Wawona Hotel

Stay here only if you want to experience what it was like to stay in a hotel 100 years ago. We stayed 2 nights in a room with a bathroom, but there was a locked door in the bathroom leading to another room. You could see and hear through the cracks, meaning no privacy. In addition, the walls are paper thin. The lights outside the room illuminating the walkways are very bright and it felt like sleeping during the daylight. There is wifi available only in the lobby and the "sun room," but the sun room had not been cleaned in a long while nor was it cleaned during our stay. And, anyway, the wifi was horrible. Sort of like when we all had AOL dial up. The room and bathroom were not well-cleaned. covered in dust. The room was tiny, and had only one chair for sitting. The bed stood too high to use it for sitting. There is outdoor seating, but it was below freezing outside at night and in the morning. I understand that accommodations in national parks may be a bit rustic, but we stayed the next night in the John Muir Lodge in Kings Canyon and it was lovely and comfortable.

We had a comfortable, pleasant two-night stay at the Wawona Hotel during a partly warm and partly snowy April weekend. Our ensuite room was clean and comfortable, though minimal. We had to use a chair as a second bedside table. The heating system, modernized some time ago, worked well. Make sure to ask the front desk for amenities such as a blow dryer if you find the spartan accommodations lacking. The wifi did not reach our room on the far corner of the second floor, but the cellular service was strong enough at about 3 bars which was better than expected. Also, being at the far corner meant waiting a while for the warm water to pipe to our room. The two chairs and table outside the door on the veranda were a nice to have, particularly given the small size of the room. The dining was good. Dinner was better than breakfast. I really liked the trout dish. My only complaint about the food: the breakfast potatoes were either mushy or burnt. Service at the front desk and in the dining room was great. Watch your step. The footing can be uneven, un-level, and sometimes slippery.

Sorry, but can’t recommend. I’m sitting in the lobby, after 5:00 pm. Staff are telling incoming guests that their rooms aren’t ready. When we arrived a couple of days ago, the thermostat in our room didn’t work and the heat was unbearable. Asked for a different room. At supper in the dining room, there’s a broken window, so it’s cool/cold. Limited menu. At breakfast, we waited and waited for service. The hostess came to us, apologized and took our order. Didn’t receive all of my order (no toast). A guest obviously had diarrhea in the communal toilet last night - it wasn’t cleaned today. Aramark isn’t doing a good job at all here. NPS should find a better contractor.

Wawona is nice but not near the valley even though it's in the park. We had fun lounging on the big front porch, where they also serve drinks in the evening. We stayed in a room with ensuite bath. The room and the grounds were charming. It's old, so there are some rough edges and minor inconveniences.

Beware. My partner and I had a great time at the Wawona Hotel over a several day visit over New Year’s Eve last year (2022/2023). We were excited for a repeat visit this year and extended our stay to 4 nights, thinking that this may turn into an annual event. However there were several issues this time that soured our experience. The first set of issues was around the hotel restaurant. Limited dinner menu (3 items) on first night which was repeated for NYE during which they ran out of one entree by 7pm. Meanwhile the items that were not available on our first round of meals were not replenished over the next few days. As a result we stopped eating at the hotel restaurant and ate outside the park. The staff was apologetic, but it seemed clear that these issues were intentionally not solved due to Yosemite Hospitality’s decision to limit spending at the end of the year. A second issue was in difficulty communicating with the hotel. Two phone numbers are provided – to the front desk and to the restaurant – but over multiple attempts to make dinner reservation for NYE in advance, neither phone was answered, and the voice mail box for the front desk was full. How is this being responsive to your guests? A third issue was around the lack of NYE festivities. Last year the hotel lobby was vibrant and active, with live music, balloons, and a crowd ordering drinks from the bar. This year none of that was present. The Wawona has a captive crowd of potential spenders, and this year we felt chased away. Fourth, the Wawona Hotel seems to be decaying faster than it’s being repaired. A year after our first visit there is still caution tape around two different outside staircases keeping guests away from rotting wood steps. I watched elderly guests having a hard time navigating around water puddles and mud patches to travel between the hotel lobby and the surrounding room buildings. Good management works to prevent problems, not wait until an injury happens to take a corrective step. All of these issues are preventable. All of these issues are solvable. And all of these issues are the result of management decisions that prioritize cost savings above guest experience.

Very cool collection of historic hotel buildings. But be aware they're old and have idiosyncrasies. 1 - The website should clarify if rooms without bath have a sink or not. We learned that only the Annex rooms have a sink, and the other buildings have no sink. 2 - The drinking water situation for rooms without sink once the single exterior water filling station is shut off for the winter is absurd. You have to wait in line at the front desk so you can hand them individual containers to fill at the restaurant. How is there not an interior public accessible water filling station, or a winterized exterior one that doesn't need shut off? We weren't going to have the desk fill our Camelbaks and collection of water bottles, so we ended up having to use the public bathroom sinks which was a bit gross. 3 - Our door knob pulled off when trying to exit the room, and looking at it it didn't seem like that was the first time. Luckily there's a knob on the deadbolt you can pull but it'd be hard for someone with arthritis to grip it. 4 - The lobby piano player has been doing it for 40 yr, and it's great to see that get people to hang out in the lobby instead of hiding in their rooms. 5 - The bar should stay open as long as the piano player not close an hour earlier.

Stayed 18 Oct for 2 nights in Washburn Cottage Rm 7 and had a pleasant and comfortable stay. I decided to book Wawona as we were driving in late at night from Fresno airport and didn’t want to drive into the Valley. It was great to wake up and explore Glacier Point (40 mins drive). We also took the opportunity to hike Sentinel Dome and Taft whilst in the area. So location wise it was perfect. I requested a ground floor room. We hardly heard any other people but we’re so pleased we opted for ground floor as if you’re on 1st floor, you have to lug your heavy suitcases up the outside stairs! No lift. Our room was lovely and spacious, very clean and the bed was fabulous, so wide and so comfortable. Yes the bed was high but I loved it. Easy to get into and I’m just 5ft 1”. We slept SO well and the whole cottage was silent. We opted to have an ensuite bathroom as it’s cold at night in October to walk to a communal one and am so glad we did! The bath tub was perfect to relax in after our day hiking. It’s amazing how often you’re in/out of your bathroom too. We missed having a fridge but we took a soft cooler bag and filled it with a bag of ice ( you help yourself to ice) so it wasn’t a big deal. We put our milk and wine in there. In the morning we ate our own cereals in our room (just take your own bowls and spoons). We wanted to hike early and not hang around waiting for breakfast. The first night we ate at the Wawona Hotel restaurant which was convenient. We both had the beef pot roast. It was nice and tender just needed bit more seasoning in my opinion. It’s gluten free which I appreciated. The hotel was busy. You can’t book dinner until you get there and they’ll add you to the list. There’s a gentleman playing the piano early evening but he’s surrounded by plastic shielding? Still? Spoils the atmosphere. There’s tea and coffee but not left out throughout the day. For me this was not good as you’re not provided with a kettle, tea/coffee in the room! Overall, I recommend staying here. Just know that you don’t get full hotel facilities (no phone, no tea/coffee in room, no mini fridge..) and you’ll be fine. But you will get a comfortable bed and hopefully a very pleasant stay like we did.

The Hotel is run by Aramark who is not customer focused, and only cares about the dollar. I live in CA and have been to Yosemite many times. I’ve hiked all the hikes on the valley floor that interest me. The purpose of this trip was to go to Mariposa Grove and see the sequoia trees. We know the shuttle service to the grove was cancelled for a while due to road repairs. The hotel had a 7 day cancellation policy. We checked the road repairs right before the window to cancel closed and the road was still scheduled to be open before our trip. As the trip got closer we went online to check if the room had a room frig and saw that the road work was extended and the shuttle service is still cancelled. At this point in time I could no longer cancel my reservation. In order to now get to the grove you must hike in 2 miles (one way, 4 miles round trip) and that only gets you to the shuttle drop off. I have an ankle injury and while I can walk short distances a 4 mile hike just to get to and from the drop off point is no do-able. I called the hotel and explained my situation. Most people will agree that the point of going to Mariposa Grove is to see the trees. Not much else in that part of the park. If you can’t hike to the tress the trip to me is pointless. First I was told if I cancelled I would lose my deposit ($263). In spoke with a supervisor who was very nice and said I could transfer to the Lodge on the valley floor but that was an additional $100+, but I had no interest in that part of the park, been their done that. I asked if I could just move my reservation out a few weeks when the shuttle would be back up and running and was told no. I was so excited to finally be seeing the giant sequoia trees. That is now not going to happen. I have such a sour taste in my mouth I will probably never go back to Yosemite. If I do I will NEVER stay at an Aramark property. It’s just sad that companies are so large they no longer care about the people. I am very disappointed in Aramark, and the national Park service.

Don't let the exterior charm fool you. We had very poor customer service. Arrived at 2:30- was told check in wasn't until 5. Seems so late for check in. We had already done plenty of hiking so we were very tired. There was nothing to do in the area due to the late season. Even the nearby store was out of half its items. We sat on the nice front porch for over two hours waiting to check in. At 5:00 they told us the room still wasn't ready- check back later. So we had dinner in the restaurant. Food and service were good. The room was finally ready after dinner. The female afternoon clerk was so crabby and unhelpful. But the evening clerk was very helpful and cheerful (the male with dreadlocks.) The room was very old fashioned with few updates made. No outlets in bathroom. Claw foot tub was too hard to get into. Tiny corner sink with no storage. Beds were literally 4’ high. Had to use a chair to climb onto the bed. There was no table or chairs to relax or play games. I know it was a park hotel, and they usually have little amenities. This hotel probably works fine for hikers that want little out of a hotel except a bed. But this hotel was so limiting. We had a much better experience at the Wuksachi, a few hours south in Sequoia National Park.