After reading the reviews of both Yosemite Valley Lodge and The Ahwahnee, I had very mixed feelings about booking either one. Neither sounded great, plus The Ahwahnee was quite expensive and undergoing some construction. The options outside the park seemed nicer, but I didn’t want to start each day with the traffic hassle. In the end, in spite of low expectations, I booked the Valley Lodge. Is it dated? - Yes. Could the cleaning crew do a slightly better job? - Sure. Fancy? - No way. However, overall, I was pleasantly surprised. The location is spectacular, right in the heart of the valley just steps from Yosemite Falls. Our room was comfortable with two double beds, a reasonably sized bathroom with separate rooms for the sink and tub/shower, as well as a nice balcony. Certainly suitable for our family of three. I had also read that parking could be a problem, but we never had any issues. Regarding food, all the facilities were clean and bright. The Base Camp Eatery was very good and really quick. An easy way to start the day or grab a snack or meal anytime. The Mountain Room restaurant was also very good and The Mountain Lounge looked nice. Our stay was just after Labor Day, so the pool was closed, but they offered plenty of other activities, including hikes, bicycle rentals and the valley shuttle. In summary, we had a very nice experience at Yosemite Valley Lodge, just don’t expect resort living. However, if you are looking for a bit of luxury, Tenaya at Yosemite and Rush Creek Lodge, both just outside the park boundaries, will fit the bill. Whatever you choose, get out of your room and enjoy the awesome beauty that is Yosemite National Park.

Our room was terrible. So noisy and ground floor so had to have curtains shut all the time since we were on the main path. Dustcarts and housekeeping disturbed us very early in the morning on account of the room location. Basic accommodation. Felt a little unclean because it was so old and dated. Food wasn’t great either. Basically, go to the onsite Starbucks!

The location was great which is where they get you. The room was dirty. The sills hadn't been cleaned for a long while. The coffee port had thick dust on it and the bathtub had what looked like mold. The bed linens were clean. There was a pair of men's underwear hanging in the open closet when we arrived. Whomever "cleaned" never bothered to remove them. If we had a choice, I would have left but the Ahwahnee was filled. Again, you are paying for location-to be in the middle of great hikes. My feeling is that no one is checking to see if rooms are cleaned correctly and if they are then they need retraining. We have stayed within many national parks so I know the rooms are old but they have always been clean. Not so here.

On a scale of 1 to 10. Rooms were a 4. Beds and Bath were clean. No A/C, but it cooled down at night. All other decor was probably from 1979. Parking a 1. The first night we could not park near our room. Price is in the eye of a beholder. At half the cost we paid I would have said it was too much, but you are paying for location. Location is a 10.

Luxury prices ($300+ a night) suggest some sort of basic amenity. Nope. I'm not naive, I've stayed in a number of national park accomodations and they're often a little 'rustic', I appreciate that one is paying for the location too. However, Yosemite Valley Lodge is, simply, awful. We've seriously considered getting t-shirts with 'I survived Yosemite Valley lodge'on them. Right from the start, parking is difficult as huge numbers of people are using the parking to access Yosemite falls. Although one gets a parking sticker on arrival for use of the car park, this is clearly not enforced. We ended up in the third of the rooms we were offered, and simply accepted it because we were too tired and our kids were too upset to move again. The first was missing a window. A whole, 1.6m long window. So give this is a bear area, and one has to take all food into the room ournprotrction from bears, elements, noise etc was some wooden slats. Not acceptable, especially on the ground floor. 2nd room, we walked in and the carpet squelched, absolutely sodden throughout. 3rd room, over the other side of a large complex and not the room type we had booked, we could survive in. Though there was a three cm gap at the top of the window and screen that we had to plug with toilet tissue to stop mosquitos coming in (oh, incidentally, only hotel I've ever stayed in that uses single ply toilet paper - come on!). There's no air con, this we knew before staying but the screens that should allow you to leave windows open and keep bugs out were so filthy no air could pass. And this goes for the rest of the room too, filthy (see pics). It's easy to see why, we spike to one staff member on their cleaning rounds and they had 46, yes 46, rooms to prepare for hand over. I don't think anyone can clean that number of rooms adequately in 5 hours. We tried to use the pool but it was closed for 2 days as they chemicals were not balanced? Food, the quick service area is crazy busy and the food is ok. We stayed away from the expensive restaurant based on reviews. We tried to use the lounge bar, but despite several options marked gluten free (my wife is coeliac) the waitress informed us it's all cooked together with no separation, so actually not gluten free at all. The ONLY reason for two stars and not one is the staff. Universally they were good and clearly struggling with know ingrained problems but doing their best to help. Overall a poor experience, it is clear the management company is squeezing profits as ultimately people will stay there purely for location. Does not at all meet the standards necessary for so grand a national park. We weren't expecting 5* but I don't think clean and functional is too much to ask.