Where To Stay In Yosemite Valley And Near The Park

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Where to stay at Yosemite National Park the best hotels, lodges, cabins, yurts, tents and campgrounds inside and near Yosemite tunnel view overlooking the valley at dusk Where Are Those Morgans

We’ve visited most of America’s popular national parks and one thing is usually apparent when it comes to lodging: it’s either excellent or seriously lacking. Yosemite is uniquely challenging because it has plenty of lodges and campgrounds inside the park, but they fill quickly. And options outside the park are limited, often requiring a long drive to reach the valley. So, where should you book?

In this guide we explain the few places you can stay when you visit Yosemite National Park, based on our experiences.

Our Experience

Couple standing together for a photo on a flat granite rock summit with far reaching views over Yosemite National Park on a clear day
Here we are at the summit of Lembert Dome on our first day in the park

We visited Yosemite in October 2019 for 3 full days as part of our first west coast road trip. After leaving Death Valley we spent a night in Mammoth Lakes, before entering Yosemite from the east. Then we spent a night in a yurt in a tiny place called Incline near Arch Rock entrance. Next, we snagged a last minute cancellation at Upper Pines campground in the valley. And finally, we spent a night in Mariposa after leaving the park.

Most of the lodging options inside the park were either booked up or too expensive last minute. Our road trip was fluid so we couldn’t book in advance, but in hindsight that’s the mistake we would avoid next time. We strongly recommend booking in advance so you get good value and keep your itinerary efficient. And if you visit outside of summer like we did, sleeping outside is freezing cold! Read more about us.

Lodging Inside The Park

Photo of the Wawona Hotel in Yosemite surrounded by trees from the road at dusk
We took this photo of Wawona Hotel on our way out of the park

Okay, let’s get right into it. We’re starting with the lodging options you can book inside park boundaries because they’re more convenient for your Yosemite itinerary. Next time we visit, we’ll probably try to book a room in Yosemite Valley.

Staying inside the park means you’re closer to the attractions and hikes, but you are also limited to the food options on site. Lodging inside the park also books up very quickly and it can be expensive, so get organized as soon as you know your dates of travel.

The Ahwahnee

Yosemite’s historic crown jewel and most upscale hotel The Ahwahnee is arguably the best place to stay in all of Yosemite National Park. It has a perfect location in Yosemite Valley near top hikes and iconic granite domes. You’d have access to a heated swimming pool, a stunning dining hall, a lounge and a bar.

The downside is you’d also need a seriously healthy travel budget because you’d be looking at somewhere around $500 per night. It’s open year round, and prices may drop slightly in off season months. But if you visit in peak season, expect The Ahwahnee to cost a small fortune.

>> Book: The Ahwahnee

Wawona Hotel

The Wawona Hotel is a Victorian style lodging located 29 miles south of Yosemite visitor center, which takes around an hour to drive. It’s the only other traditional hotel lodging inside the park’s boundaries. The historic hotel has a seasonal outdoor pool, a 9-hole golf course and a quaint dining hall serving meals all day.

Because it’s located so far to the south, we recommend booking one night at the beginning or end of your itinerary as you enter or leave the park. This way you’ll keep your itinerary efficient and not spend too much time driving. Wawona Hotel is typically open between the end of March and the end of November.

>> Book: Wawona Hotel

Half Dome granite formation from Glacier Point on a bright sunny day
We love this close up photo we took of Half Dome from Glacier Point

Yosemite Valley Lodge

If you can find availability, we think Yosemite Valley Lodge has the best balance of location and cost. It’s not as classy as The Ahwahnee or Wawona but it’s far more affordable and it’s located just a stones throw from Yosemite Falls. We like value for money, so this is the first place we’d try to book for our next visit to the park.

For around $200-300 per night you’d have use of an outdoor pool, cozy rooms and a food court with reasonable prices. And during the winter season you can even book 2 nights, get the third night free. Yosemite Valley Lodge is open year round.

>> Book: Yosemite Valley Lodge

Tip: See if you can beat the price of going direct at both Booking.com and Hotels.com.

Curry Village

Curry Village is located near Upper Pines Campground in Yosemite Valley. It’s very close to the Mist Trail and hike leading to Half Dome, so it’s a great place to stay if you’re interested in hiking. You’d get a heated or unheated canvas tent, lodge or standard room. The tents tend to have more availability and they only cost around $100-150 per night.

On site amenities include a coffee shop, grill, pizza place, bar and seasonal outdoor pool. It’s a lot more relaxed and way less classy, but it’s only open between April-October.

>> Book: Curry Village

Alternate Options

Housekeeping Camp – Glamping option featuring three sided concrete rooms with canvas roof in bunk-bed style accommodation. Great location in Yosemite Valley and has an on site camp store.

White Wolf Lodge – Located on Tioga Road 30 miles from Yosemite Valley, it has 24 canvas tent cabins and 4 traditional cabins open between June and September.

Tuolumne Meadows Lodge – Located further along Tioga Road towards Yosemite east entrance 60 miles from Yosemite Valley, it has 69 canvas tent cabins open between June and September.

Need help planning your trip to Yosemite?

Our popular Yosemite travel guidebook helps you with planning every aspect of your visit, including what to see, the best hikes, where to eat and stay, itinerary ideas and map!

View Yosemite Guidebook
Where Are Those Morgans Yosemite travel guidebook

Where To Stay Nearby

Photo of the inside of a yurt with canvas roof above two single beds
This was the yurt we stayed in near Incline

What if lodging inside the park is booked up, too expensive or you’d just prefer a normal hotel with a better selection of restaurants? Well, you do have some options, but not as many as you’d probably like.

For the amount of visitors Yosemite gets each year (around 4 million), we were shocked at the limited accommodation options within easy driving distance of Yosemite Valley.

The good news is there’s plenty of fantastic hotels you can stay the night before entering the park or the night after leaving to keep your itinerary efficient. But there aren’t many places close enough to use as a base for your whole trip to Yosemite, unless you don’t mind driving an hour in and out each day.

Mammoth Lakes

Mammoth Lakes is a lovely ski resort town with traditional alpine lodges and a gondola. It’s the closest built up town to Yosemite’s east entrance, so it’s the best place to spend a night before or after the park if you’re also visiting Las Vegas, Death Valley or Lake Tahoe. And the good news is there’s a bunch of great Mammoth Lakes hotels to choose between.

Top rated hotels:

El Portal + Incline

El Portal and Incline are tiny areas located 5 miles apart along the Merced River. Yosemite Valley is 9 miles from El Portal and 14 miles from Incline, so they’re the closest places you can get to the park without actually staying inside the park boundaries.

The major downside to El Portal or Incline is a lack of dining options with just two restaurants in each place. We spent a very cold night in a yurt at Indian Flat RV Park in Incline and it was fine, but we’d rather have stayed in a proper hotel room.

Top rated hotels:

Tip: Yosemite View Lodge in El Portal has almost 9,000 reviews on Booking.com, which makes it one of the most stayed at hotels near the park. It’s also usually cheaper than lodging inside the park, so it strikes a good balance between cost vs location. This is one of the only hotels we’d consider using as a base for our whole stay in the park, outside of the lodges in Yosemite Valley.

Mariposa

Mariposa is a small town 43 miles southwest of Yosemite Valley. It’s a great little town that works well the night before or after your Yosemite itinerary, but it’s a bit too far to use as a base for your whole stay. After our third day, we stayed at the Best Western Plus and ate dinner at Pizza Factory, both of which were excellent.

Top rated hotels:

Yosemite Valley at sunset in fall with gorgeous yellow vegetation in the meadows
The mornings were cold when we visited in the fall but it was worth it for the golden yellow colors

Fish Camp

Fish Camp is located 35 miles south of Yosemite’s south entrance. There’s a dozen or so vacation rentals or 3 traditional lodges you can book in the area. It’s a great place to stay on the first or last night if you’re coming from or going to Fresno, Los Angeles or San Diego.

Top rated hotels:

Tip: Tenaya Lodge is a very popular place to stay with thousands of excellent reviews on Booking.com. If we were going to book in Fish Camp, it would definitely be at Tenaya Lodge.

Oakhurst

Oakhurst is the most built up area on the south side of Yosemite (further south from Fish Camp). It has lots of amenities, restaurants and hotels, so it’s great the night before or after your itinerary, but the 42-mile drive to Yosemite Valley takes 1 hour 15 minutes so it’s not ideal for multiple nights. Don’t miss Smokehouse 41 BBQ for dinner and South Gate Brewing Company for a beer if you stay in Oakhurst.

Top rated hotels:

Big Oak Flat Road

Big Oak Flat is the road leading to Yosemite Valley from the west, so it’s the most direct route to take if you’re driving to or from San Francisco. Buck Meadows and Groveland are located along Big Oak Flat Road. Buck Meadows is 45 minutes drive from Yosemite Valley and Groveland is closer to 1 hour. You can book cheap hotel rooms in both places.

If you want to be even closer to Yosemite Valley, take a look at Evergreen Lodge and Rush Creek Lodge. Both are fantastic options close to the park, but they do come with a higher price tag.

Top rated hotels:

Yosemite’s Campgrounds

Photo of a large blue tent surrounded by trees on a ground covered in pine needles next to a small bench in Yosemite Upper Pines Campground
This was our tent when we stayed in Upper Pines Campground for a night

One way to save a ton of money and get a great location in Yosemite Valley near the top hikes and photo spots is to ditch the hotel search, dust the cobwebs off your old tent and book a campground. The catch? If you thought lodges were hard to book, Yosemite’s famed campgrounds make hotels feel like a walk in the park.

If you want to book a campsite at one of the four Yosemite Valley campgrounds between May and September, you have to be flexible, organized and lucky. Here are the campgrounds:

  • Upper Pines – 238 sites, $26/night
  • Lower Pines – 60 sites, $26/night
  • North Pines – 81 sites, $26/night
  • Camp 4 – 61 sites, $6/night

Reservations are required at Upper Pines, Lower Pines and North Pines. They can be booked up to 5 months in advance. Camp 4 is different because it can only be booked through a daily lottery one day in advance between late May and early September, then it’s first come first served September through May.

There are 9 other campgrounds scattered around the park, but the rest are outside of Yosemite Valley so we won’t list them all in this guide. Here’s more information about all campgrounds in Yosemite and about Camp 4 specifically.

We stayed at Upper Pines, the classic and most sought after campground. Apart from being freezing cold at the end of October, it was great. We had anti-bear storage units, bathrooms and plenty of room for our site among the trees. Our tent was more like a small house made of feathers (it blew down in Badlands and Death Valley!) so we were grateful for added protection in the trees at Upper Pines.

Camping Exclusive

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Map

Click or touch the map below to activate. Zoom in and out, move around the map and you’ll see the locations of every lodge, hotel and campground we’ve covered in this guide. Click on the “view larger map” icon in the top right to expand the map for a closer look.

Map key:

  • Red – Lodging inside the park
  • Blue – Mammoth Lakes hotels
  • Purple – El Portal + Incline hotels
  • Orange – Mariposa hotels
  • Yellow – Fish Camp hotels
  • Green – Oakhurst hotels
  • Brown – Big Oak Flat Road hotels
  • Grey – Yosemite Valley campgrounds

The Morgan Conclusion

Mark and Kristen Morgan from Where Are Those Morgans at the Yosemite national park entrance sign at night
Mark and Kristen at the Yosemite entrance sign at night after a long day hiking in the park

Yosemite is one of our favorite national parks in the US, but booking accommodation can be a real challenge. Lodges inside the park are often fully booked or too expensive, and there aren’t enough quality options near the park’s boundaries. With that said, there are plenty of excellent hotel options in places like Mariposa and Oakhurst for nights before and after visiting the park.

We ended up staying in a mix-match of places, which ended up being both inconvenient and uncomfortable. Sure, it was because we were booking last minute, but it was October so we expected more availability and better value. From experience, our best advice for you is to book your accommodation as early as possible no matter what time of year you plan to visit, especially if it’s your first time in Yosemite.

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We hope our guide on where to stay near Yosemite helps with planning your visit to California!

Please let us know if you have any questions in the comments below.

Happy Travels,

Mark and Kristen

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2 thoughts on “Where To Stay In Yosemite Valley And Near The Park”

  1. You mentioned Wawona but left out The Redwoods in Yosemite Vacation Rentals as well as the the Park Service camp ground both in Wawona, 45 minutes from the Valley. One more thought, Wawona is its own destination.
    Your article is the best I have seen regarding Yosemite accommodations.

    Reply
    • Thanks for the info Ron, we’ll definitely take a look into separating Wawona out as its own spot and your suggestions next time we update the guide. There a few more cabins and off the beaten path places we will add at the same time. Cheers!

      Reply

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