Yosemite Holidays 2024 & 2025

Beyond the Yosemite valley there's 800 miles of well-marked trails delivering everything from easy hikes to hardcore endurance tests. And you don't always need to be specially equipped. It's very accessible. This is a UN World Heritage site and there's a great deal to do, whatever floats your holiday boat, from total relaxation to some of the toughest physical challenges in the US. 

Learn the ropes at the Yosemite Mountaineering School. Discover the breathtakingly lovely Yosemite Falls. And see the park's giant sequoia trees, which can live as long as 3,000 years. But there's more to life in Yosemite than the rugged, wicked wilderness. There's culture too. 

Badger Pass ski resort is a little bit of pure skiing heaven, letting you enjoy the majesty of the park's landscapes away from the madding summer crowds. It might be hot down below but high in the peaks it's crisp, cold and refreshing.  

Fancy the train ride of your life? Yosemite's railroad tours are something else. Take the Yosemite Sugar Pine Mountain Railroad, south of the park, which chuffs you along four thrilling miles of historic rail along the old route once taken by logging trains. The narrow gauge rail is just three feet wide, a dizzying experience you won't forget in a hurry, and it's home to two gorgeous old steam locomotives, the perfect mode of transport in this remarkable landscape. 

The lovely Bridalveil Falls, at 620 feet high, are amongst the most spectacular in Yosemite, particularly in the spring when the snow melts fast and boasts the falls to their impressive best. By late summer many of the park's numerous waterfalls are bone dry. Yosemite Falls is the highest waterfall in North America, a whopping 2,425 feet high. Sentinel Fall is almost 2,000 feet high with lots of smaller cascades, anything between 50 and 500 feet. Curry Village, a very smart camp with tents for hire at bargain rates, is an excellent base from which to explore the area's best falls. 

Yosemite Must-Do's:

• Top class guided tours into the wilderness 

• Rock climbing, hiking, camping, river rafting, horseback riding and scenic drives 

• Visit lively Yosemite Village  

• Yosemite Museum Gallery 

• Parsons Memorial Museum 

• The Ahwahnee Hotel, a famous historic landmark