Yosemite in a Day Tour from San Francisco
Overview
Travel by minibus from San Francisco to Yosemite National Park on a small-group day trip to one of the most visually stunning places on earth — considered the crown jewel of America’s national parks. This full-day itinerary takes you through the orchards of the Central Valley to Yosemite Valley, stopping first for a stroll through a grove of giant sequoias. You’ll find plenty of photo ops of Half Dome, El Capitan and Yosemite Falls! Numbers are limited to 15 passengers to ensure a personalized experience with your knowledgeable guide.
- Yosemite National Park day trip from San Francisco with an informative guide
- See El Capitan, Bridalveil Fall and Half Dome from Tunnel View
- Walk under ancient redwood trees and hike during free time in Yosemite Valley
- Hotel pickup and drop-off included by minibus
- Small-group tour limited to 15 passengers ensures personalized attention
From $159.00 USD
Lowest Price GuaranteeAfter pickup from selected hotels in San Francisco, board a comfortable minibus for the approximate 4-hour drive to Yosemite National Park. En route, you’ll make a snack stop among the fruit and nut orchards of the San Joaquin Valley before continuing on to the Sierra Nevada foothills and California Gold Country.
Entering the national park via historical Groveland, you'll stop for a guided hike among Yosemite’s giant sequoias — ancient redwood trees whose trunks span up to 40 feet (12 meters) in diameter. Your drive continues into the Yosemite Valley, stopping at Tunnel View for the quintessential photo op of that includes Bridalveil Fall, El Capitan and Half Dome.
After a close-up look at the falls, head to El Capitan, the world’s largest exposed granite monolith. Search for rock climbers ascending its sheer face, which rises thousands of feet above the valley floor. Then it’s on to see Half Dome and Yosemite Falls, whose lower and upper cascades form North America’s tallest waterfall.
During free time to explore on your own and purchase lunch (own expense), you can hike among numerous paths, snap more photos at the base of Yosemite Falls or visit Yosemite Village. Then meet back up with your guide for the return drive to San Francisco, with another quick stop for food in the Central Valley before your 14-hour tour ends with hotel drop-off.
Reviews
Viator Traveler's Reviews
Our tour guide Brian did an amazing job of showing us the best of Yosemite National Park. He was very informative and kept us entertained on the long drive there with films on the Parks makeup as well as the people who conquer its cliff faces. He knows the Park extremely well and goes out of his way to ensure you get those picture postcard photo memories. The autumn colours were beautiful this time of year.Thoroughly recommend this as a god taster of what Yosemite has to offer.
Loved this day trip to the Yosemite Valley with Best Bay Area Tours. Our guide Brian was very knowledgeable and went the extra mile to show us all the sights and make the very most of the day. We made several photo stops plus two longer stops for hiking in the valley and seeing the Giant Sequoias. I also liked that we travelled in a 15 passenger bus. It made the travelling part so much more convenient than with the big buses. Can highly recommend this tour and company.
This full day tour gave us quite a bit of time at Yosemite to walk around as well as time at the Sequoia grove. Both were very nice sites, I enjoyed that the guide gave us freedom to walk around on our own or with your group. The walk up and down to the Sequoia grove was somewhat challenging, that should be kept in mind for people with any physical limitations. They allowed a stop along the way to get snacks/beverages, no meals are included so be sure to get plenty of food and drinks! Overall great trip and good value!
It wasn't the tour so much as the park itself. We paid a lot of money for the tour for a family of 4. Our tour guide was very laid back, almost too laid back. He could have given us a lot more info on our 4 and a half hour bus ride. Lunch should have been included in the price of the tour, since the tour was expensive and the food once there was too! The park itself was nice, but could definately use upgrades. The bathrooms were severely limited and absolutely disgusting. With that many visitors a year, it's a shame that park system doesn't care enough to make sure that they are kept clean throughout the day! There also needs to be more signs throughout the park and more shuttles in between points of interest as well as more places to eat and drink. Would not recommend this tour. Very expensive and didn't get much for your money. Could have rented a car and had more time to eat
I think this is a good way to become acquainted with the park and the area.
Our guide Brian was great , he gave updates info on the area. He made the trip a very easy going experience as we went through to each area of intrest.
We had plenty of time to get a feel of Yosemite like cooling off around a couple of the waterfalls (lower water fall at El Capitan and Bridalveil falls) in different spots, it was warm on this trip.. Brian got us some great views during the golden hours of the valley. I want to come back and do a nice long hike around the park.
I think the trip from the bay area (about 2 hours, Brian probably had it whittled down to a bit less) was worth the experience. I recommend it. for anyone curious to see Yosemite.
Yosemite is spectacular but the tour left you very little free time to explore around, not even talk about if you want to do a few trekking paths on your own. Totally impossible. As you have to rush back to their parking lot which is far away from the waterfall valley area, reserved at least 30 mins walking back and forth and you will be only given 1hour 20mins in total to explore the area. During the whole trip the guide Patrick was non-stop playing very loud music according to his likings, which most of us were not really appreciated, especially it's not good for the elders' ears and those who would like to take a rest. What worse was the vehicle broke down on the way back to SF at Oakdale. We had to wait for another car to pick us up coming from SF which meant we had to wait three and a half hour at Oakdale. We could have the option to join the other tour bus to drop us back to SF, but he didn't offer to pay the fare for us. He didn't offer us any dinner voucher or compensations, but just an ice cream bar and water as we insisted. So we had to pay for our own expenses and waited for 3 more hours which everyone of us was exhausted. I think the company could do much better to fix the problem but not just keep mentioning for the tips you expected. And proper check up for the vehicle should be done before conducting any tours is a basic thing.
Where do I start. Honestly, one of my favorite tours. Everything in this tour was outstanding. Patrick, our tour guide,has got to be one of our favorite tour guides. His knowledge about the city and Yosemite, how he connected the music he played to the actual area we were driving by on our way there and back. He was so well prepared. He just went beyond and made the whole experience an unforgettable one. Then we get to Yosemite, and it blew my mind of how beautiful this place is. I thought I was looking at a painting the whole time. Thank You Viator and Patrick. I highly recommend this tour.