During the holidays we have shifted from splurging on presents to taking small family trips to explore places close to home. This year our trip took us to California where we stopped by a few places including visiting Yosemite National Park which you may have seen me post photos of earlier this week. The night before we were due to be in the park we wanted to stay somewhere close so we could head out first thing in the morning & get as much time in the park as our schedule allowed. We ended up staying at the Yosemite View Lodge which is just a short drive from the entrance of the park along the 140/El Portal Road. Yosemite National Park is a spot that thousands of people visit every year and of course families will be looking for lodging so I wanted to share our experience with the hotel we picked out. It had a lot of positives & a few negatives, but during our travels I've found most hotels have a balance between the two.
Over all we had a pleasant stay in our room, like most hotels it is just a place to rest for the night. We had a party of six so we were in one of the bigger family suites, it was nice to have the extra space to stretch out and relax together in one big hotel room instead of getting two smaller rooms. There were a few minor negatives about the suite which included terrible water pressure in the showers, some of the dishes in the kitchen were still visibly dirty from the last guests, a little bit of wall paper in the kitchen was coming down and the spa tub switch was hidden behind the towels. Otherwise the room was cozy & welcoming, we felt relaxed and comfortable. I also liked the little travel toiletries that were provided, they had a nice smell to them. There were four queen sized beds along with a pull out sleeper sofa, so depending on how many people you had sleeping in each bed you can fit up to ten people in this family suite. It included two bathrooms so there is no need to worry about fighting over a single bathroom which is nice especially for bigger families.
The property has a lot of fun amenities like an indoor pool & hot tub along with an outdoor pool & hot tub. It was nice to relax in the hot tub after a long day of travel. There was also a game room just a short walk from our room which had some board games, random books, two living rooms with sofas and TV's along with a big room that had a pool table, air hockey and more. A few of the electronic games in the room weren't on/working but there was still plenty to do! We hung out in the game room for quite sometime.
Near the front desk is a large living room type area with plenty of seating where you can relax if you wish. There is also a pretty decent sized store & gift shop were you can find souvenirs, clothing and even do some light grocery shopping. The prices weren't bad, and they had a lot to choose from. We actually ended up buying our breakfast from their little shop, because surprisingly with how expensive the rooms are they don't even include a basic breakfast. If you want actual breakfast they had a small buffet in their on site restaurant, we didn't get breakfast there but looking at other reviews it was almost $22 per person which is pretty high.
We did visit the restaurant for dinner while we were there. The property has two places to eat aside from the little grocery store they have there is a restaurant & a pizza place. For some reason the pizza spot is closed during the winter so the only option was the restaurant. Service was very slow, it took a while to get seated even with it being mostly empty and it took a long time to order then get our food. The tables were also very uneven and wobbly but I think that may be due to the floor. However the food was very good & the waiter in charge of refilling drinks was on top of making sure our glasses stayed full.
The view of the river outside of our room was gorgeous and I loved sitting outside in a chair just listening to the sound of the running water. The hotel was over all pretty quiet at night so it was just you and the sound of nature which was peaceful. We also sat out near the river itself at a little firepit area they had set up. The view of the stars at night was spectacular. The short drive to Yosemite National Park from this hotel was also a plus because you can get into the park as soon as they open for the day and try to beat some of the crowds.
If you are planning a trip to California & are looking for other activities to do feel free to type in "Things to do in California" in the search bar of my blog so you can find some other great activities in California. You can also click the "Things to do in California" link located on the right hand side of my blog/in this post.
🟊 This is not a sponsored post, we paid for this ourselves. I just enjoy sharing awesome spots with my readers.
