Big Apple Greeter - anyone used this service?
 

read about this http://www.bigapplegreeter.org/
on another site
anyone used them before - sounds like a great thing to do....

Yep a couple of christmas ago my DH and 2 teenage daughters booked one for xmas eve morning. We chose central park. It was 'ok', I guess our only 'complaint' was that our greeter......lets call her 'lois' was 85 years old and had just had her hip done. So it was very very slow and DH had to help her most of the way. Looking back, it was one of the funnier experiences of our trip. Dd's were a bit bored so made their own fun (mimmicking all the statues we passed an photographing them selves, I have some great photos.)

After a few hours we 'suggested' that we had another appointment and said our goodbyes. Concept was good and we saw parts of C/park that we may have missed, but we're pretty sure with a decent map we could have done it on our own.

Good luck :-)

Have never used them obviously but a neighbor of mine volunteered as a greeter for a while.

Greeters are volunteers and many of them are retired - although not necessarily 85
Typically they spend 2 to 3 hours showing you a part of the city you select
They try to match you with someone who knows a lot about the specific area but there is no guarantee
There are many more requests than there are greeters available, so ask as far in advance as possible
Greeters will not take tips, but you should offer to include them in any snack or meal while they're with you - they may or may not agree

My neighbor who volunteered for several years generally enjoyed being a greeter, but stopped when he got 2 sets of unpleasant tourists within a short time. The first tried to treat him like a hired guide (call me Mr so and so; do this, do that; and wanted to see a part of the city he wasn't really familiar with - and had not been agreed upon - then complained he was uncooperative). Another set of tourists had some extremely unpleasant opinions, loudly expressed, about specific ethnic groups, of which my friend's wife is one - and he cut that tour short, telling them why - and saying they could call about a different guide if they wanted - but to make their preferences known in advance - or they might get a guide they didn't want. (They were from a part of the world with very few minorities in the population.)

Big Apple Greeters has a generally good reputation so a couple of missteps must be forgiven, but there are steps you can take to avert problems.

My Big Apple greeter, several years ago, was also unfamiliar with the section of town that we toured and also was very disappointed when I told her (truthfully) that I had evening plans.

I would recommend that at the moment you first meet your Greeter, you should discuss which neighborhoods they're actually familiar with, so you can choose one of those if they're not familiar with your first-choice area. I didn't think of this until my "tour" of Greenwich Village turned out to be nothing but my Greeter reading storefront signs (which of course I could do myself) because she hadn't been there in years. But she had lived on the Upper East Side for decades, and I would have been happy to learn about that instead!

End-time can be another issue, as noted above. By the end of the first hour, you should have a good idea of whether you want the tour to be as short as diplomatically possible, as long as the guide is willing to do, or something in between, and drop hints accordingly.

Thanks!
interesting - i thought the whole idea was great, i think we might give it a go!
why not...will be nice to meet a local and see part of NY they know - but yep I agree
would prefer to see an area they know rather than what I want and what they've been assigned
would be nice to see Harlem with a guide - i dont know much about that area but heard its got great things to see and eat!

We took a Big Apple Greeter tour of Greenwich Village last June and enjoyed it. Our guide lived in the Village his whole life. He was retired, but there was no issue with him moving too slow. He gave us four passes for the subway and we paid for this lunch.

I think the best part was getting to spend half a day with someone who lived there and was able to give us his perspective on living in the city. It is good as a one time activity, especially if you've never been to NYC.

My wife is a Big Apple Greeter. Her last couple of assignments included a visitor in a wheelchair - she was aware beforehand of the wheelchair and had requested that for her last visitor. She helps them learn how to use buses which are equipped for wheelchair passengers and gives them instructions on which bus to take to certain areas of the city. She only takes them to areas of the city she is familiar with (e.g. chinatown, walk Brooklyn Bridge, Financial District, or a stroll through the UES, gives some restaurant recommendations - but they well understand that she is not a "guide". She enjoys the experience of meeting people from different parts of the world and telling them about life in this town.

Former (many years ago) Big Apple Greeter here. Think of it as NYC's answer to Welcome Wagon and always remember that your Greeter is a volunteer showing you parts of the City that they love and not a paid guide service to do your bidding.

And please always on this board refer to a greeter as a greeter. On another nameless board the postings from the curious often say "What shall I do with my BAG" -

I was chided about complaining about this from someone who said well we call the Statue of Liberty SOL. I pointed out that the SOL is not a live very human being.

That having been said. I think AC291 that you have the right attitude and if you are lucky enough to be matched with a Greeter, you will enjoy the experience.

I highly recommend this wonderful service. I've used them twice and always have enjoyed my time. Both of my Big Apple Greeters lived in the neighborhoods that I wanted to explore so they were very knowledgeable. The greeter meets you at your hotel so it's very convenient.

My first time I requested to explore the neighborhoods of Chelsea, Soho, Greenwich, West Village, and Brooklyn Heights. We did a ton of walking that day but I loved it.

My Apple Greeters were retired but they were in amazing shape and healthy.

Enjoy the city with a real New Yorker who can point out things that you may not see on your own.

thanks everyone!!! sounds great...we're definetely going to try it out!

i really wanted to do this but they need a local phone number and we'll be staying in an apt after our DC trip - so dont have one to give them?
shame...ive heard good experiences about it!