Big Apple Greeters is an organization of local New York City volunteers that give their personal time to out-of-town visitors and show them around local neighbourhoods and sites. I have just had a chance to connect with Gail Morse, the organization's Director of Marketing and Public Relations and Marketing, who will be able to answer some of my questions about the Greeter program in the next few weeks.

The information on the Big Apple Greeter website states that "Big Apple Greeter's mission is to enhance New York City's worldwide image and enrich the New York Experience by connecting Visitors with knowledgeable and enthusiastic Volunteers. The mission was created to accomplish the following goals:

- promote a friendly, inviting, manageable image of New York City

- bolster tourism and to foster economic development

- create opportunities for New Yorkers to show pride in their city and give back to their city through volunteering"

Incidentally the Big Apple Greeter program has been so popular that it has spawned off greeter organizations in other cities around the world, including Chicago, San Antonio/Texas, Sydney and - soon to come - Toronto.

As I will be heading off to New York City next week, I have arranged for a local Big Apple Greeter to meet my husband and me next Friday and I am really looking forward to meeting a local who can take us around and give us her personal insights about living in New York City.

So stay tuned for my upcoming live travel reports from New York City and the interview with the Big Apple Greeters!

Susanne Pacher is the publisher of a website called Travel and Transitions (http://www.travelandtransitions.com). Travel and Transitions deals with unconventional travel and is chock full of advice, tips, real life travel experiences, interviews with travellers and travel experts, insights and reflections, cross-cultural issues, contests and many other features. You will also find stories about life and the transitions that we face as we go through our own personal life-long journeys.

Submit your own travel stories in our first travel story contest (http://www.travelandtransitions.com/contests.htm) and have a chance to win an amazing adventure cruise on the Amazon River.

"Life is a Journey