Yosemite National Park Booked :)

Pulled the trigger and booked up 2 nights...

We had 3 options for this stop over:

1) They have tented huts right in the heart of the park but these are only available until around the start of October (if the weather is ok) other lodges were also available but I found it hard to find my way around the whole thing... so went back to the tried and tested Booking.com

2) Closest cabins to the gates of the park were very nice but with this the price was also high

3) The lodge a few miles further out from the no. 2 option and a much better price

We went for the 3rd option... thinking Vegas would be the next big stop and I need to save a little money so that I have at least 500USD to try to make back the increasing costs of this holiday in the casino's :) I think that I could do this...

Hotel number 5 - Yosemite Westgate Lodge

Hotel No. 5 (2 nights)

Yosemite National Park Via Wikipedia

This is booked for now but I will be looking over the next few days to see if I can get a better location... I have thought about the information from my last post and I would like to get as close as possible... the cost would increase but lets see...

Planning of the 2 nights at Yosemite National Park...

Yosemite National Park is one of those places that everyone has heard of... a place that just had to be plan into the visit.

When you google "Yosemite" and click on "photos" it comes up with this...

How can you not stop here for a few nights... Falling in love...

So, what options do we have here ?

At the booking site I am using the closest that I can get for an ok price is 12miles from the park gates... sounds good right...

The LP forum gave me a good link to information about staying close to Yosemite:



This has come up in a few recent trip planning threads, so I thought I'd put it out there for general info.

If a hotel etc. says "X minutes to Yosemite" on their website, they are usually talking about the drive to the park border. For example, Groveland properties will often say "20-30 minutes to Yosemite!" This is technically true, as it's only about 20 miles to the border. However, it's another 45-60 minutes from there to Yosemite Valley [1], not including wait time at the gate (which can be substantial if you arrive in the middle of the day), traffic, getting stuck behind someone who's never driven on mountain roads, going slow because you yourself have never driven on mountain roads, and time to find parking (which can also be substantial if arriving mid-day).

The same is true for Mariposa and Oakhurst properties - after entering the park, you're looking at a minimum of 30-60 minutes to Valley attractions, depending on which entrance you use. The most egregious example is the "Yosemite View Lodge" in El Portal, from which, yes, you can see the park boundary, but still have to drive at least 20-30 minutes to see the main park features.

My recommended time allowances from your hotel to the Valley, assuming average summer gate wait, traffic, and parking time:
Mariposa: 1.5+ hours
El Portal: 45 mins-1 hour
Groveland: 1.5-2 hours (currently 2-3 hours due to road closure)
Oakhurst: 2 hours
Fish Camp: 1.5 hours
Mammoth Lakes: 3 hours (when Tioga Rd is open)
Lee Vining: 2.5 hours (when Tioga Rd is open)

Add more time if you're planning to arrive late morning or mid-day - or better, plan to arrive early, especially on weekends.

Here is the park's drive time estimate to lots of places from the Valley: https://www.nps.gov/yose/planyourvisit/upload/mileages9-2007.pdf

(My times are longer than theirs because I factor in entrance gate waits and time to find parking.)

Hope this helps some folks in your trip planning. If you only have one day to spend in the park and you're staying in one of these communities, you need to know how much time you'll be spending in your car.

1 Right now, of course, the Big Oak Flat road is closed, so you have to drive round the long way anyway, which adds another hour. The road will open May 1 2017 but with additional work yet to be done, involving 15 minute delays during the day and some entire closures at night (7pm-5am).

This is very good information to have and understand so that we are not let down when we get there...

But whatever the situation and place that we book all I need is a few hours of this....

San Francisco is now in the mix...

When I first looked at San Francisco I was not crazy about the place... The only things that popped into my head were the Golden Gate Bridge & Alcatraz - I could not justify to myself that we needed more that just a single night there...

BUT...

The more I look into the city the more I start to like :) Some parts of it remind me of New York... I am not sure why but I have the feeling that there is something special about the place, I could be wrong but lets go with this... 3 Nights it is...

Hotel is booked - Hotel Zephyr San Francisco (This is a non refundable booking so this is here to stay) It looks great and in a perfect location... Very happy about this, it feels right :)

Bonus info. our first and only dog who passed away just after my father was called Zephyr so this is ment to be...

Hotel No. 4 (3 nights)

San Francisco via Wikipedia

I understand that the place is just hills... but how much?
Thinking with regards to our Daughter and it will be a good guess that she will be in her pushchair so I would like to find out the best routes around the city... the trams will be an issue with the pushchair so we will have to leave it at the hotel one of the days... just for a short trip out...

I have 5 months to join a gym and get fighting fit for the workout that will be Isabella + pushchair & a lot of hills...

Next hotel will be in the Yosemite area... this could be expensive...

Visual plan of the route

The numbers indicate the stops that I have planned (overnight stays)

The solid black line is the way we plan the route now

The dotted line is what we are thinking about

The Route is being planned

I have been advised to roughly plan out the route and get some of the most important dates booked and then work around these dates with the stops between...

My planned route:

• Los Angeles - 5 nights (BOOKED)

• Drive up Highway 1 with 2 planned overnights (BOOKED)

• San Francisco - 3 nights (Close to being booked)

• Yosemite - 2 nights (Close to being booked)

• Las Vegas - 2 nights (Amount of nights could change)

• Grand Canyon - 2 nights (Looking at booking)

• Los Angeles - 2 nights (This could change ?)

From Los Angeles we will be heading North... Highway 1

The original plan was to take 2 overnight stops so that we can really enjoy the coast. The stops would be Cayucos (at the bottom of the map) & Monterey (at the top of the map) both ends of the most beautiful part of the highway.

We have booked the first overnight at Cayucos Beach Inn (This hotel is open to be changed or removed at no cost)

Hotel No. 2 (1 night)

Cayucos via Wikipedia

The second overnight at Motel 6 Monterey North Fremont Street (This hotel is open to be changed or removed at no cost)

Hotel No. 3 (1 night)

Monterey via Wikipedia

After these 2 hotels were booked I found out from a very helpful person on the LP forum that the Bridge @ Big Sur was broken and needed to be taken down and a new temp. bridge is to be built. This is huge as there is no way around this Bridge and the de-tour as I understand it will be big !! A back up plan is needed...

The new temp. bridge is set to open on the 30/09/2017 and we are planned to drive over it on the 08/10/2017

So any delay to this could be costly for our trip... what to do, what to do ??

News - Big Sur Bridge

A lot of great advice is coming through from the Loney planet forums - My quest for advice is not falling short and lots of great advice on how to get around with Isabella.

Our daughter Isabella has a rare form of epilepsy (CSWS) that makes her very tired (even when she has just woke up in the morning) a new country, new people, new things to see and do will make this worse.. She will be tired, we know this... so there is some great links and advice coming in that we can look into so that we can make this trip as easy and relaxing as possible for us all...

You can follow the advice at the link below to see if you are in agreement... I think that it is very helpful and hope it can be used to shape the trip :)

lonelyplanet