Yosemite Tours Compared: Day Trips, Two-Day Tours, Guided Walks and Park Buses

Yosemite tours come in six shapes, and the difference between them is mostly geography. Day trips from San Francisco cover 195 miles each way, which the National Park Service puts at 4 to 5 hours of driving, so much of the day is on the road. Tours from a gateway town such as Oakhurst, 55 miles from Yosemite Valley, spend far less time driving and more in the park. Two-day tours stay overnight in or near the park, and guided walks spend the day on foot in the Valley. The park’s own bus tours, run by the concessioner Yosemite Hospitality, start inside Yosemite Valley and cost $41.25 for an adult on the two-hour Valley Floor Tour. And just outside the South Entrance, the Sugar Pine steam railroad runs one-hour rides through the forest.

Which one suits you depends on where you are staying, whether you have a car, the season, and how many hours you want inside the park. Below, each format is set out with what it can and cannot fit into a day, and the questions worth asking before you book: above all, whether the price includes the park entrance fee and the $100 nonresident fee that non-US visitors now pay.

The formats side by side

Format	Starts from	Road time each way, on the park’s figures	Best for
Day tour from San Francisco	San Francisco and the Bay Area	4 to 5 hours	Visitors based in the city without a car
Small-group day tour	San Francisco	4 to 5 hours	The same day, with fewer people and more flexible stops
Day tour with giant sequoias	San Francisco	4 to 5 hours	Seeing the Valley and a sequoia grove in one day
Day tour from Oakhurst	Oakhurst, south of the park	About 1 h 30 m	More hours in the park, the Mariposa Grove, Glacier Point in season
Two-day tour with a lodge night	San Francisco	4 to 5 hours, split over two days	Early mornings and evenings in the Valley
Guided Valley walk	Groveland, on Highway 120	About 1 h 15 m	Walking the Valley with a guide
Park bus and tram tours	Yosemite Valley Lodge	None	Visitors already in the Valley
Sugar Pine steam train	Highway 41, outside the South Entrance	A short drive from Oakhurst	A family stop on the way in or out

The road times are the park’s figures for driving between each town and Yosemite Valley, which assume good conditions and no stops. A tour bus makes stops.

Day tours from San Francisco

This is the format most people search for, and it is a long day by design. At 195 miles each way, a day tour from San Francisco spends somewhere between eight and ten hours on the road, which leaves the middle of the day for Yosemite Valley. What fits into that time is the Valley floor:

Tunnel View, at the end of the Wawona Tunnel on Highway 41, where El Capitan and Bridalveil Fall frame the Valley with Half Dome behind.
El Capitan and Bridalveil Fall, which flows all year and peaks in May.
Yosemite Falls, 2,425 feet high in three parts, and the easy 1-mile loop to the base of Lower Yosemite Fall.
Free time in Yosemite Village or by the Merced River.

What usually does not fit is anything an hour or more from the Valley. Glacier Point is a one-hour drive each way, the Mariposa Grove about 1 hour 15 minutes, and Tuolumne Meadows about 1 hour 30 minutes. A day tour that promises all of them from San Francisco is promising a lot of time on a bus.

The listings on our tours page show what that means in practice. The classic day tour from San Francisco runs 15 hours by biofueled mini-coach through the Central Valley and Gold Country, with a 1.5-hour narrated tour of the Valley and then 3 hours of free time, in groups of up to 23; the park entrance fee is included. The giant sequoias day trip, also 15 hours, uses early-bird entry to give you five hours inside the park, with 2 to 2.5 hours of free time in Yosemite Valley.

The trade-off is still worth it for many visitors. A tour removes the two hardest parts of a day trip by car: the four-hour drive each way after an early start, and finding a parking space in a Valley where, from spring through fall, parking is usually full after 8 am.

Small-group day tours

A small-group tour covers the same distance as a standard day tour, so the time on the road is much the same. What changes is the number of stops a van can make and how much of the day you spend waiting for a full coach to load.

The small-group day trip on our tours page shows the pattern: a 14-hour day in a van of no more than 15 passengers from select San Francisco hotels, to Tunnel View, Bridalveil Fall, El Capitan and Yosemite Falls, with free time in the Valley and a 1-mile (1.6 km) walk into a grove of giant sequoias, weather permitting. National Park fees for US residents are included; the park fee for international visitors is collected at the park.

When comparing small-group tours, look at the group size, the hours scheduled inside the park and whether lunch and the entrance fee are included. Prices vary with all three.

Adding the giant sequoias

Some day tours from San Francisco add a grove of giant sequoias, which is the main thing a Valley-only day misses. Yosemite has three groves, and which one a tour visits makes a real difference:

The Mariposa Grove is the largest, with over 500 mature giant sequoias, including the 3,000-year-old Grizzly Giant. It is near the South Entrance, about 1 hour 15 minutes from the Valley, and visitors reach it on a free shuttle from the Welcome Plaza (in 2026 it ran from May 3 into November, with no shuttle from December 1 to at least April 15).
The Tuolumne and Merced Groves are smaller and closer to the Valley, but they are reachable only on foot: four to six miles round trip with 500 feet of elevation change.

Neither of the San Francisco sequoia tours on our tours page goes to the Mariposa Grove. The early-entry day trip names its grove: a 1-hour-15-minute stop in the Tuolumne Grove, and from November to March, when that trail is snow-covered, the time goes to the Valley instead. The small-group day trip describes a 1-mile (1.6 km) walk into a grove of giant sequoias without naming it, so ask which one. The park’s own FAQ puts the Tuolumne and Merced Groves at four to six miles round trip, so expect a real walk with a climb back up, and check the season before you book for the trees.

If it is the Mariposa Grove you want, look at tours from the south instead. A stop there needs time for the shuttle; the Grizzly Giant Loop is a 2-mile walk of 1.5 to 2 hours, while the easy Big Trees Loop is a 0.3-mile loop of 30 to 45 minutes.

Tours from Oakhurst and the south

Oakhurst sits on Highway 41, 55 miles and about 1 hour 30 minutes from Yosemite Valley. A tour that starts there trades the long freeway drive for hours inside the park, and the southern approach brings the park’s other highlights within reach:

The Mariposa Grove is just inside the South Entrance, which is 35 miles from the Valley.
Glacier Point is 30 miles, about an hour, from both Wawona and the Valley, while Glacier Point Road is open, approximately late May through October or November. The overlook stands 3,214 feet above Curry Village on the Valley floor.
Tunnel View is on Highway 41 itself, so you see it on the way in.

The small-group highlights tour from Oakhurst on our tours page lasts 9 hours, with pick-up only in Coarsegold, Bass Lake, Oakhurst or Fish Camp and a picnic lunch included. It makes photo stops at Tunnel View, Half Dome, El Capitan and the Valley’s waterfalls and adds the Mariposa Grove and Glacier Point when they are open. The operator notes that park fees for international visitors, where they apply, are collected at the park, not at booking.

If you are driving down from San Francisco or up from Los Angeles anyway, staying in Oakhurst and taking a tour from there is the best way to get a full day in the park without doing the mountain driving yourself.

Two-day tours

A two-day tour from San Francisco splits the same distance over two days, with a night in or near the park. What the extra night buys is the time of day when the Valley is at its best and its quietest:

Early mornings. From spring through fall, the park’s traffic page says to reach the Valley before 8 am, after which parking is usually full. On a two-day trip you are already there.
Evenings, after the day visitors have left.
Room for a second area, such as the Mariposa Grove or Glacier Point in season.

Booking a room yourself is the hard part of a Yosemite overnight: lodging inside the park can be booked 366 days ahead and the park strongly recommends it, and the Wawona Hotel is currently closed. A tour that includes the lodge night has done that booking for you, so check which lodge it uses and how far it is from the Valley. The two-day tour on our tours page is fully guided by biofuel mini-coach from San Francisco hotels, with Glacier Point and a hike among the giant sequoias, weather permitting. The night is at Yosemite View Lodge in the Merced River canyon outside the park, or by choice at Yosemite Valley Lodge or Curry Village inside it. Meals and the nonresident fee are not included.

Guided walks in the Valley

A guided walk swaps the coach window for your own feet. The Valley discovery walk on our tours page is a 7-hour day: a guide drives you from a basecamp in Groveland, on Highway 120 about 1 hour 15 minutes from the Valley, and leads about 3 miles of walking in all past Yosemite Falls, Bridalveil Fall, the Cascades, Half Dome, El Capitan and Tunnel View, back in Groveland at 3 p.m. Snacks and National Park fees are included; the $100 fee for non-US residents is not, and the group tour is not suitable for children under 8.

It suits visitors who already have a car and a bed near the park but want someone else to handle the parking and explain what they are looking at. The park’s own easy walks give a sense of the pace: the Lower Yosemite Fall loop is 1 mile, Cook’s Meadow is a flat 1-mile loop, and the Bridalveil Fall Trail is a 0.5-mile round trip.

The park’s own bus and tram tours

If you are already in Yosemite Valley, having arrived by car, by YARTS bus or on a two-day tour, the concessioner’s tours are the simplest guided option. They all start at Yosemite Valley Lodge.

Tour	Length	Adult (13+)	Child (2 to 12)	Season
Valley Floor Tour	About 2 hours	$41.25	$28.25	All year
Glacier Point Tour	4 hours round trip	$72.50	$50.50	While Glacier Point Road is open
Grand Tour	About 8 hours	$141	$71	In 2026, May 9 to October 12

The Valley Floor Tour is the best value for a first visit: two hours past Yosemite Falls, Half Dome, El Capitan, Tunnel View and Bridalveil Fall. From approximately April through October it runs on an open-air tram, led by park rangers in that season.
The Glacier Point Tour leaves at 8:30 am and 1:30 pm and climbs 3,200 feet from the Valley floor. A one-way ticket costs $28.50 for an adult, and many people ride up and hike back down to the Valley. The last tour of 2026 ran on October 12.
The Grand Tour combines the Valley, Glacier Point and the Mariposa Grove in one day, leaving at 8 am with a sandwich lunch.
The Tuolumne Meadows Hikers Bus takes 2 1/2 to 3 hours each way to the high country, for walkers rather than sightseers.

These tickets do not include the park entrance fee, and they need 24 hours’ notice for a full refund.

The Sugar Pine steam railroad

The Yosemite Mountain Sugar Pine Railroad is not in the park, but it is close: on Highway 41, 4 miles from the South Entrance and about 15 minutes’ drive from Oakhurst. Its Logger steam train is a one-hour narrated ride of over 4 miles on the old Madera Sugar Pine Railroad line, through the Sierra National Forest.

Season: April through November, opening at 9 a.m. daily, closed on Easter Sunday and Thanksgiving Day.
Fares: booked online, $37.10 for an adult and $19.08 for a child. Walk-in fares are $40 for adults and $20 for children aged 3 to 12; first class costs $80 in the caboose and $95 in the cupola.
The engines: two geared Shay steam locomotives, No. 15 built in 1913 and No. 10 built in 1928. Shays worked the original line from 1874 to 1931.

It pairs naturally with the Mariposa Grove on a day in the south of the park, and it suits families with younger children better than a long Valley day.

Doing it yourself

For comparison, here is what the independent version costs:

By car: $35 per private vehicle at the gate, valid for seven days for everyone inside, plus $100 for each non-US resident aged 16 or older. Parking is free, if you find a space.
By bus: YARTS runs from Merced to Yosemite Valley all year for $44 round trip for an adult; Amtrak and Greyhound connect at Merced. The entrance fee is extra.
Then a park tour: add the $41.25 Valley Floor Tour and you have a guided day without the drive.

For a couple or a family with a car and a flexible schedule, driving is the cheapest option by far. For a solo traveler in San Francisco without a car, a day tour is usually the simplest. Our guide to getting to Yosemite compares the routes in detail.

What the season changes

Every tour runs into the same calendar:

Waterfalls peak in May or June, and some, Yosemite Falls included, are often a trickle or dry by August. In late October 2026 the park reported Yosemite Falls dry.
Glacier Point Road and Tioga Road are open roughly from late May to November. Outside those months, tours that rely on them do not run or change their route.
Winter brings tire chain requirements, which the park says to expect anywhere in Yosemite from November through March. A tour vehicle deals with this for you.
February brings Horsetail Fall, a 1,000-foot waterfall on El Capitan that can glow orange at sunset in mid- to late February, and the crowds that come to see it.

Questions to ask before you book

Whatever the format, these questions separate one listing from another:

Is the park entrance fee included? On a commercial tour it is $20 per resident aged 16 or older.
Is the nonresident fee included? For non-US visitors it is $100 per person, and the park applies it to tour groups.
How many hours are you in the park, and how many in Yosemite Valley itself?
Which sequoia grove, if any, and how long is the stop?
Does it go to Glacier Point, and is the road open on your date?
Where is the pick-up, and how big is the group?
What is the cancellation policy?

The tours page lists current departures for each format, and our entrance fees and reservations guide explains the fees in full.

Frequently asked questions

Is a day trip to Yosemite from San Francisco worth it?

It is long: the park puts the drive at 4 to 5 hours each way. What you get is Yosemite Valley, with Tunnel View, El Capitan, Bridalveil Fall and Yosemite Falls. If you can stay a night, a two-day tour or a base in a gateway town gives you much more time in the park.

What is the best Yosemite tour for a first visit?

If you are in San Francisco without a car, a small-group day tour. If you are already in the Valley, the park’s two-hour Valley Floor Tour, at $41.25 for an adult, covers the main sights with a guide.

Do Yosemite tours include the entrance fee?

Most day trips from San Francisco include the entrance fee, two of them for US residents only, but none of the tours on our tours page includes the $100 nonresident fee that non-US visitors aged 16 and older now pay. Depending on the tour, it is collected at the park or by the operator after booking, so ask before you book.

Can you see the giant sequoias on a day tour?

Yes, on tours that add a grove. The San Francisco day trips with a sequoia stop do not go to the Mariposa Grove; one names the Tuolumne Grove, which is reached only on foot and is skipped from November to March when the trail is snow-covered. The Mariposa Grove, with over 500 mature sequoias, is easier to reach from the south, for example on the seasonal stop of the tour from Oakhurst.

Is the Sugar Pine railroad inside Yosemite?

No. It is on Highway 41, 4 miles outside the South Entrance, and runs from April through November.