richbutnot

I have requested a Big Apple Greeter for a walking tour of Greenwich Village next week, but have not gotten a confirmation yet. I emailed them for an update and they basically said we may not know if we are matched with a Greeter until we're already in the city. I understand they are all volunteers and they are doing everything they can.

I'm working on a backup plan in case they can't come through. My second choice would be the Foods of New York tour, but I don't want to pay in advance. I'll keep an eye on their schedule and may book it last minute if they have room.

My other choices are Michelle Nevius or Joyce Gold. Michelle is a private tour that can be scheduled last minute. Joyce Gold has a public tour scheduled for Wednesday at 11am. I couldn't find any reviews for either one here or on Trip Advisor.

Does anyone have experience with either one? Any recommendations for these or another tour are greatly appreciated. Big Onion doesn't have a tour scheduled while we're there, and we'll have two teenagers with us so the Pub Crawl is out.

Also, anyone have feedback on Big Apple Greeters coming through or not at the last minute?

Thanks, Rich

Anonymous

Several years ago, I also arranged with Big Apple Greeters for a tour of Greenwich Village, about 2 weeks before my visit.

The volunteer met me at my midtown hotel and it wasn't until after we arrived in the Village that I learned she was a longtime resident of the Upper East Side and knew no more about Greenwich Village than I did. If only I'd known that sooner, I would have been glad to settle for an insider's tour of the Upper East Side!

mclaurie

Specifying a particular area for a Greeter limits your options for getting one (imo). Both Michelle Nevius and Joyce Gold are well regarded. There's also a literary pub crawl of the village.
http://bakerloo.org/pubcrawl/index.htm

MiamiBeachMomma

Last year we took a tour with Michelle's husband James of the Lower East Side. It was amazing. We were 3 woman traveling together in our group. We had a blast, learned a ton, and plan on going back to take more tours in the future. whatever we paid was well worth the price.

I got the recommendation from my parents who did the Lower East Side and another tour - it was either the village or SOHO I cant remember. But they loved them both.

Good Luck!!

AustinTraveler

We took our own tour using this article:

http://www.nytimes.com/ref/travel/TOUR-GV.html

There are links to other neighborhoods at the end of the article as well.

nytraveler

They get many more requests than there are greeters availble (a friend of mine does this sometimes) and it's quite common that they can't do a match - esp in the summer - when locals tend to go on vacation.

deladeb

I have taken 2 Tours of NY food tours and very much enjoyed them both. They usually fill up on weekends...

DancingBearMD

I took a Joyce Gold tour of the Village several years ago and really liked it, but I took my wife to do her tour of the Village over Memorial Day weekend and (1) it was a really large group so despite her two PA systems used we sometimes had trouble hearing her, and (2) it seemed like she hadn't adjusted her tour well to the fact that half of Washington Square park is cordoned off for construction, and we got bogged down around the park area.

That being said, Joyce is a good storyteller, and a mid-week tour most likely would not have the crowd problems.

As an alternative, consider the Lower East Side tours given through the Lower East Side Tenement Museum.