Yosemite day tour from San Francisco

After pickup/meet up from selected hotels in San Francisco

Board a comfortable minibus for the drive to Yosemite National Park. En route, 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, stop for a 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 full-day tour ends with hotel drop-off.

San Francisco Bay Bridge (Pass By) Drive across bridge on the way to Yosemite. The San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge is made up of two bridge segments: a skyway structure/single anchored suspension bridge between Oakland and Yerba Buena Island, and a suspension span from the island to San Francisco. Connecting the two is the largest diameter bore tunnel in the world.

Tuolumne Grove of Giant Sequoias See some of the biggest trees on the planet.Walk in the splendor of ancient giant sequoias in the Tuolumne Grove of Giant Sequoias, which is located just off of Highway 120 East (also known as the Tioga Road) and accessible year-round. This is one of three groves in the park to walk among these giants that can live to more than 2000 years old! You will have to hike just about 1.5 miles to reach the Tuolumne Grove but it will be well worth the work to enjoy these massively beautiful trees with a lot less crowds than the Mariposa Grove at the south end of the park. In the winter, this trek can require snowshoes.

Tunnel View Drive to one of the most beautiful views of the Yosemite valley from above 30 minutes • Admission Ticket Included 3 Bridalveil Falls Walk to the falls for photos 30 minutes • Admission Ticket Included 4 Yosemite Valley Spend free time experiencing the valley 2 hours • Admission Ticket Included 5 Half Dome Stop for photos 20 minutes. Tunnel View provides one of the most famous views of Yosemite Valley, showcasing the immensity of the granite walls that surround Yosemite Valley and providing a classic view of El Capitan, Half Dome, Sentinel Rock, Cathedral Rocks, and Bridalveil Fall. • 

Yosemite Falls Walk to the 4th tallest waterfalls in the world 1 hour • Yosemite Falls is one of the tallest in North America and fifth highest in the world—and the most famous and most photographed of Yosemite’s waterfalls. Its three separate falls drop a total of 2,425 feet—nearly half a mile.

El Capitan Stop to look for climbers on the granite wall 30 minutes