The hotel is fine, with good experience, tasty food and nice piano playing in the lobby. However, the pricing is for the captive audience that you are. It was expensive. One of the rooms we had was not vacuumed before we got it. Also, the hotel could not give us an itemized bill at checkout and we were subsequently overcharged for our stay. An email to Aramark did resolve the issue.

We spent Thanksgiving week in November 2022 in Yosemite and, since we had not been to the park at all in 10 years and wanted to experience different parts, we decided to split the time. We stayed for a couple days first at the Wawona Hotel in the southern end of the park before heading up to Yosemite Valley and staying at the Ahwahnee. The Wawona is the oldest hotel in the park, the main part built in the 1870s, and it was built before Yosemite was a national park. Later buildings on the grounds were added in the later 19th and early 20th centuries, all in a similar style. It retains much of its original character and Victorian elements, including the old doorknobs, old fixtures, antique furniture, and the lovely painted dining-room fixtures. It has wrap-around covered porches with seating and it has a nice setting with an open meadow and grounds set among forest. The retained character also means that it lacks some modern conveniences which some may expect. There are no televisions and most of the rooms are not en suite, instead having shared toilet and shower facilities outside and down a hall. In the main building, the toilets and sinks are separate from the showers and in the rooms labelled Water Closet. In other buildings, the shared toilet and shower facilities are together. This, combined with the lovely porches for sitting, make the hotel probably better in warm weather, but the rustic old charm, especially the dining room and the big fire in the lobby fireplace, made a cozy experience even though it was freezing cold when we were there in late November. The dining room is lovely and charming, with nice fixtures and big windows. Food is good. We ate both breakfast and dinner here. The bar is fairly limited but the bartender made excellent cocktails, the best we've so far had at any US National Park hotel. It is conveniently located next to the less busy southern entrance to the park (with roads from Madera and Fresno area), as well as the Mariposa Grove of Redwoods. The Pioneer History Park, Swinging Bridge trail, and general store are also there.

This was the sweetest stay in a most beautiful location. The service was excellent. Cynthia gave us information on the hotel and told us about glamping. The room was small and had paper thin walls and I would go back in a heartbeat. Bathroom/Showers are located outside the room. Neighboring rooms respected the space. We rose early and had coffee in the lounge with a roaring fire. After hiking Mariposa Grove, we came back for a hot shower and to sit on the second floor balcony by our room to journal and just enjoy the space we were in. At night we had wine in the lounge listening to Tom Bopp on the piano. One hour drive from the Valley.

On December 24, 2022, we had our flight to San Francisco cancelled du to bad weather condition. No other flight were available before 3 days. On December 24, I tried to call Wawona hotel to cancel my booking on December 25, 2022, but no body answered. I tried again the day after, still no answer. Then I send an email through their mailling system. Then, someone call me on December 26, asking if I was coming????? And the answer is that I pay for the first because I didn't cancel in advance. Everywhere else we were going in our trip, they cancelled without penality. Just for this, I will never go back in your park. Sorry, but there are so many places to visit in the world, that respect us, you will not see us :( :( :(

Some things about the Wawona I accepted when we made the reservation. No bathroom in the room (shared by a walk outside down a hall) we agreed to (saved $90). A 40 minute drive to the Valley floor, understood. Limited food choices in the dining room, OK. A 30+ minute fire alarm at 8:30 AM on a Sunday morning-unacceptable. Someone took a shower which set off the alarm in all rooms of the Moore building. It took the management 30 minutes to shut the alarm off. Our choices-wait in the room with the ear piercing alarm or wait outside in the 34 degree cold. When maintance finally showed up they had to reset the bathroom alarm. Note-windows in the bathrooms painted shut (vintage hotel) & the exhaust fan must have been inadequate.