Paradise Adventure Company — Attraction in Montana

This was a nightmare experience. We lodged at the Lake Lodge at Yellowstone National Park. To put the icing on the cake we booked a river rafting adventure with this company. After driving north an hour and a half (time we will never get back on our vacation to beautiful Yellowstone, but at least we got to take in the epic scenery) we walked in to register. First of all, the teenage girl at the register did not even acknowledge our presence. No wave, not a hello, nothing. She was on the phone with another customer for several minutes while we stood there and waited--not even an "I'll be with you in one moment" or anything. Rude, and terrible customer service. Finally, after listening to her unnecessarily flirting with a customer on the phone for about 15 minutes while we stood there receiving no attention, she hung up and informed us that our raft trip was a scheduling error and that was "the problem with online booking." The company cancelled the trip on us! We did not get a phone call, text, or email alert to notify us that our trip had been cancelled from this company. Nothing. Just a bunch of wasted time. We also had to waste time on the drive back in to Yellowstone, because it is a popular park with long lines of entry. But here's the kicker. Although the company did refund us the money, they charged us an additional inexplicable amount of 107.12! What? I did not learn about that until after we got home from Yellowstone, disappointed. I had to call this company and waste more time after my vacation was even over! My advice to you, fellow fun-seeker, is to simply book with a different company if you crave a raft ride in this area. Do you want to put your life in the hands of people on the rapids who can't even get customer service right? Find a different company and raft experience if you want to do this, such as the one offered in Grand Teton National Park. Especially if you are arriving at the Jackson Hole Airport, you could start your vacation with this option. This option is only a 20 minutes (or so) drive from the airport and is much more...

A extended, 14 person, vacation desired for some years, resulted in finding Paradise Adventure Outfitters (PAO.) Through telephone and email, all arrangements of booking and payment was seamless. This after extensive research. Price? Other businesses quoted our three excursions. Of the three we desired one included 14 people mounted, wranglers and almost full hour in saddle along their lower Absaroka valley plateau ride. We also desired after ride, sun setting meal. We enjoyed a full outside steak, salad, pasta/potato salad, tomato salad, beans, cornbread, dessert and soft drinks. PAO NAILED all of above and then some. 14 people, wonderful wrangler personalities and experience, hour ride among sage and aspens, our rides expertly trained (as not all had ANY experience riding), full dinner described (out of this world tomato salad, steaks perfectly prepared, cornbread warm) and history recitation by owner’s relative (shout out to “Nick”), group western, old standard sing along. $1500.00. $100 per person (approx.)! Absolutely tip your wranglers well, as they work 14-16 hour days grooming each horse, clean stables, tend to corrals of hundreds of horses, brush, bridle, bit, clean each “shoe” clear of any possible step discomfort reaction, load full saddle mounts, ride the groups and repeat. They work basically seasonal and deserve good cash in hands. Tips for meal placement in community jar at dinner spread. It’s a solid 25 minute drive up the small canyon on gravel road, but scenery is worth the drive. PAO contracts with the stables so each dollar spent is divvied among two local businesses. Covid devastated the Paradise Valley last year. Basically a full year lost now beginning to “come back.” Like many businesses, unemployment benefits, folks not returning to seasonal work have put real strain in operating with 1/2 staff. ...

We had the most disappointing part of our weekend due to this company being a complete scam. We planned our sisters bachelorette weekend and called to book out a whitewater rafting trip. On the phone, they told me it would be a blast and have great rapids and that they would provide a speaker. When deciding between the half day or the full day, he told me the adult groups all wished they were going for longer and the half day version was just for families with kids. So we booked the full day and it ended up being a float ride, with the wind going against us, causing our whole boat to have to paddle the entire time, freezing cold because they don’t provide wetsuits (very obvious this company does not care about customer service), and of course they forgot the speaker. There were no rapids and so the ride ended up taking an hour and a half LONGER than we had planned for, despite our entire boat trying to paddle as much as possible. We were all asking if there was a short cut or a way to get to the end of the trip sooner. Our guide did the best he could, but we feel completely cheated in a full day of our weekend, as well as having to pay a lot of money for such a terrible, miserable experience. When I contacted the Manager, he could not have been more apathetic of our experience and of their terrible customer service; adding even more frustration and regret. He said we should have been the ones to know how cold it was going to feel and should have asked for wetsuits. And that it should have been obvious that there would not be any rapids. Um, why are you calling it a WhiteWater RAPIDS Experience?! This...