Where to stay in Yosemite

Where to stay in Yosemite comes down to how many nights you can get on the Valley floor. The Ahwahnee, Yosemite Valley Lodge, Curry Village and the Pines campgrounds sit there, beside the shuttle and the trailheads. The closest gateway town, El Portal, is half an hour's drive away.

The park's lodges book 366 days ahead and its campsites go within minutes of release, so the plan usually starts with a booking date rather than a hotel. We read the figures below on 30 October 2026 on the Park Service's pages, the concessioner's lodge pages, Recreation.gov, YARTS and Mariposa County.

How much driving does a bed on the Valley floor save?

A bed on the Valley floor saves 30 minutes to more than an hour of driving each way, since the sights, the shuttle and most trailheads are there. El Portal is 14 miles and about 30 minutes away by the Park Service's table, and Mariposa 44 miles and 1 hour 15 minutes. The overview of Yosemite National Park covers the areas, the hikes and the roads.

The free Valley shuttle has its hub at Yosemite Valley Lodge. Buses come every 12 to 22 minutes on the Valleywide route, from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. A guest in the Valley can leave the car parked for the whole stay.

The park itself needs no entry reservation in 2026, and nothing has been published for 2027. A room or a campsite does not cover the entrance fee: $35 a car, plus $100 for each visitor from abroad aged 16 or over, by card only. Our guide to national park fees for international visitors has the arithmetic.

What do you get at the Ahwahnee, Valley Lodge or Curry Village?

The three Valley lodges differ more in what a room includes than in location. All are run by the park's concessioner, Aramark Destinations, which the Park Service calls Yosemite Hospitality.

The Ahwahnee is a National Historic Landmark built in the 1920s. Its Prime View rooms look out on Half Dome, Glacier Point or Upper Yosemite Falls. Hotel guests have a heated outdoor pool all year, from 9 a.m. to dusk, and six electric car chargers through valet parking at $0.37 per kWh.

Yosemite Valley Lodge stands near Yosemite Falls and parks its guests' cars for free. Its pool opens only from Memorial Day to Labor Day.

Curry Village has the simplest rooms in the Valley. Unheated tent cabins have no electrical outlets, and heated ones have one. The heat runs from the Tuesday after Labor Day to the Friday before Memorial Day. Cooking is banned anywhere in the village. Guests use public shower houses, and Wi-Fi reaches only the guest lounge.

An extra guest aged 13 or over pays $17.50 a night in a tent cabin, $14.00 in a cabin and $9.75 in a Stoneman room, plus tax. December to March in the Valley averages a high of 53°F and a low of 28°F, by the Park Service's figures. That is worth weighing before booking an unheated tent.

How low do the winter offers at the Valley lodges go?

The Valley lodges print no standard room rates, and the only prices on their pages are winter promotions. Each one has a travel window and the same two blackout periods, 23 December 2026 to 2 January 2027 and 12 to 20 February 2027. The figures below are as the concessioner printed them on 30 October 2026, with "taxes and fees apply".

A fourth offer, Linger Longer, gives a third night free after two at the Ahwahnee or Yosemite Valley Lodge. Guests must book it by 1 December 2026, for travel from 29 November 2026 to 13 March 2027. Every offer takes the first night as a deposit and charges nothing for a cancellation more than seven days before arrival.

The February blackout overlaps the dates of the 2026 firefall window, 10 to 26 February. No 2027 firefall window has been published.

Which taxes does Mariposa County add to a room bill?

Mariposa County charges a 12% transient occupancy tax on stays under 30 days, in force since 1 April 2019. Since 1 January 2021 the county has also charged a 1.5% assessment for its tourism business improvement district, or TBID. The county's own example: a $100 room carries $12 of occupancy tax.

The concessioner lists three lines under "Taxes & Fees" on each lodge page. They are the 12% occupancy tax, the 1.5% TBID and a 0.2% California Tourism Assessment Fee. That adds 13.7% to the room rate, by our own sum. Visit California confirms that a state tourism assessment exists but prints no rate for it.

Hotels in Oakhurst, Groveland and Lee Vining are in other counties, under rates we did not look up. Our guide to sales tax in the USA explains how room taxes stack up across the country.

Which lodges outside the Valley are closed: Wawona, White Wolf and Tuolumne?

The three lodges outside the Valley were all shut on 30 October 2026, and two of them have no date to reopen. The Wawona Hotel closed on 2 December 2024 for "a comprehensive condition assessment" after a roof replacement. The concessioner says there is no anticipated reopening date. Its page still carries the full room description, but that does not make the hotel bookable.

White Wolf Lodge stayed closed for all of 2026. The Park Service ordered it shut because of severely damaged sewer lines. In a normal season it has 24 canvas tent cabins and four wood cabins, about 31 miles from the Valley, with no Wi-Fi and no mobile signal.

Tuolumne Meadows Lodge has 69 canvas tent cabins at 8,700 feet, open from mid-June to mid-September, with no electricity. Bookings for 2027 open on 1 November 2026, and the lodge page lists the 2027 season dates as "coming soon". The lodge takes dinner reservations only in person at its front desk.

The five High Sierra Camps, 6 to 10 miles apart on a 49-mile loop from Tuolumne Meadows, take bookings by lottery. The 2026 lottery has closed, and the concessioner printed no 2027 dates. In winter, reaching the Glacier Point Ski Hut takes a 10.5-mile cross-country ski trip.

Private rooms also exist inside the boundary, at Foresta and Wawona. Foresta is 18 miles and 25 minutes from the Valley. Yosemite West lies outside the boundary, but the only road to it runs through the park. Wawona keeps a 24-hour card pump and a grocery open all year without its hotel.

What do the lodge deposit and cancellation rules say?

The lodge rules are the same on every concessioner page we read. The deposit is 100% of the first night by card, or within 10 days by cheque or money order. The concessioner refunds a cancellation or change only if it arrives seven days before the stay.

• Booking window: 366 days, on three Park Service pages. A booking made on 30 October 2026 therefore reaches about the end of October 2027, by our own count; no page prints that date.
• Times: check-in at 4 p.m. and check-out at 11 a.m. Curry Village charges a late check-out as another night.
• Pets: none at any lodge, except service animals.
• Smoking: banned in every room; the Ahwahnee adds a $250 cleaning fee.
• Wi-Fi: for guests only at the Ahwahnee, Curry Village and Yosemite Valley Lodge, with limited bandwidth.

What does a night cost at each of the 13 campgrounds?

The 13 campgrounds charge $24 to $36 a night per site, and Camp 4 charges $10 a person. The table gives the Park Service's 2026 dates, fees and site counts. Closing dates are the day a campground shuts; the night before is the last night.

Bridalveil Creek closed on 14 August 2026 after lightning damaged its water supply and toilets. Tamarack Flat, Yosemite Creek and Porcupine Flat have creek water that must be boiled, and White Wolf had no water in 2026.

No site has hookups of any kind. The Valley has only eight sites for a 40-foot motorhome or 35-foot trailer; most sites take 35 and 24 feet. Showers are at the Curry Village pool shower house, for a fee.

On 29 October 2026 the conditions page listed Upper Pines, Camp 4 and Wawona as open by reservation, and Hodgdon Meadow as first-come. Every other campground was closed. Wawona's Loops B and C had shut on 26 October, leaving Loop A.

When are campsites released on the 15th and at Camp 4?

Campsites at Upper Pines, Lower Pines, North Pines, Wawona and Hodgdon Meadow are released five months ahead, on the 15th of each month, at 7 a.m. Pacific time. They sell out within minutes, says the Park Service. The release table for the 2027 season runs as follows.

The high country books later. Half of Tuolumne Meadows goes two months ahead on the 15th, and the other half in a 14-day rolling window. Bridalveil Creek, Crane Flat, Tamarack Flat, White Wolf, Yosemite Creek and Porcupine Flat open two weeks ahead, day by day. North Pines went entirely through an early-access lottery in 2026, and no 2027 lottery notice was posted.

Camp 4 works differently from the rest. Six people share each site, which campers reach on foot, and only tents are allowed. Bookings open one week ahead, day by day, for up to six people each. Camp 4 is on the National Register of Historic Places for its place in rock climbing.

Recreation.gov takes $10 for a cancellation more than 48 hours before arrival. Closer to the date it keeps the first night as well, and a no-show costs $20 plus the first night. A camper who arrives a day late without calling within 24 hours loses the booking. Each website visit or call allows two reservations, and resale is banned.

A year allows 30 nights of camping. From 1 May to 15 September the limit is 14 nights, and only seven of them in the Valley or Wawona.

Where can you camp without a booking after 29 November?

Camp 4, Wawona and Hodgdon Meadow are the winter campgrounds that turn first-come, first-served. Camp 4 and Wawona Loop A stay reservation-only until 29 November 2026, after the Park Service extended both seasons. Camp 4 then stays first-come "usually until sometime in April", says its page, and may fill early every morning in spring and autumn.

Only 25 of the 61 Camp 4 sites stay open in winter. The campground can close at short notice for winds over 30 mph or over a foot of snow in 24 hours. The Park Service gives a phone line for the first-come status, 209-372-0266.

The fallback rule is strict. If every open campground is full, you must leave the park to camp or to sleep in a vehicle. Sleeping in a car is allowed only in a campsite. Overnight parking on Tioga Road and Glacier Point Road is banned from 15 October each year, car parks included.

Which gateway town suits each highway into the park?

Each gateway town sits on one of the highways that enter the park, and the Park Service groups their lodging that way. Highway 41 from the south serves Fish Camp and Oakhurst. Highway 140 from the west serves El Portal, Midpines and Mariposa, and Highway 120 from the west Buck Meadows, Groveland and Sonora. The distances are the Park Service's own.

Lee Vining is 74 miles and two hours away only while Tioga Road is open. Highway 120 from the east, with Lee Vining, June Lake and Mammoth Lakes, has no access to the park from about November to late May or June.

On 29 October 2026 the Park Service closed Tioga Road at 6 p.m. for a forecast of snow, calling the closure temporary. Its alert of the same day closes Glacier Point Road too. The conditions page, updated that day, still listed that road as open beside the same closing note. No reopening date was printed for either. From San Francisco the Valley is 195 miles, four to five hours, through the western gateways.

Can you stay in a Highway 140 town and ride YARTS into the Valley?

YARTS, the regional bus, runs its Highway 140 route every day from 1 October 2026 to 28 May 2027. It stops at Merced, Mariposa, Midpines and El Portal, and at several lodges along the highway. No bus runs on Thanksgiving, Christmas Day, New Year's Day or Easter Sunday, which falls on 28 March 2027.

Four winter runs reach the Valley, arriving at 7:13 a.m., 10:45 a.m., 2:40 p.m. and 8:58 p.m., and three run back towards Merced. The first stops at Mariposa Park & Ride at 5:20 a.m. and at El Portal from 6:11 to 6:37 a.m. Fares below are YARTS's adult prices.

Reduced fares, $22 for a round trip from Merced, apply to ages 6 to 17, those 62 and over, veterans and riders with a disability ID. YARTS adds $1.00 per person per transaction and $0.50 per ticket booked online. The fare excludes the park's entrance fee and the $100 non-resident fee.

Seats can be reserved in limited numbers, and walk-ons ride as space permits. Drivers take cards, or cash in exact change. The Highway 41, 120 and 395 routes ran only in summer and ended in September 2026, so in winter the bus works only from a Highway 140 town.

The California guide shows how the park fits a longer trip through the state.