2-Day Semi-Guided Tour of Yosemite National Park from San Francisco
San Francisco, United States of America
Calling all adventurers and independent travelers! Maximize your visit to Yosemite with an overnight stay on this comprehensive 2-day tour from San Francisco. Get your bearings on a guided tour through California’s most famous national parks, then enjoy plenty of free time at Yosemite to pursue your own interests at your own pace. With a choice of 2 styles of accommodation, you can spend two days exploring El Capitan, Yosemite Falls, Half Dome and more.
Your 2-day Yosemite tour begins with a scenic drive from San Francisco, passing through San Joaquin Valley along the way. On arrival at Yosemite National Park, your guided tour visits famous landmarks including El Capitan, Yosemite Falls, Half Dome and the Tunnel View. In addition to offering amazing scenery, Yosemite is one of the first wilderness park in the USA and home to diverse wildlife such as golden eagles, black-tailed deers, marmots and even black bears – hopefully you'll be lucky enough to spot them during your visit.
After your semi-guided tour, enjoy free time to further explore Yosemite at your own pace. There are numerous activities for all interests - go rafting down the Merced River, learn rock climbing on Yosemite's beautiful granite cliffs or simply relax on an open tram tour of Yosemite Valley. Then, when the tour buses depart for the evening, you can sit back, relax and watch the sun set over Yosemite.
Choose from 2 different styles of accommodation to suit your budget for your overnight stay in Yosemite. Settle in at the comfortable Yosemite View Lodge or enjoy modern conveniences and a great scenic location at Yosemite Park Lodge.
On day 2, after having enjoyed a morning of free time, rejoin your tour group for the afternoon’s guided tour. You’ll be departing Yosemite in the late afternoon, arriving back in San Francisco by nightfall. Drop off at your San Francisco hotel is included.
My family really enjoyed this trip. The guided tour portion of the trip was great. On our trip to Yosemite our guide, Phil, provided the history of the towns we drove through, history of the park, and made sure we saw all the beautiful sights once we were in the park. Staying overnight was definitely a plus. We stayed overnight in Yosemite Valley Lodge, which is inside the park. The room was spacious and comfortable. We loved being able to explore and having the freedom to see whatever we wanted to see on the second day of the trip. On the ride back to San Francisco, our guide, Denise, provided great recommendations on places to eat and sights to see while in San Fran. I highly recommend this tour.
Review by: Anne M, May 2017
Lovely trip, the National Park being everything I expected it to be, the only downside was the hotel being outside the park - very disappointed in the cleanliness of the room a musty smell, food left in the fridge especially considering the price point.
The only worse thing than this tour was having to give it 1 star (no offence Viator). Honestly, if I wanted to get rid of my worst enemy, I and #39;d still find it too horrifying to send them on this. Yosemite = amazing, for all you can imagine. But we did overnight tour; they dumped us with no hotel info
Review by: ana.antonic, May 2016
Very disappointed with the organisation of our Yosemite tour. The Extranomical tours are nothing but extranomical. Firstly it took over a week to confirm our reservations which delayed us booking other parts of our trip. _br/_ Secondly, it was very hard to follow what the driver was saying and the microphone was not working properly which made this even harder. The tour organisation was poor. We spent 1.5h walking down to see the sequoia trees but only drove past beautiful views and waterfalls. Or if we stopped to look at them it was only for a few minutes. I would have rather missed the tree and seen more of the Yosemite beauty._br/_ But this wasnt the major issue. We booked an over-night stay at Yosemite and needed to get to our hotel but our driver was not very helpful at all. He dropped us off in the middle of the valley at 1pm and told us the bus to the hotel was over there but couldnt tell us what time or where. When we finally got to the bus stop we found out that the next bus was at 4:30pm. As us and many other people had luggage there was no clear explanation on where to store it for the 3.5h wait. Thankfully the people at the Yosemite Lodge were extremely helpful and thanks to them we still managed to have an enjoyable time in the park. There need to be better communication between the guests and the organisers regarding the hotel transfers and storage of luggage. We shouldnt have been just left to our own devices._br/_ The only saving grace of this two day trip was our driver on the way back, Ross. He was really friendly, very knowledgeable and extremely helpful. _br/_ Unfortunately I would not recommend this tour. It was overly expensive for what we got. A better way would be to hire a car and take in the sights at your own pace.
Review by: Vicky C, June 2015
i loved yosemite.the only thing lacking was we did not get to see the giant sequioas.the shuttle of the park is only available in the summer.i didn't know that._br/_
lodging at yosemite at the falls: room was spacious,clean.
Review by: Miss Catherine W, May 2015
Very limited tour - you are paying for a transport service / accommodation, which at over 600 for myself and my partner for one nights accommodation I think is not value for money. On the outward journey, it was our tour guides first day and she read from sheets of paper on a few occasions during the 5 hour drive - very scripted and boring. The guide on our return journey was more animated, however there was a definite lack of tour / information given and most of the trip was spent listening to the bus radio. Yosemite is a great place to visit but we would definitely arrange our own trip next time. We stayed at the lodge inside the park option which was the Yosemite Falls Lodge which was very nice and close to everything.
Review by: saz, May 2014
Review of 1 day tour as we re-arranged. Difficult to put a finger on it really..... A long, long day but then we knew that. I think it was a case of too many photo stops when we could have done with more time in the park. Driver/guide seemed a little irritated although tried to conceal this by being overly 'chummy'. Many, many references to 'tips' grated. Large notice by the bus door. We can read. We get it. Really we do.
Review by: Huiping T, November 2013
I enjoyed the free time in the Valley, good deason, wonderful stunning landscape! But I have to say thatI wished a better guide, when going from San Francisco to Yusemite. I think that it is more likely a bus transafer from San Francisco to Yusemite, can't feel any "guided" service. We were told to be picked up at 3pm next day, but the bus much later, and depart in fact at 4pm. I had to wait more than one hour for waitng the but and was very worried if I had missed the bus. I should have see more in the valley, if we could know that exact depart time from Yosemite. The driver did not feel any sorry for his late by saying:"that was yesterday, today changed". It would be nice, if we could have a sotp for enjoy the sunset. So I really feel, insteaf a "semi-guided tour" it is only a bus transfer.
Review by: Alexis S, May 2013
The tour is actually the day tour split in two with free time to explore the park. The time in the park with the tour was fairly limited and mainly involved seeing vista points. If I had just been on the day tour I would have been disappointed. However the 24 hours free time in park with the 2 day tour was brilliant and gave enough time to start exploring the parks. Guide on the first day was brilliant and knew so much about everything, unfortunately the guide on the second day was not of the same level and a fairly quiet guide which was quite a contrast. Overall enjoyable tour.
Review by: Robyn S, December 2012
We really liked our Yosemite trip and ANDY ,our leader was interesting, helpful and genuine. You could tell he genuinely liked his job. We enjoyed our overnight stay, but unfortunately it rained and rained. Would certainly recommend Viator to anyone, and we would certainly use Viator again.
Review by: CATHERINE P, September 2012
Would do this tour again but stay longer. Yosemite is a beautiful place to visit and at your own pace.
Review by: dewi, August 2012
beautiful place and the guide is very nice. But the hotel is very standard. I miss to ride a bike again.
Review by: Lily T, July 2012
The park was beautiful. The ride is 4+ hours so staying for overnight was a good call.
Review by: Lily T, June 2012
The park was beautiful. The ride is 4+ hours so staying for overnight was a good call.
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