request. About a week before your visit, you’ll hear from them with your match, and the contact information for your greeter. The greeters are ALL VOLUNTEERS. They do this for FREE. They are kind of like free, private tour guides, but really, in our case, it was so much more than that. Meeting up with our volunteer felt like meeting up with a friend who just happened to live in NYC.
My volunteer, Bob G., emailed me and offered to speak with me via phone to give me information or travel tips before my trip, which I promptly took him up on. He was an amazing resource, and spoke to me for more than an hour, giving me everything from helpful tips about our hotel’s location/​proximity to various activities, to restaurant recommendations, to tips like «The avenues run north and south and the streets run east and west», and «Anything west of 5^th Avenue is going to have a west side address and anything east of 5^th Avenue is going to have an east side address». That bit of knowledge made navigation during our trip so much easier. He also told me about a website that allowed us to find our Broadway tickets for half off. We ended up seated the 4^th row from the state to see Chicago for less than $ 90 a seat, and we didn’t have to take our chances and stand in line at TKTS. He was a wealth of information.
Big Apple sent a fax to me at my hotel to remind me of our «meeting», and then at the agreed upon time, Bob met us right at our hotel. We chatted in the lobby for a little while about what we’d seen and what we wanted to see, and then he took us all over the place. We road the subway to the Financial District, checked out the WTC Memorial Preview Center, Trinity and St. Paul’s churches, Wall Street, the federal court house, city hall, City Hall Park, and even ventured into Century 21 for some quick browsing. Then we walked to Chinatown, and over to Little Italy, where we ate dinner and then grabbed dessert. Then Bob took us back to the subway and dropped us off in Times Square at our hotel, and he continued on his way home. Along the way he gave us bits of history, and gave us information on other places to visit in the city the next time we were in town. He was a wealth of knowledge, couldn’t possibly have been nicer, more genuine, or more helpful, and honestly felt like a friend we’d known for years. We spent an entire afternoon and part of the evening with him, and thoroughly enjoyed the time. For someone to donate that much of their time for someone they’ve never met, taking them to see things that they have surely seen a dozen times, and doing it for no charge– that is just such a great gift!
I can’t say enough good things about Big Apple Greeter. If you’re going to be in New York City, definitely look into being assigned a greeter. It’s the best thing going in the big apple!

Das absolute Muss im Big Apple!!! Hier führen Einheimische durch ihre Veedel. Das ist unglaublich echt und ehrlich, nicht der typische Touri-​Quatsch, der einem sonst gerne angedreht wird. Wir hatten nicht nur einen unvergesslichen Tag mit unserer Sandy, sondern haben auch so kitschig das klingen mag eine neue Freundin gefunden. Man muss einige Wochen vorher übers Netz den Termin, den Bezirk und die Sprache aussuchen und dann warten, dass einen ein Greeter erhört.
Grundsätzlich sogar kostenlos, wobei einen Spende mehr als leicht fällt.

Big Apple Greeter is a perfect example of why NY is such a great city.
My honey and I were visiting NY and were a little intimidated by the Big City so we decided to have a proud New Yorker show us around with helpful tips on our first day.
It’s a great service. Based on your requests, they try to match you up with a greeter who will then meet with you and show you around. You do not pay, not even a tip as it’s not allowed.
I highly recommend Big Apple Greeter and hope more cities join in with this brilliant service.

My friend is a volunteer for Big Apple Greeters and she has the most fun. She meets interesting people from all over the world, takes them wherever they want to go and see whatever they want to see. She finds out their interests, makes some suggestions and helps them explore some New York City neighborhoods they would never have gone to on their own and to unusual museums, exhibitions and churches that are off the beaten path. Of course, if they want to do the usual touristy things, she’ll take them there. They go everywhere using public transportation. They even have an Access Program for people with disabilities.
Since I love my city so much, I am considering signing up as a volunteer to share my love with visitors.