3-Day Yosemite Camping Adventure from San Francisco

All the camping supplies were at the campsite in a shed waiting for us when we pulled up from San Fran. The tents, sleeping bags and sleeping pads were all clean and smelled clean. Rourke, our guide for the weekend was very nice, knowledgable and patient. His personality was upbeat, informative and good at getting our group talking. The food was delicious, and plentiful. If you've ever camped before you know you are not going to have a detailed meal, that is hard to prepare, so if that is what you are expecting/like you will need to rethink how you eat for the weekend. We make chicken burritos with beans,pepper, onions with all of the fixins'. Delicious! For breakfast we had cold foods like cereal, fruit, coffee, juice, bagels option to toast them, cream cheese, ect. Tons of food, so you will not go hungry. There is a restaurant close to the site where we camped, so after a long day of hiking we went over and had a burger. The showers and restrooms were clean and within a short walking distance. Our group or the majority of us decided to do an approx 6 hour hike from the top down to see all the waterfalls. It was very challenging, but very worth it. I was so sore the next day I opted out of a short hike. LOL. The other people who did not want to do the hard hike did something else. I can't remember what it was they did, but our guide gave them options, and I remember them talking like they enjoyed themselves. I had never done anything like this before so I was not sure how it was going to all work out. Everything went off without a hitch, and I am glad I took a chance and did this tour. My family and I flew in from KS, and did a one day stent in San Fran and then got picked up from the hotel in the morning. We did not stay at the hotel where they pick you up and drop you off. We stayed in a hotel a short walking distance from there. The hotel where we were picked up was a very busy hotel and it was hard to tell if the leader was there or not to pick you up. I kept walking outside to see if I could see a van that had the company name on it. I was getting worried bc it was 15 min after the pick up time and I still had not seen our van. Finally the leader called me and he parked at a side door of the hotel. I would recommend getting the phone number of the person who will be picking you up just in case there is some problem. I would totally recommend you do this tour. If you are on the fence, don't be, just do it!

guide wasn't great, very self absorbed with stuff going on in her life, the camping was in a car park, yosemite itself is fab!

First I’ll just say it’s hard to blow it in Yosemite. The Park is simply amazing. I don’t regret making the trip. But... The campsite is at an RV campground/motel just outside the park in a gravel parking lot right off the road right next to several other large tour groups. I would not book again.

It's a great way to enjoy Yosemite for travellers esp solo travellers who have never been there before! The company arranged pick up, and take you to see many awesome places in Yosemite. The only downside was I wish we had time to do more hikes! We only did one but it was awesome to Lembert Dome. The other thing was communication error: I was getting picked up from Dublin/Pleasanton BART and a day before I specifically double checked the pick up time and was given the wrong time was given the pick up time for downtown SF, hence I spent 1.5h waiting! Also I think the company needs to review their equipment, the tarps look like they're losing their waterproofness as we were getting water seeping from the ground to our tents. Both tarps and the bottom part of the tents were wet. The previous group that used the tents had rolled up their tents and stored them even though they were dry, and we almost did not have any dry tent to pitch! We found other tents we could use, but we also had the same problem with water seeping through our tarps and getting into the tents.

We are first-time campers and were anxious before going. This tour and our awesome guide made it an easy and wonderful experience for us! That said, the only thing you should be aware of is to keep an open mind about the composition and mix of the group. Depending on others' preferences and physical abilities, you may have to compromise on your travel plans. For us, we were very lucky. We had a diverse and good mix of people from five different countries for 10 people. We thoroughly enjoyed our 3-day trip and make some new friends at the end.