Great Trip - 24 Feb 2024 - Had extra time at Yosemite as the Giant Sequoias was closed. Guide (Andy Howse) and Driver (Alfie) were professional and helpful, making this day tour very wonderful! Will definitely recommend others to join this tour if they have time in San Jose or San Francisco!

Super fun tour to Yosemite National Park - We had an amazing tour with Extranonical to Yosemite National Park in winter. With our funny and helpful guide Andy and our lovely driver Jeremy, we went on an adventure through the snowy mountains of Yosemite. It was fun, stunning and a real pleasure. Thanks guys!

Phenomenal Yosemite tour! - Amazing 1 day tour. Tour guide Andy and driver Jeremy were an amazing team. A lot to see in one day but Andy kept us on track and knew where to take the best pictures. Would highly recommend this tour. Saw the sun rise and set. Both beautiful scenes.

It was the highlight of the summer of 2023 - First of all, we had the best tour guide his name is Andy Hows!! He was responsible professional and caring. He deserves a big reward.

Pleasant trip with great tour - My tour guide and driver Rob was amazing. He was very friendly and patient, esp not everyone on our bus was fluent in English. He knows Yosemite very well and gave useful recommendations on how we should spend our free time and where to take good photos. The tour company Extranomical Tours arranged Uber to pick me up from my hotel to the meet-up location, which was extremely helpful. Overall it was a very pleasant trip.

Realistic Expectations - This tour originates in SF. You will meet up with the bus that will take you to Yosemite in Livermore, CA. Expect the tour group to be large. Our bus was full - 50+ people. Seats in the back of the bus, near the restroom, were the only pairs of seats available in Livermore. The engine is in the back of the bus. During our drive to Yosemite, our guide outlined the day’s activities. Several stops for photos, free time in Yosemite Valley to explore & have lunch, more photo ops, and to end the day, the highlight of the tour - Hike to the Giant Sequoias. His description of the hike was unsettling. He described it as “killer”, and I’m not meaning killer-good. He meant killer, as in dangerously difficult. There is a 7.58% grade incline (400’/1 mile) on the hike back. That’s strenuous, but doable for us, given time for adequate breaks along the way. Our expectations for this tour were to visit the first national park, enjoy the beautiful sites, take a bunch of pictures, get our nat’l parks passport stamped, and hike to the giant sequoias. I love trees of all kinds, so I was really looking forward to this part of the tour. The stops for photos were crowded with other tourists - to be expected in a national park. We got great shots at each one, with our guide’s help to get photos of the two of us. Before our stop in the Valley, we were told to return to the bus by a certain time. We also learned that there was not an opportunity for a passport stamp at this stop-disappointment #1. Our options were, to go without, or use our free time to hike to & from the Visitor’s Center to get the cancellation stamp. The hike to the visitor’s center was 20-25 minutes one way. It would have taken most of our available time to get the stamp, so we decided to get them online. We opted to go with our guide the the base of the falls, where we enjoyed the sound of the falls and a relaxing picnic in the nearby area. When the bus returned to take us our next adventure, our guide did a headcount. One of the passengers was missing. A young man, who had left his backpack on the bus and apparently went adventuring on his own. We overheard the guide discuss the situation with someone, who tried to call the lost passenger. There is zero cell service or wifi in the valley, so no surprise he did not answer. After waiting 20 minutes, the guide made the decision to leave this person behind. There seemed to be little concern for his well being or his options to get back to SF/SJ. It was unsettling. Disappointment #2. On our way to the highlight of the tour, our guide once again described the hike as “cardiac event”, “not recommended for anyone on heart medication or who had knee problems”. He like to refer to his hikes as “dangerous, and dangerous is fun”. We were allowed 1.5 hours for the hike to and from the trees (that are only visible at the end of the trail). The NPS postings at the site recommended 2-3 hours. It was raining when we arrived, and our guide made a point to mention that forest fires most often start with lightening strikes during a thunder storm. For crying out loud! We made the decision not to make the hike. We knew we could do it given adequate time to hike up the incline on the way out, but we were concerned that we wouldn’t make it back in time, and could be left behind. Disappointment #3. Are we glad we went to Yosemite? Absolutely. Would we recommend this tour? Probably not.

Communication lacking and San Jose’s an afterthought - On the whole, this was a perfectly good tour, but I can’t give it a full recommendation because the communication was really lacking. One big point, this tour is long. It was a busy weekend and we were told to arrive at 5:15. We didn’t get back to San Jose until 10 pm. Back to communication: First, the motor coach does not pick up in San Jose. You meet out front of a hotel in San Jose and private SUVs take you to Livermore to meet the big bus. This fact was poorly communicated. We showed up at the hotel and three suvs arrived, late, and said they were taking us to the bus, about 25 minutes. Poor communication 2. In the 45 (not 25) minute ride, the driver said nothing before dropping us in front of a 7-11 in Livermore. The SUV drivers disappeared into a Starbucks and all the tour clients were standing outside a 7-11 wondering when we will see a bus. Thank goodness it wasn’t raining. My son was worried it was a scam. Nope, not a scam, just more poor communication. The bus eventually showed up and we learned this was a joint trip with tour clients from San Fran. No problem but the the guide never went over the days itinerary. We never really knew what was next. Simple fix: explain the days plan. The tour itself was very good once in the park. The bus takes you to several scenic spots in Yosemite, and you don’t have to navigate the mountain roads or fight for parking. The views are great and the park is magnificent. Hard to take a bad photo. Our guide, Gino, was also good. He’s funny and genuine even though he is a little hard to understand sometimes and he mixed up his rights and lefts a few times. Perhaps if I was taking the tour from San Fran, I would have another opinion, but the San Jose extension feels cobbled on so I can’t recommend this tour without flagging the shortcomings in logistics and communication. I took this tour because I wanted to see Yosemite but could only dedicate one day to it. So it met my bucket list need. But on a holiday weekend the wait to get in was signicatnt, like 2 hours! And the park was packed. If I have a chance to return to Yosemite, it will be a weekday when school is in session.

Would never do it again. Beautiful sites, but for 250 not worth it. You can drive and see the sites for less than 50 bucks 🤷🏼‍ - I was unaware I would be leaving my car in a parking garage for a hotel who didn't know a tour was using them for a parking garage. We then were ubered and dropped off at a 7/11 to wait for bus who was late. We waited 25 mins from time uber dropped us off til bus picked us up in front of a 7/11.. If we were a family this would've been unacceptable. But it was just me and boyfriend. This tour needs to be more specific and tell you that there are no sequoia trees until May! Not that if "weather permits" came to see trees and no giant sequoias!!

Great trip but felt unsafe due to bad coordination - Yosemite park was a great place but the tour company did not make us feel safe. We had taken the San Jose to Yosemite tour. We were aware that this will mean that they will put us on an SUV from San Jose to Livermore, and then we get on to the main bus that takes us to Yosemite. On the way back, our tour guide drops us at the Livermore empty parking lot and just leaves. He didn't call the driver who was supposed to pick us up. Essentially, we were left to fend for ourselves. We felt super unsafe as tourists just waiting in the dark for someone to come and pick us up. The area did not seem safe. Luckily, one of the tourists had the driver's number, the driver picked up the call, and came after 20 mins. The driver said that no one has contacted him and asked him to come pick us up early ( so I think we were dropped off early, and the tour guide or maybe the tour organizer didn't inform him that we are there ). The tour guide actually said " I wouldn't know " when asked about the pick up situation. Although, the experience was otherwise great ( the tour guide was actually a nice orator), but safety comes first. I should also note that the extranomical tours phone number was not working ( no one picked up and it went to voice mail). Leaving tourists in the dark, in the middle of nowhere, with no information is not fine!! I saw the same review by other people about the san Jose trip. The tour company seems to apologize and give their number ( which didn't work when we needed them ). So doesn't seem like they will fix the situation. Best is to get the trip from San Francisco ( not San Jose). I think everyone who took the trip from San Francisco had a smooth experience.

Day in Yosemite - We booked the trip to leave from San Jose never in the description was it mentioned that we took an Uber from the hilton to Livermore equally it was never mentioned that an Uber would pick us up from Livermore my link did not work and a gentleman who came with us but not part of our group had to call someone to sort it out as his link didn’t work NOT GOOD ENOUGH this has to be explained before you book. The driver left us to fend for ourselves. Yosemite is beautiful and not my first visit but the bus driver needs to understand we do not need a constant narrative for what seemed like the whole journey I just want to relax and enjoy the journey it was way toooooooo much he needs to be quite and drive