Backgrounder: Peter Greenberg
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When he was just five months and six days old, Peter Greenberg became a member of the Sky Cradle Club when he took his first flight aboard American Airlines, traveling nearly 3,000 miles from New York to Los Angeles.
Years later, Greenberg, who has been a travel writer for more than 20 years, logs an estimated 450,000 miles per year aboard numerous flights as he ventures around the world learning about the travel industry and sharing his findings with the public.
"We all love to travel," Greenberg said in September 2001 during one of his many appearances on The Oprah Winfrey Show. "But we hate the process of travel. It's an ordeal. Getting there is not just half the fun—it's no fun at all."
Best known for his work as the on-air travel editor and correspondent for NBC's The Today Show, Greenberg frequently discusses how to save time, money and aggravation while roaming the earth. He educates his audiences on how not to become a travel victim as well as telling all about the art of the upgraded seat and finding the best air accommodations and hotel lodgings at bargain prices that the companies do not want consumers to know.
"We all love to travel," Greenberg said in September 2001 during one of his many appearances on The Oprah Winfrey Show. "But we hate the process of travel. It's an ordeal. Getting there is not just half the fun—it's no fun at all."
Greenberg is a best-selling author with his acclaimed travel detective books. The series includes The Travel Detective, in which he discusses the secrets of the airline industry; The Travel Detective Flight Crew Confidential, in which he picks the minds of more than 300 crew members aboard his trips; and his most recent, Hotel Secrets from the Travel Detective. In addition, Greenberg has written Peterson's Learning Adventures Around the World and The Piano Teacher: The True Story of a Psychotic Killer.
His other work includes a special one-hour documentary for HBO called The Nightmare of Cocaine and an ABC 20/20 news special, What Happened to the Children? It is an account of the American-Asian orphans involved in the 1975 crash of a C5A cargo plane at the end of the Vietnam War, which garnered the National Emmy Award for Best Investigative Journalism by a television network and the National Headliner Award for Investigative Journalism.
Furthermore, Greenberg received the Distinguished Service Award in Journalism from the University of Wisconsin and the Aviation Space Writers Association of America Award for his investigative piece Planes with a Past on Good Morning America, a show on which he worked for seven years as regular travel correspondent.
Every Sunday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., Greenberg hosts a call-in radio talk show on KABC. He is also a chief correspondent for The Travel Channel and appears regularly on Cleveland's Morning Exchange, Canada's The Dini Petty Show, and Good Morning Texas, the number one morning show in the state. He has made various television appearances, such as on The View, The O'Reilly Factory, Fox News, and MSNBC.
In addition to his already lengthy résumé, Greenberg is currently the travel editor for UPN News. He plays contributing editor to Avenues Magazine and Men's Health Magazine, and is an editor at large for National Geographic Traveler Magazine.
Greenberg resides in Sherman Oaks, California. After the Northridge Earthquake of 1994 destroyed his home, Greenberg rebuilt it, spending close to $200,000 decorating his abode with furnishings from at least 47 different hotels that he has slept at over the years.
Those interested in hearing Greenberg's perspective on travel writing as a career can swing by the New York University journalism department on Feb. 24.