Yosemite National Park Travel Forum

What's the best airport gateway to reach the park? Best area to stay inside the park? Shoud we stay in one place for three days or move to different areas in the park each night?

Please check my answer to your email for the airport. If it is in the budget, nothing beats staying at the Ahwahnee Hotel. If that is not doable, Yosemite Lodge is nice and both are in the Yosemite Valley. I like staying in the valley because the early mornings and evenings, when most people have left, are very special in the Valley. If that does not work, you could stay in the El Portal area, maybe at Cedar Lodge. I would suggest staying in one place. Nothing is much more than an hour from the Valley.

Sacramento Airport is not a bad option if you can manage it. It is a lot less busy than SF and you can find some cheaper rooms if you need them. I agree with the previous post about the hotels.

Thanks so much Kathy. Ah yes the hotel is gorgeous but probably not doable this time round. This is sort of a spur of the moemt thing. OK, thanks for the tip. The reason we asked is that in Yellow Stone moving every day to a new area worked well for us. But I see things are different here.

Cheers.

Thnks for the SD tip.

I would agree that Sacramento would be a good choice. If you can avoid the Bay Area traffic, that is always a good thing. Gary

The closest airport is actually Fresno - you can hop on Hwy 41 just a few miles from the airport and be in Yosemite (Wawona) in about an hour and in the Valley in 2 hours.

I just Googled both airports to Yosemite Valley and Fresno is 95 miles (2 hrs 6 minutes) and Sacramento is 175 miles (3.5 hours)

You might check to see if there are differences in the fares from your home to Fresno, and to Sacramento. Fresno does have some non-stop flights from Phoenix, Las Vegas, Dallas, Denver, San Francisco, and Salt Lake City. I am just not sure how many flights there are. I would have to think that Sacramento would have a lot more flight options. Gary

Because of traffic in the Valley, stay there if at all possible. It took us much longer to travel around Yosemite than we had planned due to one closed entrance ( check for those before you leave!), 35 mph. speed limits, elevation changes, traffic... It's much different than Yellowstone. I wish they would
not allow cars in the park like Zion. We stayed at Yosemite Lodge ( one night at Awahnee) and that worked out well for us. Great cafeteria for bkfst.,
many accessible hikes from the Valley, Ranger programs in the evenings,
bike rental for the valley, tubing if the Merced is high enough ( gets more shallow in July and Aug), Have a great trip!

Fresno is by far the closest airport. On the way into the Park from Fresno you should definitely stop at Mariposa Grove and see the giant sequoia trees.

If possible, stay at one place in the valley and do day trips by car from there. In addition to the Ahwahnee, there is are cheaper motels (the Yosemite Lodge and Curry Village) in the Valley. They book up way in advance, but often have last-minute cancellations. We got two extra days of lodging in the valley by calling around each morning and checking about cancellations.

In terms of sights within Yosemite, Tunnel View and Glacier Point are two of the best views in the USA. We also enjoyed Hetch Hetchy, which is a region of the park that 98% of Yosemite's visitors never go to. Feel free to visit our Yosemite pages for details.

Mike Lisa Anna - glad you love Yosemite so much.

I agree about the views. In fact being able to first see Yosemite Valley from Tunnel View is one of the very best reasons to travel there on Hwy 41 from Fresno. I have been through that tunnel at least a 100 times but Tunnel View still takes my breath away. There is nothing else like it.