Cedar Lodge Motel

Came out here on a snow boarding trip before before some buddies left for Japan, over the phone they told us they had a military discount and we could get the room with cooking supplies for $ 79 a night, come to find out they don’t offer the discount and for a shanty room with nothing but a shower it was $ 100 a night, we walked in and beds were unmade, sink was dirty, and the bathroom was not maintained. On top of that the shower had no hot water, and the fellow at the front desk was no help and as soon as we asked about the military discount he changed tone from friendly to a more «leave right now» tone. I was not impressed at all by this motel and am disappointed by my stay and the service of staff. There is a nice view (hence the one star) and plenty of parking, as a last resort stay, yes stay here, but there is a nicer hotel about 10 minutes up the road I would rather stay at

Neat and clean. Well maintained and peaceful. Staff shortage not ruled out so have patience for any office assistance.
Microwave missing, but coffee maker and refrigerator available.
Don’t miss the costly $ 12 per pax breakfast, which is good given the price and area in which you are.
And yes no AT&T signal in this area.

We stayed in a room with a kitchenette and 2 double beds in December 2015. The motel is located 8 miles from the entrance to Yosemite NP, and then it is a further 11 miles to the valley. Depending on weather and traffic this can take from 45 to 90 minutes.
* The room was dirty. The carpet was not clean, the kitchen area, utensils, toaster and microwave were very dirty. Housekeeping did very little to clean up. We wore socks or shoes all the time to avoid touching the carpet. There was a good supply of hot water.
* There is no cell phone service and the motel charges $ 9 per day for wireless internet access.
* There is an indoor and an outdoor pool. We used the indoor pool once. The pool is a good size, but the floor around the pool was very dirty.
* The restaurant is described as a «classic diner» but would be better described as classic truck stop. We ate there once. Many items were not available. The food was very greasy.
* Unfortunately there are not many choices for accommodation in the Yosemite area. This is a 2 star motel and in any other area this would be a $ 49 per night motel and would be lucky to stay in business.
** Bottom line: stay here as a last resort.

We stayed here almost two weeks ago during our trip to Yosemite National Park. I booked through
which made Cedar Lodge look like something from a horror movie. After scouring the Internet to find other pictures of the place, and make sure the other lodges in the area were sold out, I finally booked with Cedar Lodge and hoped for the best. I’m sure staying in Yosemite Valley is best, and that’s a goal next time I’m in the area, but for us, it was sold out. Cedar Lodge is the closest to the park entrance, for the exception of another lodge/​motel, but their reviews were more questionable than here so I passed on them.
My pros and cons are below. The room was priced at $ 89 through
, and I’m not sure if that’s a pro or a con. Given the proximity to Yosemite, I feel like it’s fairly priced. Given the amenities offered, I feel like it’s way overpriced. You be the judge!
The pros:
— Cedar Lodge is only about 15 minutes from Yosemite’s entrance. Of course, it’s another 15 minutes or so to get to Yosemite Valley, but the views are gorgeous the entire route.
— The grounds, contrary to what
will show you, are nice! Is it a 5-​star Hollywood resort? No, but you aren’t in Hollywood and you didn’t come to Yosemite to feel like you’re in Hollywood (hopefully). It’s a large, spread out motel. They have an indoor pool, an outdoor pool, conference room area, souvenir type shop in the lobby, and a restaurant and a bar/​restaurant onsite (2 different businesses). The restaurant, at least for us, was only open for breakfast, and the bar/​restaurant was open in the evenings.
— The room was nice! We had 2 chairs, a desk/​table, a nightstand, king sized bed, dresser with a flat screen tv, large bathroom with a large shower stall, separate toilet area, and a jacuzzi! The jacuzzi was in between the bedroom and the bathroom, with doors that could be pulled to make it private. Very nice! The room was not nearly as outdated as other photos I found made it seem. Oh, and no bed bugs or other creatures were found either. The A/​C and heat were nice but noisy. The room, and grounds, were very quiet (which we loved).
The cons:
— We checked in at 8:30pm and the restaurant onsite was closed. This is an area in the middle of nowhere, there are no other options! The places in Yosemite were closed or soon closing, as well as the ones in Mariposa. Thankfully, we had trail mix leftover from the drive. Cedar Lodge is missing a huge opportunity here — why not stock the mini-​fridge, have snacks, have the restaurant open a bit later, room/​delivery service, something?!
— Food was questionable. Breakfast was okay, coffee was not good. Dinner at the bar/​restaurant was meh. Drinks were pretty good — we had several from the menu. The food could certainly be improved A LOT, and the prices as imagined were a bit steep for what you get.
— Nothing to stir the coffee with in the room.
— $ 10 for the wi-​fi for a 24-​hour period. Don’t plan to do much with it because it’s limited, but we were able to send the e-​mail we had to send. In the future, I would make sure I didn’t have any electronic commitments and would NOT buy the wi-​fi again.
Also, as others have noted, there is no cellular service in the area. This isn’t the fault of Cedar Lodge, mind you, I’m just putting it out there. Do what you need to do in Mariposa, or wait until you’re in Yosemite, because the area in between is spotty or service-​less!
All in all, we would definitely stay here again although we would first try somewhere in Yosemite. I think the experience is just different, but of course they come with a larger price tag and a requirement to book well in advance.

Cedar Lodge Motel were reserved through Expedia because of status «VERY GOOD», with rate 3.7 out of 5. Of course companies who sell «vacations» keep best reviews with good rates. Now I realize that I have to check for reviews on Unilocal first.
So, I did reserve 2 rooms with 2 Queen beds and sofa per each. We stayed there for 2 nights/​3 days, starting on November 26, 2015. Check-​In was quick. Rooms #401 and 402 were clean, but smelled chemicals, mostly in #402 and bothered me when we entered inside.
Big Conserns:
1. Towels looked «dirty”-gray color instead of white if compare to snowy white sheets on beds and cases on pillows. I do not know what is the reason to keep towels in bad condition.
2. !!! Dangerous: HOT water starts running when switch water flow from faucet that regulated to run warm water to shower head. Guests can BURN themselves. Both rooms have the same problem!!!
3. The Restaurant on the Hotel territory is kind of fast food service looked messy to me. It closes at 9:00PM, and when we came overthere at 8:00PM on Thanksgiving evening, some dishes listed in short menu were gone, so we needed to drive out for 5 minutes to go to „sister restaurant“ named „The River“, which was a real Restaurant service and we glad that we came here, because we received a nice treat (also closes at 9:00PM).
4. !!! NO Cellular conneciton/“no service» at the hotel area and around!

Hmm what to say… there’s nothing special or eye popping about this place.
I’ll echo others reviews though, there were no bed bugs. We stayed in the east building. There is no cell phone reception until you get into ypsemite valley. There is a microwave in the lobby, doesn’t work too well but it’s a microwave. Good for heating up leftovers, because their bar and restaurant on location is very very pricey. Hamburger is $ 16, chicken tenders $ 14 for 4 around 5 inch pieces… might as well drive up to yosemite lodge food court in yosemite valley to get better priced food or simply bring your own.
The beds were comfortable though and rooms large with heater/​AC (yay). For their coffee and hot chocolate in the lobby, you pay by the cup. Might as well bring your own hot chocolate — there’s a coffee maker in the room, use that to heat the water. However when I looked in our coffee maker in the room, it looked kinda dirty — don’t know how they monitor the cleanliness of those. Rooms comes with tv (limited cable channels), ice bucket, plastic and Styrofoam cups, coffee, coffee maker, sugar, ceeamer, tea, and blow dryer.
Pretty reasonably priced compared to yosemite valley and just a 30 – 40 min drive up and into yosemite. I’d probably come back if I couldn’t find somewhere cheaper and closer to yosemite whether in yosemite valley or farther up 140 leading to yosemite.

Thirty minutes off of the yosmite national park — one of the more affordable hotel options. Feels a bit like the middle of nowhere and you definitely won’t have cell phone signal here. They charge for wifi now when it used to be free. The rooms have a little refrigerator which is nice. Surprisingly the comforter looks kind of old and aged but soft. By using the faucet and the shower you can tell they are clearly trying to save money on their water bill. Overall, decent stay but it a bit of the way of Yosemite and the lack of free wifi makes this a three star experience.

This place is the modern example of highway robbery. For what we paid per night, I would’ve expected somewhat of an effort by the owners or management to make the rooms up to date. It’s late in 2015 and they’re still using a 70’s era bedding. The bathroom faucet sprayed in all directions except down the sink. The outdoor pool looked as though it hadn’t been cleaned in quite a while… long enough for algae to be accumulating. Also, because of the remoteness of the area, one might assume that they’d keep their restaurant open during the day in case a guest wanted to get a late lunch, but you’d be wrong. We tried the breakfast buffet (note that this is the only option in the morning. No made to order options, just the buffett) and weren’t seated or given anything to drink until we flagged down a busser for some coffee. The food was lackluster as I expected, but the worst part of all is the nearly 13 $ that it costs. Walking around the grounds were garbage and recycling that had yet to make it to its destination and in the heat of the day attracted lots of flies and had that putrid odor wafting through the air.
I’m giving them one star because of the lack of care to present, what could be easily updated and renovated, to be completely not worth the money. (268 $+tax)

We’ve stayed here twice and both times we booked their master suite (516) which is pretty much a 3 bedroom house with it’s own private pool/​jacuzzi. It’s pretty pricey, but we stay with a bigger group so the split cost isn’t as bad. I see a few people reported bed bugs, didn’t have a problem with that in room 516. I’m sure it’s incidental, as lots of hotels have been reported to having bed bugs. I was a little freaked out when I read the recent reviews so I checked the mattress before I set any belongings down in the room but found nothing.
Hotel is a little outdated, but then again it’s in the middle of nowhere and anything at the actual park is double the price, not to mention already booked. Rosario has been a big help both times we’ve stayed. Wifi is not worth the $ 10. You will not be able to make any calls, only browse the internet, facebook, etc. So unless you are someone who can’t live without social media, I say pass on the wifi.
The only reason this review didn’t get 5 stars is because:
— went to the bar & grill and the service was really slow even though we were the only customers there.
— the Jacuzzi was broken the last time we stayed, however, they agreed to take $ 50 off/​night. usually not a big deal, but after hiking all day we all planned to jump in.
Again, the only room I’ve stayed in was the master suite, which I’m sure is a lot different than the other rooms.

I went there with my wife, mother in law and 2 kids. We booked Through
where they had a creepy Photo of the hotel, but when we arrived there we were impressed. We stayed for 3 days and we really enjoyed it. I’ll list the pros and cons and it’ll explain why the three stars. Pros:
Very big complex with multiple rooms, restaurant, bar and grill, outdoor pool, indoor pool… So it is self sufficient.
Rooms are clean and tidy and not small
Rooms are fairly up to date (not too modern or too old)
Location is perfect as one of the closest hotels to the park entrance (25 minutes away from the valley)
Cons:
Location: being not in the valley is also a negative point as the experience of being in the valley, going out at night to see the stars is precious. (The hotel is far from the valley in a deserted location not near any human existence)
Customer service: very bad and careless customer service at the reception and in the restaurant. They have the attitude: oh don’t like it, fxxk off, we don’t care as we have so much business due to our proximity to the park. They barely care to even help or advise you on anything when you ask.
Prices: rooms are very overpriced for what you get. We paid for a weekday visit same price to what we are going to pay for a 5 star resort in Vegas on the Weekend. Also prices of food were fairly expensive (which was understandable) but the portions were small.
I would come to this hotel again if I had no other options. But next time my first priority is to find a place in the valley (because it is a totally different experience) or find a campground. Some campgrounds have the best locations (literary on the river banks with so much to offer, like pines campgrounds) and they are cheap.

I really really liked this place. It was quirky and a bit weird but good. Things were definitely expensive but its way up there and things cost a lot up there. It was sort of like SF pricing. It sucked to not have wifi or phone service but then again, it didn’t.
Only thing that kinda sucked was the ice machine making this infernal buzzing noise all night. Ear plugs took care of that.
There was no bed bugs or anything gross in the room. The room was pretty large too.
I think I’d say if you are elderly or aren’t very limber, don’t get the room with the spa in it. It doubles as the shower and it was pretty dicey to get in and out.
I’ll definitely be back!

My advice: don’t do it unless you want to be bedbug food. You’re better off sleeping in your car.

Bed bugs!!! I booked a kind size bed that has bed bugs all over the places!!! I got bite on multiple places!!! It was a most horrible experience ever!!!

I HATE it when hotels rate high prices because they are the only hotel in the wide surroundings. Okay, nothing is wrong with that if the product is good, but it wasn’t!
We ordered a burger in de bar. Nothing wrong with that, but it wasn’t great either. Wifi is not complementary, you pay $ 9,99 per day if you want to make use of the Internet.
What really makes me mad is that they charged $ 12,95 per person for a crappy breakfast-​buffet. If you want to have juice during your breakfast, you pay $ 2 more. Outside of the buffet was dirty, quality of the food wasn’t good. Just not worth the $ 12,95.
The waiters were nice and friendly.
One star they deserved for the clean rooms and staff, they were nice and friendly.

Calendar lodge is not a bad motel but as they are in a dead zone regarding communication, they put all communication payable.
5 $ for 60 minutes of Internet and wifi not free (don’t know the price).
Regarding the room, there is few lamp, and the room was dark, even during the day. Difficult to say if the room was clean or not … I hate that!
For breakfast or dinner there is a bar/​dinner or a restaurant. Both are correct for such a motel.
Only 3 stars due to the dark (and clean?) room and to the lack of free communication.

Hotel is clean, has spacious quiet rooms, friendly staff and a great deal compared to staying inside Yosemite since it’s only about 20 minutes away. We stayed for 3 nights in a room with 2 queens and the final price was less than $ 100/​night. It was large, with comfortable beds, a table with two chairs, a medium sized refrigerator with freezer, coffee maker, hair dryer, soap/​shampoo, and a large flat screen TV. Chairs had some old stains but seemed clean. The TV only gets 20 channels and there is no wifi. You will probably lose cell service from Mariposa until mid-​way after entering Yosemite. Wifi is $ 10/​day or $ 25 for 3 days since they know it’s a dead zone. The hotel restaurant closes at 8:30pm, so make sure you get food in Yosemite if you’re leaving late. There is no other real food around or delivery. The bar serves some overpriced not so great fried food. The restaurant only has a buffet for breakfast. They have a gift shop with some snacks and microwaveable food. They have a microwave in the lobby. The property is much larger than expected and has 2 pools and a hot tub. It has quite a few rooms but not much parking near the back rooms. They appear understaffed so you may have a wait to check in. If you arrive late you might have to park near the lobby and walk up the hill to the back if your room is up there. I recommend getting gas before or at Mariposa. It’s an hour drive to the next gas station right outside Yosemite, which is almost $ 1/​gallon higher than normal prices. If you come late you may be stopped at a red light at a one-​way road/​bridge. We waited a long time and ended up just going through. Good thing no one was coming up the hill the other direction! They also have a nice sitting area across the street with benches and a gazebo near the river than runs along the road.

Me and my boyfriend rented a room here for three days to visit yosemite. I thought the price was great and it was decently close to Yosemite, about a 15 – 20 minute drive and the scenery driving there is beautiful.
Our room was small but had just enough. One thing I wish the room had was a microwave but we made due with buying a water boiler from Walmart and eating top ramen, oatmeal, and other foods that didn’t need to be heated up in a microwave.
The bed was a firm mattress but it didn’t have you waking up sore the next day.
A couple things I didn’t care for was that you had to pay $ 9.99 for a day use of Internet and it was pretty slow, so yah can’t watch videos without it lagging but it can load Facebook pretty okay. We both didn’t have phone reception in the hills so we really needed it for one day. Also the walls are paper thin so if you’re not a heavy sleeper, I would recommend ear plugs or turning on the fan to muffle noises from your neighbors. It didn’t bother me so much as it did my boyfriend who apparently woke up a lot from our neighbors making alota noise. Overall I thought the room service was good and quality was at a good enough standard, so if you don’t mind those two things and you’re looking for some place reasonably priced and close to the park then I would look into this place.

Not too bad, paid the extra for the hot tub and king bed room which was nice.
Also, called to the hotel to ask some questions and ended up getting a better deal than Expedia offered ($ 132 a night vice $ 142).
No free wifi– in a place like this where there is no cell phone reception it’d be nice to not have to pay $ 10 for 24hrs. I didn’t pay that, btw.
Did not like that the rooms didn’t have microwaves.
Nothing in particular was wrong with the place, and I did enjoy that they had both indoor and outdoor pools, just wish that they had the two things I mentioned.

Pro: We wanted a white Christmas so we went to Yosemite National park (Badger Pass) for sledding, skiing, snow boarding, tubing, etc. We stayed at this lodge for 3 days. It was a beautiful lodge with many Christmas decorations. I especially loved the arts and crafts for kids. The hotel used the conference room and turned it into an arts and crafts room where kids can make Christmas ornaments, stocking, decorations, etc. There were also hot cocoa and cookies for kids to enjoy. The conference room was decorated with many Christmas trees from with different decorations. This was a child friendly lodge.
Cons: The lodge was a little run down and there was a sound that just would not go away. I think it came from the pipes. The diner was not great. The restaurant part of the lodge was closed so we had to drive to another hotel to have a decent meal.
If you are looking for a cheap and nice place to stay at durning your visit to Yosemite, I recommend this place.

I stayed here at the Cedar Lodge in El Portal recently on a trip to Yosemite.
First is the good. If you are staying outside of the park, the Cedar Lodge is very convenient. It is about 8 miles from the entrance to the park and it has an onsite restaurant. The staff was nice, parking is plentiful, and they have an indoor pool and hot tub.
The lodge is more of a traditional motel than «lodge» or «hotel». The rooms are typical motel rooms though spacious. The rooms are decent and the smoke-​free seem to be smoke free.
In any other place in the country, they would not be able to charge the rates they do, but since they are right outside the gates of Yosemite they can charge a premium.
They do have on-​site WiFi, but even during off-​hours the performance is bad. And for $ 10/​night, I’d expect the performance to be better. They have a sign in the lobby that says they don’t provide the service and have no responsibility for the service. Though, I’m sure they get a commission.
Though this is NOT the motel’s fault, they are many miles from any cell phone or data service. So, expect to be off the grid while you here.