Our tour guide picked us up at 6:31 a.m. at our lodging, Hounds Tooth Inn, Oakhurst, which was the last stop before going to Yosemite. That meant we were first home too, which worked nicely as we were able to leave our car there and depart for our next destination. In fact the tour was over about an hour earlier than expected as we were mid week and visitors were not as heavy as other dates.
Our guide was a nice lady whose name I'm sorry I've forgotten, but she was a fountain of information all along the trip. We had just enough stops to see major sites and stretch. Because of Mono Winds and wildfires, I actually was disappointed in Yosemite itself. The massive cliffs/mountains are impressive, but the magic wasn't what we anticipated. That's not the tours' problem.
One major disappointment, however, was paying for lunch at the Lodge, but being given a sandwich sack lunch. We were told the Lodge wasn't serving lunch, and we'd get a refund (haven't seen that yet), but when we got there the dining room was open and prices boarded for lunch! No explanation from our guide as to why.
Ride back was quiet as she had joked it would be. It was an hour 1/2 back and we were all tired.
All in all, I'm glad with only one day here that we took this tour.
Response from Host
Nov 2021
Ahwahnee is not serving sit down service with lunch. You have to wait in line and order lunches to go in a box. We have had several complaints about that so we prefer to bring picnic lunches from another vendor. The cost difference is only $5 per lunch and we have offset that by not increasing our your price this year.
We plan to offer the Ahwahnee lunches again when the restaurant offers full service again and we hope they do that soon
Thank you