SFO, Death Valley, Yosemite and Sequoia parks (San Francisco, Fresno: hotel, bus)

[Opalesq]

We are planning on a fairly short 4day trip where we want to cover SFO/Death valley/ sequoia/ Yosemite.

Plan is to do a guided day tour of SFO and Death Valley and spend other 2days in sequoia and Yosemite parks.
We will be flying in from Washington DC. What would be the best airport to fly into for the trip?
We are trying to cram a lot of things into 4 days. Please recommend some tour companies for the two day trips.
Any advise for itinerary will be greatly appreciated.

[artemis78]

You cannot possibly do all four in four days. Each one could be four days on its own.

For context, if you did a loop from San Francisco through the three parks, you would spend at least 18-24 hours just driving between them. California is a very big state.

You could squish San Francisco and ONE of either Yosemite or Sequoia into four days, but even that would be far too little time. A week would be a decent amount of time for a first visit to SF and one of the parks. Bear in mind that for Yosemite, you need to make reservations months in advance for lodging. If you want to do Death Valley, fly into Las Vegas and do that as its own trip.

[sacreole]

The closest airport to Yosemite would be Fresno-Yosemite International Airport (FAT). I would recommend taking the YARTS bus from either Fresno or Merced into the park.


https://flyfresno.com/

https://yarts.com/routes-schedules/

[dontbelievehim]

Wasnt this thread done last month by op? Just bump your own thread, op.

Forget death valley - too far away.

Do sf-yosemite

Sf-napa or SF-tahoe

You can also fly into Fresno and hit up sequioa-yosemite(hotel in Oakhurst, chukanski, or fresno.

Save death valley for another trip, it's not worth the hassle.

[Oakformonday]

I would look at a map of California. From SF to Death Valley it is an 8 hour drive. You may want to re-think this plan. Good luck though.

[davdaven]

This is not possible. A non-stop drive without traffic, going the fastest/least scenic way possible, takes over 8 hours from SF (note: SFO is the airport) to Death Valley. This would be like trying to drive from DC to Portland, Maine with stops in Philly and NYC along the way.

[04kL4nD]

Originally Posted by Opalesq

We are planning on a fairly short 4day trip where we want to cover SFO/Death valley/ sequoia/ Yosemite.

Plan is to do a guided day tour of SFO and Death Valley and spend other 2days in sequoia and Yosemite parks.
We will be flying in from Washington DC. What would be the best airport to fly into for the trip?
We are trying to cram a lot of things into 4 days. Please recommend some tour companies for the two day trips.
Any advise for itinerary will be greatly appreciated.

This sounds awful and I hope you don't waste your time/money/sanity even trying to attempt it.

[Opalesq]

Thank you for the reality check. We are reworking this trip to make it 7 days and do SFO and Yosemite with a stop to see General Sherman. We really want to do some hiking and this will definitely be a better way to do it.

[evening sun]

Good, 7 days is a better plan. If it were me, I would still leave out Death Valley, it is too far away.

[davdaven]

Sounds like a good idea. With a week, I would stick with SF (presuming you aren't here just to see SFO, which is the airport), Yosemite, and Sequoia. And a friendly reminder: Yosemite lodging fills up months in advance, so be sure to book early!