For someone that’s usually hesitant to go on organised group tours I was very reluctant to book a trip like this. I looked at many different ways of visiting Yosemite and spending time in the park - ie hiring a car and staying near the park, staying in a hotel within the park or just visiting for a day but nothing seemed to give us the option of spending enough time within the park to do it justice without costing an arm and a leg. (Theres a nice healthy early bird discount on the website too!). But I am so thankful I booked this type of trip.
There are so many pros to this type of trip:
-Having everything so well organised for us was a god send, with a packed exciting itinerary we were able to sit back and enjoy the national park without having to think - quite literally sit top as we were driven between all our places by our brilliant guide!!
-travelling with a group of new people is very interesting. Normally one of my hesitancies about group trips but by dinner on day 1 everyone became really good friends. Again facilitated by Kate our guide who gauged the group dynamic so well the whole trip, everyone got to know each other well and we always had the option of doing hikes/activities in groups or just on our own and there was no pressure either way at any point it was so nice
- we were able to cover such a lot of the park in the 3 days that we were there. We saw all the typical well known tourist icons (el cap, half dome etc) and we’re able to see so many more cool interesting places that I had no idea about before I entered the park. There were a couple of cool swimming spots, interesting hikes and vista points along the journeys packed into the schedule too! All of this felt impossible to do without having such a good prior knowledge of the park (and someone willing to do all the driving)
- the days were long but never too tiring. There’s so much to see that you have to be prepared to get up early-ish (6:30 one day) but it’s more than worth it I promise you
(there’s a little bit of driving between places every day so just nap then)
- a tour guide! Best till last. Our tour guide Kate was amazing. So knowledgeable about the park and full of fun facts to blow our minds about how vast the park is etc. As mentioned before she managed to gauge the group well and engaged with everyone throughout the trip. She was hard working, funny and always willing to go the extra mile for us. She knew some great spots in the park for us and made these 3 days the nightlight of a long summer of travelling, thank you!!