Yosemite Cedar Lodge

We stayed for 5 nights the first week of December and I was impressed with how clean it was. Lodging within Yosemite park was much to pricey and the location of Cedar Lodge is only 15-20 min each way. The price of our total stay equaled the price of one night at Awahnee Hotel. Service at the front desk was prompt and friendly. We had a junior suite (#110), which is a 1 bed/1 bath with kitchenette. There was no elevator in this building (there are multiple buildings). The only things missing from the kitchen was #2 coffee filters, a cutting board, and paper towels. The knives could have been sharper. There is a living room with HBO TV and a couch and also a murphy bed so you could have up to 4 people in the junior suite. They provided vegan shampoo/conditioner/hand soap. There is no cell phone service in this area and WiFi is $8.99/12 hours. Within the park in Yosemite Valley, there is cell phone service. At the main office, there is a small store with grocery and necessity items, the only other close store is within the park or the gas station that is outside the park. They had an indoor pool and hot tub also, which was nice. Read less

Looking at the reviews for this place disheartened my expectations. After staying here for 2 nights, my opinion of this place turned out to be very different from what I thought it would be. First, I'll start off with the negatives I experienced. Not having free WIFI is a pretty substantial negative, especially for today's standards. WIFI costs about $9/hr and is very slow. They don't allow you to stream anything so the only thing that you could do is browse. The TV channels provided is very bare bones and low quality. I understand that you don't come to Yosemite to watch Youtube/Netflix and watch TV but it would be ignorant to think that there is no downtime or need to search Yelp or Trip Advisor in order to plan your trip. Thankfully, those are the only negatives that I experienced related to the Hotel. The positives are that the room is cozy and accommodating with a comfy bed, heater, outlets, decent sized shower, and a hot tub big enough to fit 2 people. My expectations were low so this was definitely a pleasant surprise. I didn't get a chance to try the food at the restaurant. I feel like the food would not be great but since I didn't try it, I can't give a fair opinion. In the end, the hotel was nothing spectacular but it also wasn't as terrible as the reviews made it sound. I would definitely stay here again if I am on a budget, without a doubt. Read less

This is a functional hotel if you have very low standards in lodging. The rooms are reasonably clean and the beds are acceptable. There's a heated pool and a hot tub. Front desk staff are nice. But... The hotel is old and run down. They obviously have no interest in modernizing, because people are still willing to pay to stay here. The restaurant is terrible. They serve a buffet breakfast that costs like you're eating at a 4-star hotel. But the buffet food quality wouldn't even meet expectations if it were free. People stay at Cedar Lodge Motel because it's convenient. If you pay less than $90, you won't be too disappointed. Read less

Rooms weren't that great, very old looking and needs updating. The staff wasn't very friendly. When we arrived to the hotel there was no power, so the restaurant was closed and the hotel is in a middle of nowhere so we had to buy food for dinner from the small grocery store in the reception building. Luckily we only stayed for 1 night on a overnight tour from San Fran. Wouldn't rush back to this hotel anytime soon. The only positive is the nice creek across the road from the hotel and the beers we cheap from the grocery store!! Read less

Beginning with the positives, Cedar Lodge is ideally located for visiting Yosemite National Park, being only a short picturesque drive from the park entrance. The rooms are spacious with their own balcony; they have an extremely comfortable bed and the biggest hot tub I've ever used! Each room seems to have its own parking space, and there is a small convenience and souvenir store inside the main building. Unfortunately though, on this occasion the negatives outweighed the positives. Several reviews here have commented that the rooms are quite dated, but that didn't concern me too much. After all, with age often comes character. However my room was not only dated, but run-down and tatty. Wallpaper was starting to peel off the wall with mould visible under the noisy air conditioning unit. One of the lights didn't work and there was only one dual power outlet in the room, close to the television, refrigerator and lamp. Therefore only two of these could be powered at any one time, leaving nowhere to charge a mobile phone. I accept that this is a "first world problem" however it's almost essential these days. Housekeeping was intermittent, sometimes the trash was emptied and other times it wasn't, coffee was replaced only occasionally and before checking out at 3am (when I needed a coffee kick) I found that they had left me with four sachets of decaf! Maybe they were trying to tell me something about my caffeine intake? For a $500+ stay I expected breakfast to be included, but this comes at a $16/day charge for a poor selection. As for the diner food, I only tried it twice and found both dishes to be overly greasy and almost certainly cooked from frozen. Needless to say, I bought my own food elsewhere. Understandably there's no cellphone service around the lodge but as WiFi was advertised I didn't expect this to be too problematic. However on checking in, I was informed by a seemingly uninterested man in a sports tracksuit that WiFi wasn't available. It remained inaccessible for the duration of the stay, with apparently no noticeable efforts being made to rectify whatever the problem was. For visitors who are fortunate enough to find this available, the fee is $18/day, billed in 12-hour increments. To summarise, a two-star review may seem harsh, however without the ability to award half-stars I'm afraid it's all I can justify. It certainly wasn't deserving of three. If/when I come back to explore more of the breathtaking Yosemite wilderness, I'll look elsewhere for accommodation and I wouldn't recommend this place. Having said that, Cedar Lodge has enormous potential to be a fantastic establishment, so I hope these comments are taken constructively and much-needed improvements are made. Read less