Paradise Vacations

Avoid this like a plague! Horrible! The buses leaves early, rude bus drivers, rude people… dirty bus, smells like urine… horrible experience!

Horrible racist Asian service. They overcharge non Asians and lie to others. They intentionally left an Irish couple behind saying they will meet up at 10:30, left at 10;15 when everyone but them was there.
Driver was rude and tour guide yelled at people for needing to go to the bathroom for longer for 5 minutes after a break after 5 hour drive.
Tour guide was telling people we are going one place and took us to another. And charges 25% transaction fee if you didn’t pay him in Canadian dollars. $USD is $ 0.98 CD, but he charges $ 1.25 USD for $ 1CD.
Fraudulent and horrible service. They say good hotels or «similar». similar includes anything that has a «bed». even a box in the ghetto.

Went on a 4 day East Canada tour from NY. Booking went ok online after calling them to find out why it didn’t go through. We arrived at the HSBC Bank on Main Street at 6:50am in Flushing as it said on the website. A woman from the tour company waved her hand to tell me to cross the street, there would be a bus waiting. I asked here which corner across the street, she immediately look frustrated and gruffly walked us to the intersection and pointed. So we crossed the busy intersection with our luggages. There was a big crowd and a bus waiting. I asked some of the people waiting if this was the bus to the 4 day EC tour, some didn’t know, some just looked as confused. Finally I located a young woman wearing the tour company’s jacket and asked if this is the bus. She looked very upset and just told me to move aside and not block the sidewalk. I had to raise my voice to ask her if this is the right bus. When more people asked her, then she said yes, everyone has to take this bus to go to the tour office in Manhattan to get on the right bus. And so we got on…
Upon arrival, we were told to wait on the sidewalk some more, were instructed to use the restrooms in their office, then someone will direct us to the bus after an hour later. The restroom line was like an APPLe Computer store line…
Finally the tour guide came down by 8:30 to check us in and then walked us 2 blocks away to the awaiting bus for our trip. …Since I have gone on bus tours before and know we needed to bring extra cash to pay for the sightseeing, I was ready.
****Good: $ 200/​person which included hotel & bus (no need to drive myself)
****Not so Good: tour guide did not speak English fluently, didn’t provide history/​info along the way and about the attractions (isn’t that what a tour guide is supposed to do?)…should carry a tour company flag so everyone could see him, seemed not interested in his job even though this could be his umpteenth time here, after collecting tips he simply sat in the back and was on his cell phone/​facebooking all the rest of the way back to NY… Professional? Not at all !!!
*****Tour company should provide a sheet that lists all the attractions, costs & let each person decide & fill out what they want to purchase. I know it’s listed on the website but I think it should be printed out and not forced the whole package on us. Also they should hire tour guides who can speak English well!!!
******I will not join another bus tour like this again

the worst company ever!!! they told us to meet 7am at flushing, but when we arrive at 6:55 did not see the bus. we called the tour guy but no pick up. we finally reached him at 7:05 and he said the bus left already. we have to go to Chinatown by ourselves before 8am otherwise we will miss the tour. It is ridiculous!!! we left the contact info to them but no body ever contact us before the bus left flushing. and the most important thing is we were not late! If we were late and the bus left is our fault, but we were NOT!!! they just left without contact us and when we tried to call but no answer!!!
I have been to so many bus tours this never happened before. Beware, this is really the worst company ever!!!

Beware, This is possibly the worst company I’ve ever delt with such a terrible company. It’s a scam beware.
I purchased my tour from Take Tours. The tour is operated by Paradise Travel.
I arrived at my pickup location an hour early. I called Paridise travel, gave them my tour information and they said the Bus would be an hour late. Arriving at 9:50am in parsippany. They had my name and destination. The tour guide even called me to confirm the time they would be arriving. The bus came and as it turned out this was the wrong bus. We asked to go on this bus instead. But they had no room. Our bus left. Paridise Travel was calling the the wrong number as they did not read my cell number correctly. I had the correct number Registered. Paradise travel said they couldn’t do anything for us. I called take tours and they couldn’t put us on another tour or refund my money.
I can get over the fact that I didnt go on the tour but i cant ignore the time I lost, money (gas, work, snacks, movie rentals for the trip) $ 200, and the stress this company caused so many people who were effected.

For all the decent attributes that the tour provides, the negatives are just TOO huge to ignore. We booked our trip through
, but noticed it was Paradise Vacations that ran the tour.
Positives:
1a. The drivers on the tour were both SAFE AND SMOOTH on the road. Our 1^st driver, who was Chinese, did help with luggage and assist some of the older passengers off the bus. Our 2^nd driver, who was not Chinese, did not help with luggage at all.
1b. The deluxe air conditioned coach was fairly new and clean.
2. Price wise, you REALLY can’t beat it $ 630 for 8 days/​7 nights especially if you take them up on the Buy 2 and Get 2 free PROVIDED it’s the same room. We did this with a foursome in a room and it worked out fine. That makes the tour price $ 315/​pp — that’s a fr*ckin’ bargain. 1 guy and 3 girls… score NOT! :P
3. Name Hotels were honored and decent.
4. You don’t need to plan or drive — you can sorta relax (Hahaha)
NEGATIVES:
1a. The tour director, Byron — a senoir director (we were told), was horrible. Whether jokingly or serious, he said if you don’t come back to the bus on time, you will have to find the bus at the next stop via cab at your own expense. Interesting!
1b. Optional tours such as a Wax museum and 3D/​4D/​IMAX movies were a waste of time and money… who the F*CK wants to look at wax figures when you are in NYC?!? In addition, Byron tried to force these «optional tours» on you by lying, «We reserved your seat/​spot so you must pay and go.» B*LLS H*T
2. Food Selection:
Exclusively, 1 of 3 options in this order: Chinese food (buffet), fast food or food court.
Additionally there was a dinner that was $ 16/​pp banquet style (sounds fun and reasonable), but the food was mediorce. I’ve never seen a bok choy/​tofu dish ever in my life! WTF?!?
We read that in Boston there would be an optional Lobster dinner! Great I’ve never had Main Lobster before… and still haven’t because it ended up as Chinese Lobster style for $ 28. Ai Ya!!! We optioned out of this as well.
3: Proximity of hotels to the rest of the world. Although they do book Sheratons and Hyatts stays, they are usually by the airport or far far away from the attractions.
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Above was written months ago… but today I decided to finish this one.
4. The itinerary was too tight which meant literally no time at any of the stop/​attraction. For example, how can you see anything substantial in The National Mall in DC in 1 ½ hours that included lunch time. WTF… we literally ran from one muesem to the next snapping as many photos as possible. God, I mean, Buddha damn! Other places like Hershey Chocolate Factory — we were given 40 minutes, but was FORCE to follow him of a free ride, the ride wasn’t bad, but if I had a choice to spend my time, I may have opted out and did some shopping, walked the gardens, etc. Instead, we waited 15 minutes to get on the ride and took a bathroom break and our time was literally up. We trekked back to the bus only to find out others were allowed to come back 30 minutes late. #^*%$ you tour director.
5. Provided transportation to and from airport or Bowery St pick up spots MAY mean that they cram too many people in the van. On our pickup, I had to «sit» on the edge of the back room seat sideway. To make matters worse the driver was new and wasn’t totally positive of the correct directions… THAT WAS NOT THE ISSUE/PROBLEM…instead it was the trainer/​tour director, who continued to swear/​cuss at the driver in Cantonese like «Are you stupid» and over the phone the ENTIRE way to our New Jersey Hotel. When the driver got the luggage out, we were going to tip the driver, when Flash, I mean, the trainer grabbed it and said «Ill take care of it.» OMFG!
6. The tour bus’ restroom was STRICTLY for emergencies and ONLY for #1…that would be OK with me except it was LOCKED the ENTIRE TRIP! What — do we have to raise our hands for permission to pee?!?
7. Although I knew this ahead of time, some days were spent almost exclusively on the bus. For example DC to Niagara Falls is an 8+ hour drive while Toronto to Ottawa to Montréal is 7 to 8 hours.
8. I never pay much attention to the directors when they talk (I’m too busy looking out the window… I’m like a cat and just like looking :)), but this guy was pretty BAD.
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Other notes: Mainly deals with Chinese clientele, with a «splatter» of Indians and non US foreigners. The tours are tri lingual, Mandarin, Cantonese and English.
Would I do it again… perhaps! I like pain and need to punish myself every so often! :P

bought the 6 day east coast tour for 480 pp. worst decision ever, you get what you paid for. You are just paying for bus rides and hotel stays. Tour guides lack speaking the English language… You only get about 1.5 hours or less at each site/​attraction. Most of the landmarks/​places were just passing by. You do alot of walking, waking up super early just to avoid crowds and traffic. Hotels were way too far from the main attraction sites so that you can’t go roaming around yourself. Dinners were mainly at chinese buffets. The lobster dinner that was on the itinerary was at this Chinese joint in chinatown… You get 1 lb lobster (tasteless) 2 veggie dishes, steam fish. Bland tofu and chicken for $ 28. opt out if you can! The only great thing that i enjoyed was at Niagra Falls, it was the only day that really felt like i seen something spectacular. If you are an american, i would not recommend this East Coast Tour by this company, save your money by renting a car and venturing out on your own.

Just came back from the 7 days East Coast and Canada. It’s worth every penny. The tour guide, Taylor was awesome. The driver, James did an outstanding job. Will definitely recommend to friends.

Went through Paradise vacations to find some short trips for some family that was visiting to go to Toronto, Boston, Philly, and a few other places close by, by bus. They had lots of options, with trips leaving every other day. They were friendly and patient in explaining all the options. They also have a website which is
.

Friendly travel discounter in the heart of Chinatown. Paradise Vacations saved me about $ 300 per ticket off published fares to Osaka earlier this year. They’re on the second floor, which makes them a bit difficult to find, but well worth giving a call if you’re planning a trip to Asia. They’ll quote you a ticket price on the phone, and help you find the cheapest dates to travel.