Wondering if any new yorkers could provide feedback - or tourists to new york have ever had the occasion to use the free service of a tour guide from big apple tours?thank you

Honestly, I've never heard of that service. I will tell you that my father took the Big Apple bus tour once when he was here and loved it (they've since gone out of busines, but Grayline has something similar). They pass by all the big tourist attractions (Empire State Building, Times Square, Rockefeller Center, etc) and allow you free on and off to look around.

The only walking tours I'm familiar with are run by Big Onion Tours and they're excellent.

One more thought -- with the exception of the very southern part of Manhattan -- the Village, SoHo, Tribeca and financial district -- New York is pretty easy to navigate. Streets are mostly parallel and perpendicular, avenues run north to south and streets east to west. You might think of just buying a good guide book and going it alone.

Jill--From your posting, it's not clear whether you realize that Big Apple Greeters and Big Apple Tours (now defunct?) are two different things. Big Apple Greeters is a nonprofit "meet the locals" organization, which provides volunteers with similar interests who spend a few hours with visitors and usually show them around the neighborhoods, not the big sights. It's not like a commercial tour. Have you seen their website? http://www.bigapplegreeter.org/

Dear KT
Yes I do realize that Big Apple Greeters is different than the now defunct tour bus company by a simialar name. thanks for the clarification. I'm wondering if anybody out there has used this service, we may be better off on our own.

We tried to use them. Everything was set up and one our before we suppose to meet our guide he called to reschedule, then he called again to cancel a secong appointment. I understand that these people are volunteering their time but we just gave up. We both know New York but we felt our friends who were visiting from Paris would like to use knowledgeable guide. Anyway I would not recommend them to my friends but at the same time I think if this was my first visit to New York I would try them. For us it didn't work.

We used Apple Greeters a few years ago and had a wonderful elderly man as our greeter to the Central Park area. He gave us his passes to the Met and bus passes. His narative was very interesting and we enjoyed a pleasant afternoon. This is a wonderful free service.

Being a New Yorker, I've never used them, but I know that the organization has an excellent reputation.