June through August, you can expect major crowds on the trails and in the campsites, not to mention traffic coming into the park. This is usually the route that most GPS services will suggest. Amsterdam See their full selection of tours. Paris If thats the case, I suggest you refer to my Northern California road trip itinerary as well as this post with several suggested California road trip itineraries. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience. The BART train ride from San Francisco to Richmond takes about 35 minutes. The two routes we suggest below are a scenic route via Highway 140 or a faster route viaHighway 120. Her writing and podcast have been featured in Forbes, CBC Canada, National Geographic, the Huffington Post, and CNN Arabic, amongst others. This tour includes a visit to several notable sites such as Half Dome, Yosemite Falls, and Bridal Veil Falls. Learning about Yosemite's incredible landscape before you go only adds to the sense of amazement when seeing the iconic sites in person. Privacy Policy Return Policy Sitemap, 782 Columbus Avenue, Plus, this tour offers the convenience of hotel pickup in addition to interesting commentary shared by a knowledgable guide along the way. Shes obsessed with bouldering, houseplants, other peoples pets, and anywhere she can see the ocean. Tours typically include round-trip bus service between San Francisco and Yosemite, park entrance fee, and a live guide and/or audio guide. Oakdale is the largest town east of Highway 99, so stop here for groceries to avoid paying a fortune at the Village Store. The Knights Ferry Recreation Area is only a slight detour from the Highway 120 route to Yosemite, on a scenic portion of the drive in the Sierra Nevada foothills. From Merced, you transfer to the YARTS system to get to Yosemite. I suggest leaving at 4 AM or 5 AM. The fastest way to get to Yosemite from San Francisco is to fly. This route is ideal if you are staying at the Tenaya Lodge, which is accessible by taking Highway 140 to the southern entrance of Yosemite National Park. The nearest gas pumps to Yosemite Valley are open year-round inside the park at Wawona (45 minutes south of the valley on Wawona Road) and Crane Flat (30 minutes northwest on Big Oak Flat Road). Youll can stop at either Merced or Fresno. 12 Best Yosemite Valley Hikes for All Levels, Where to Find Giant Sequoias in Yosemite: 3 Serene Sequoia Groves, 30 Useful Things to Know Before Visiting Yosemite in Winter & Best Things to Do. (If you do not choose a "Richmond line" BART train from San Francisco, then you must transfer to a "Richmond line" train at the 19th Street/Oakland station). The Ultimate Southern California Road Trip: Coastal Cities, National Parks + Beyond. Families with kids will have a great time at Manteca Waterslides (reopening in 2020) located about a 90-minute drive from San Francisco and directly on the Highway 120 route to Yosemite. This post explains how to get to Yosemite National Park from San Francisco by car, by taking a bus tour, or by using public transportation. But you can takeeither anAmtraktrain or a Greyhoundbus to the town of Merced. The Best Time to Visit Yosemite National Park, The 7 Best Things to Do in Yosemite National Park in the Spring, Yosemite Lodging: Everything You Need to Know, Yosemite National Park: The Complete Guide, How to Plan Your Unforgettable Trip to Yosemite National Park, How to Get From San Francisco to New York, California Scenic Drives: 7 Routes That Will Make You Swoon, How to Plan a Yosemite National Park Weekend Getaway, How to Get from San Jose to San Francisco, Guide to Yosemite Hotels Along Highway 140, How to Travel From Seattle to San Francisco, How to Spend One Awesome Day in Yosemite National Park, How to Get From San Francisco to Lake Tahoe. This shuttle bus only brings you to the Yosemite Valley Visitor Center, but from there, you can take YARTS to Tuolumne Meadows and Mariposa and other places along the outskirts of the park. I want them all PLUS general travel tips. First, you can take the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) train from Civic Center/UN PlazaStation to Dublin/Pleasanton Station, a 50-minute ride that costs about $7.10. TIP: See our post on things to do at Yosemite National Park to plan your free time. FREE TOURS BY FOOT IS THE ORIGINAL PAY-WHAT-YOU-LIKE WALKING TOUR. You will have a few hours of free time inside the park for you to explore. The YARTS Bus makes multiple stops and takes about one hour and 45 minutes to reach the Yosemite Valley Visitor Center. After exiting Merced station, take the Yosemite Area Regional Transit System (YARTS) Bus to Yosemite National Park. Weve previously ranked Incredible AdventuresSmall-Group Yosemite Tour from San Franciscoas one of the best Yosemite tours. Below we go into detail about two companies, City Sightseeing and Extranomical Tours. Yosemite National Park is approximately 167 miles east of San Francisco. This guided tour stops at Gold Rush towns on the way to Yosemite and then covers the highlights of Yosemite National Park, including a hike through Tuolumne Grove and a photo-op at Tunnel View with Half Dome in the background. Going by yourself from San Francisco to Yosemite (and then back) requires 8+ hours of round trip driving in a single day hardly a relaxing way to spend a day, especially with an early wake-up time. We also recommend this service instead of taking public transportation on your own, if you don't want to deal with a complicated, time-consuming journey from San Francisco to Yosemite. Rome The Greyhound bus journey takes over nine hours and includes several stops plus a transfer in Merced. There are 13 campgrounds in which to lounge and the Merced River in which to float on a hot day. However, if you are visiting Yosemite on a day trip with the shuttle bus, you wont be able to see it all. The main scenic part of this drive starts once you reach Hwy 140. Rise and shine! If you only have time for a day trip to Yosemite from SF, then it makes sense to pick one of the less time-consuming options. Even in a single day, this will give you enough time in Yosemite to get a taste of it barely. Berlin Hertz offers rental cars from a location near San Francisco Airport. However, if you are staying in Yosemite for a few days, a shuttle bus becomes a better and better option, since you have less of a time crunch. This multi-day Yosemite tour begins from the Amtrak Transbay Terminal in the SOMA neighborhood. We've updated our Privacy Policy, which will go in to effect on September 1, 2022. Can I Use Public Transportation to Travel From the Airport? If you arrive in Fresno, you will want to take the Yellow line. Theres nothing like a nice cup of camp coffee while taking in all the fresh air , A post shared by Incredible Adventures (@incadventures) on May 11, 2018 at 4:37am PDT. Add on Alcatraz at checkout. Depending on how long you are planning to stay in Yosemite National Park, you may want to get a really early start if you drive your own car into Yosemite. Consider the time of year you will be visiting Yosemite because some roads in the park are seasonal. Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This road will take you directly to Yosemite, and there are a lot of historic sites along the way. Budget provides rental cars from a location in downtown San Francisco. Besides private bus tour companiessuch as Gray Line and Viatorthat offer day trips to the park from San Francisco, there's no single bus that runs the route directly. Ideally, this would be a guided tour, which eliminates fatigue from the 3+ hour drive youd need to make to reach the Big Oak Flat park entrance at the northernmost edge of the park (and the 4+ hours to reach the valley floor). The best time to travel to Yosemite is during May and September, when most things in the park are open (not all things: Tioga Pass sometimes isn't clear enough to open until July and closes in November), but summer crowds aren't at their peak. Camping equipment and fees for tents are included,except for sleeping bags. This way you can spread your trip from San Francisco to Yosemite National Park over 2 or 3 days. Once at Yosemite, you have 5- 6 hours of free time to explore the park. See their full selection of services. The drive is too long for any ride share or taxi service, so we would recommend nixing Uber or Lyft right off the bat. Exit the BART train at the Richmond station and walk over to the adjoining Amtrak train station (a few steps away). There are several small group tours that go from San Francisco to Yosemite. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged. Whats the Most Scenic Route to Yosemite National Park? As an Airbnb Associate, I earn when you book through my links. The UNESCO-listed Yosemite National Park is a place of awe-inspiring natural wonders: a majestic glacier-sculpted valley blanketed in flowering meadows and festooned with rushing waterfalls that plunge from granite cliffs. Note that some roads may be closed during certain times of the year, so before you depart for Yosemite, check the National Park Services Current Conditions page. NOTE: City Sightseeing also offers day trips to the Muir Woods, Sausalito, Sonoma Valley, and other locations. Many tourists plan to see Yosemite while visiting San Francisco, about 200 miles away. Its also a popular route for people driving to Yosemite from the San Jose area. And it definitely leaves no time for seeing the giant sequoias, which are located outside of Yosemite Valley in Tuolumne Grove, Mariposa Grove, and Merced Grove. It includes pick up at the Union Square Hilton (or Dublin BART) and drop-off. The entire journey takes six and a half hours, not including bus wait times. Top 4 Ways to get from San Francisco to Yosemite National Park: The Yosemite and Giant Sequoias 1-Day Tour from San Francisco is an inspiring 1-day tour to Yosemite National Park and its Giant Sequoias from San Francisco. To make getting there half the fun, you can stop at tourist attractions along the way. The main concern with taking Hwy 120 is that landslides can occur and this means frequent road closures. The length of your trip to Yosemite is an important factor in figuring outhowto get from San Francisco to Yosemite. From Highway 99 at Merced, 140 passes through open ranch land, into the wooded foothills, and through the old mining town of Mariposa, which has an old-fashioned main street with many cute places to eat. You can book each leg of the shuttle bus independently, so that you can customize your Yosemite stay. Interstate 80 will lead you into Oakland, where you can merge onto 580 East for 45 miles (72 kilometers), then State Route 120. Maybe you want to visit other Northern California destinations like Sacramento and Lake Tahoe, or maybe you want to see other Sierra Nevada national parks (Sequoia NP, Kings Canyon NP) along the way perhaps you even want to make your way down to Southern California and Los Angeles and see some of the SoCal national parks as well! Typically, these are very well timed and you will have to wait no more than 10 minutes between your bus and your train. Yosemite National Park has something for everyone, and located just 170 miles away from San Francisco, its a popular day trip or weekend getaway for both Bay Area locals and San Francisco tourists. Driving Directions from San Francisco to Yosemite: Take I-80 E over the Bay Bridge towards Oakland. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. That way you dont have to worry about rushing back from Yosemite National Park to San Francisco on the same day. ), El Capitan, and stop in Oakdale for both breakfast and dinner. If you take Hwy 120, consider stopping at Oakdale, which is a bit more than halfway between the city and the park. Purchase an Amtrak train ticket to Merced, unless you have already purchased a ticket online. All of the extra windows on the Observation Car will offer incredible views as the Yosemite train chugs along past Glacier Point. London Allison Green is a travel blogger, writer, and podcasterwho grew up in the Bay Area of California. When Is the Best Time to Travel to Yosemite National Park? Take the BART train from San Francisco to Richmond station, the last stop on the "Richmond line." If you don't already have a BART ticket or Clipper card, use one of the station's vending machines to purchase a ticket (the fare is about $11 round-trip from San Francisco to Richmond). Camping in Yosemite: If you're interested in spending a night under the stars, you can choose from Yosemite's array of excellent campgrounds. Their minibuses are comfortable and the small groups create an intimate experience that bigger bus tours just cant recreate. Half Dome and El Capitan are the two world-recognized granite walls that make up that iconic Yosemite scene. Yosemite National Park is a nature lover's paradise. Best Bay Area Tours is our top pick for anyone looking to do a one-day bus tour from San Francisco to Yosemite National Park. Otherwise, you can catch the Merced County Bus, a Greyhound, or the Amtrak, but none of those go into the park. There are a handful of different ways to get to Yosemite National Park from San Francisco, but some require more effort than others. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website. Yellow connects Fresno with Coarsegold, Oakhurst, Fish Camp, Mariposa Grove, and the Visitor Center. There, youll connect to a YARTS bus. Add a few of these together, and you can come up with a pretty epic California road trip that includes San Francisco, Yosemite, and so much more! One thing to consider when planning your Yosemite trip is whether or not you want to do a Yosemite day trip, a weekend in Yosemite, or plan a longer trip where you will do several hikes in different parts of the park (such as Yosemite Valley and Tuolumne Meadows). For the real adventurer, there are plenty of opportunities for a thrill, including rock climbing, zip lining, and rafting tours. The entire journey is about six hours but is stress-free because the service coordinates everything for you and even includes the Yosemite National Park entrance fee. Book your semi-independent small group tour of the Yosemite Valley from San Francisco here! Photographers angling for the perfect shots of Half Dome. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); California Crossroads is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon. The service takes care of all the travel arrangements for each step of the journey: an organized bus ride from San Francisco to the Amtrak train station in Oakland, a train ride to Merced and then a transfer by motor coach to Yosemite with a drop-off near several popular hotels. This departs from downtown San Francisco to the Emeryville train station. At the end of the second day, youll be dropped off to meet your train back to San Francisco. Depending on how you choose to get there, travel time will take an average of 3 - 4 hours. It returns daily from Yosemite Valley to San Francisco at 3 PM. Defined by its towering granite cliffs, giant sequoia groves, and plunging waterfalls, Yosemite National Park is a natural oasis just 155 miles (249 kilometers) east of San Francisco. Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. Going on this organized tour is much easier than renting a car and driving to Yosemite yourself. The road enters the park via Arch Rock. If you arrive in Merced, you will want to take the Blue line.
Sitemap 32