From San Francisco: Yosemite & Giant Sequoias in Small Group

I took the tour to Yosemite and Giant Sequoia Small Group Day Tour led by Joshua. He is twenty-five years old and was hired two months earlier for six months. Overall, I was happy with him as a tour guide. We got enough information during his talking. There were issues with not hearing him well enough and he said it was hard to know when we would arrive at specific points. He seemed intelligent and had a nice personality. I had a nice day. There were fourteen people in the group. We met at 6:30am in San Francisco at the Hilton Hotel and did not return to 9pm. So, it was a very long day. Initially there were issues we were waiting for someone who was a no show. And on the return trip, I did get a little car sick due to the winding road. There should be more tour guides like Joshua. I did not take Viator Tours because a year earlier on a trip to Monterey I had a bad older man tour guide named Thomas with Viator Tours and I was trying to avoid having him again as a tour guide. I want to say I have taken several Viator Tours at different locations with good tour guides.

Ben was a great tour guide. He knows the whereabouts and is on time. The transportation wasn’t crowded and we had enough time for bathroom breaks and lunches. If anyone choosing going to Giant sequoia, please be prepared for 3 miles hike.

The tour was very good. Our tour guide was Sara/Sarah. It came in a sketchy van, but it was very comfortable and had "Incredible Adventures" on the side. The pick-up location was convenient. Everything was included in the price. Sarah was awesome at explaining what everything is and the history as we drove. It took about 2-3 hours to get to Sequoia and another 1-2 hours to the Yosemite main area. Sarah was great with the timing and allowed a good amount of time at each location, allowing us to explore and get to other locations. Very informative! You can tell Sarah loves the job. Informative, engaging, and very friendly to questions. Everything about this tour and trip is 11/10, but I personally think the Sequoia was a bit underwhelming and could be skipped to allow more time at the Yosemite National Park. Total time was from 6:35 AM to 10 PM (pick up to drop off) - Sarah made an extra stop at Fisherman's Wharf for passengers who were near there (wasn't part of the agenda, so it was nice of her!). As Sarah said, do make a plan to go in the spring (February-March) as the waterfalls are SEASONAL (wasn't aware of this), so the falls would be big, beautiful, and nice. Ours was thin and kind of underwhelming and "boring"?

We thoroughly enjoyed our excursion to Yosemite National Park. Our driver shared his knowledge of the area without overwhelming us. He also made us feel safe and secure in his ability to navigate the roads.

Josh our bus driver/ tour guide was great! He was very knowledgeable. The guided hike to Tuolumne Grove was awesome. We really didn’t have much time to walk around the valley floor to explore which was disappointing. But 9/10 would do it again but would do the 2 day tour.

I had called the company about the hike—my husband and I are in our 70s, and I wasn’t sure we could do it. The tour guide said no one had told him, and he would have taken us in a different trail that was easier had he known. Well, we gave it a shot and it was extremely difficult, going uphill at a sharp grade. I actually thought we might not make it! Oliver, our guide, stayed with us, didn’t hurry us at all, went out of his way to help. Also, the trip started about 30 minutes late for some reason. We did get notification that he was on his way, thankfully. Good trip, but not for us. We were so exhausted after the hike, we couldn’t enjoy our stop at the lodge. If you’re young and in shape, go for it.

No where in the ad that we received from Vacations by Rail did it say we would be on a 2 mile hike. We are in our 70's and cannot do a hike. We struggled to do it but I honestly was concerned about my husband's health at 78 years old doing this hike. The tour guide left behind a passenger so we had to wait in a hot van for almost an hour for this passenger to join us. The van was old and needed new shocks so it was a bumpy 4 hour ride each way. We started the tour at 6:30am and go back at 11:30pm. Way too long of a day. There were long periods of time where we didn't have air conditioning in the van and it was hot.

Bryan didn’t complete information about safety measures on the trail because it’s mostly downhill and long uphill. We have seniors in our group whom we assisted along the downhill walked and going back on uphill is much more difficult for seniors so I suggest that you guys should mention this in your activity description it’s not good for seniors who have weak legs and cannot do uphill to much. Me and my sister had difficulty going back that we had to paused once in a while to catch our breath and watch our heart rate which soared to 130-155 . I suggest that this tour guide should be observant to his group specifically their age and ask them about walking pace and difficulty. His driving skills is fast and we all have experienced quite a swinging ride over the zigzag road I think he is in a hurry but safety should always be a priority on the road. The driver or whoever in charge of the pickup points must be improved . There’s an incident here in our tour that someone was not pick up or was left which we were delayed. Overall , the tour was ok but could had been much ok with a more informative driver or tour guide.

Awesome Oliver was great. I would recommend to anyone who wants to travel . And I would do again with your company . Driving uphill but he was great and asking all of us , how we are doing . Great guide

My husband and I originally booked a tour to see both Yosemite and Sequoias leaving from S.F. The company changed it the day before to just Yosemite and gave me a small refund for the difference but it was disappointing to not be asked since my main reason for booking this excursion was to see the giant Sequoias… That being said the day of the trip was a long one but completely worth it because I’ve never seen a more beautiful site in my life! Our amazing tour guide Oliver told us some history along the way and stopped for refreshments, checked in regularly, and was communicative but also drove through some amazing sites in the park before sending us to explore a few hours on our own. We quickly realized that wasn’t much time when we left an hour prior to see one excursion and realized we accidentally walked in the wrong direction on our way to get back so we wouldn’t make the bus back home on time! We messaged the tour operator through the trip advisor app and received a call moments later that helped Oliver find us and we could not be more grateful for the help we received. It’s a long day on the tour but worth every moment, and it’s nice to know if you need help, they are great at that too!