Unusual accommodation in California

[Nevin]

We're off to San Francisco for a few days then travelling around Yosemite and Napa before flying home from SF. I'd like to book somewhere a bit different to stay one night (e.g. train carriage, plane fuselage, nuclear bunker, yurt, tepee, hanging orb pod room type thing etc) but nothaving much luck finding anything.

Does anyone have any ideas or links which might help?

[shakotan]

Tree House in a Safari Park do ya?

http://safariwest.com/

I stayed here for two nights, its a great venue, but the food they serve for lunch and dinner is crap. Breakfast is ok, but drive into Calistoga for dinner and eat at Checkers Restaurant on the main street.

They do special rates when the Full Moon is out, so see if you can match your dates up accordingly!

Edited by shakotan on Monday 18th May 16:02

[Nevin]

shakotan said:

Tree House in a Safari Park do ya?

http://safariwest.com/

I stayed here for two nights, its a great venue, but the food they serve for lunch and dinner is crap. Breakfast is ok, but drive into Calistoga for dinner and eat at Checkers Restaurant on the main street.

They do special rates when the Full Moon is out, so see if you can match your dates up accordingly!

Edited by shakotan on Monday 18th May 16:02

Excellent, that's a good start.

Anything more unusual though?

[shakotan]

Nevin said:

shakotan said:

Tree House in a Safari Park do ya?

http://safariwest.com/

I stayed here for two nights, its a great venue, but the food they serve for lunch and dinner is crap. Breakfast is ok, but drive into Calistoga for dinner and eat at Checkers Restaurant on the main street.

They do special rates when the Full Moon is out, so see if you can match your dates up accordingly!

Edited by shakotan on Monday 18th May 16:02

Excellent, that's a good start.

Anything more unusual though?

I guess you coudl try the lion's enclosure, but they might get a bit funny about it!

[Nevin]

shakotan said:

Nevin said:

shakotan said:

Tree House in a Safari Park do ya?

http://safariwest.com/

I stayed here for two nights, its a great venue, but the food they serve for lunch and dinner is crap. Breakfast is ok, but drive into Calistoga for dinner and eat at Checkers Restaurant on the main street.

They do special rates when the Full Moon is out, so see if you can match your dates up accordingly!

Edited by shakotan on Monday 18th May 16:02

Excellent, that's a good start.

Anything more unusual though?

I guess you coudl try the lion's enclosure, but they might get a bit funny about it!

Who, the lions or the staff? ;-)

[S7Paul]

If you're thinking of staying in Yosemite Valley (right in the centre of the park), I'd avoid Curry Village. We had a look in there to see what it was like, and thought we'd wandered into a refugee camp. If you can't find anything "different" (uninhabited bear cave, maybe) go to the Ahwahnee hotel. Be warned that much of the accommodation in the park gets booked up a year in advance.

[Nevin]

S7Paul said:

If you're thinking of staying in Yosemite Valley (right in the centre of the park), I'd avoid Curry Village. We had a look in there to see what it was like, and thought we'd wandered into a refugee camp. If you can't find anything "different" (uninhabited bear cave, maybe) go to the Ahwahnee hotel. Be warned that much of the accommodation in the park gets booked up a year in advance.

Ah, I was just about to book Curry Village actually but may have to rethink.

[bint]

We keep talking about doing a West Coast road trip, and whenever I look at accommodation this keeps coming up;

http://www.queenmary.com/index.php?page=hotel

Quite cool, but then there are also these;

http://www.boatandbed.com/

[S7Paul]

Nevin said:

S7Paul said:

If you're thinking of staying in Yosemite Valley (right in the centre of the park), I'd avoid Curry Village. We had a look in there to see what it was like, and thought we'd wandered into a refugee camp. If you can't find anything "different" (uninhabited bear cave, maybe) go to the Ahwahnee hotel. Be warned that much of the accommodation in the park gets booked up a year in advance.

Ah, I was just about to book Curry Village actually but may have to rethink.

We stayed at the Yosemite Lodge at the Falls, which was OK but the Ahwanhee looked nicer (& more upmarket). Unbelievably (for the USA), getting something to eat in the evening wasn't easy. There were two main eating places at the Yosemite Lodge, one looked like a cross between a school canteen & a fast-food joint, the other was a much nicer restaurant that gets very heavily booked and can involve a long wait for a table.

The Yosemite Valley is a lovely place to stay, but does get very crowded. I guess a second choice (outside the Valley but not too far) would be Wawona. If you go to Yosemite, make sure you've got a trip up to Glacier Point on your itinerary.

[Roo]

When we did Yosemite we stayed at Lee Vining as leaving it to eight months before we were due to go everything in the park was booked.

[S7Paul]

Roo said:

When we did Yosemite we stayed at Lee Vining as leaving it to eight months before we were due to go everything in the park was booked.

I'm not surprised, I think I booked about 13 months ahead. The only problem with staying in Lee Vining (as you'll have discovered) is that it's a couple of hours drive from Yosemite Valley.

[Breadknife]

Not unusual, but we spent 4 nights in Yosemite recently. We satyed in a "cabin" called Clouds Rest, in Foresta, a 25 minute drive from Yosemite Village. The view from the house was straight down the valley to El Capitan and Half Dome. Highly recommended. A total escape from the hell of the valley on the weekend.

[Rollin]

I stayed here for Yosemite http://www.hotelcharlotte.com/ in a very small town called Groveland. Good place and a great old saloon over the road too.

[Nevin]

Well, Curry Village it is unfortunately. Then we've got three nights in an apartment in Mammoth before heading back up to Napa and then SF for a day.

We're going to do Half Dome, Cathedral Lake up at Tuolumne, Mono Lake, Bodie Ghost Town, some mountain biking and cable car riding at Mammoth and visit Six Flags theme park at Vallejo on the way back to SF.

May have a look at Glacire Point now too.

Any more must sees?

[Sgt Bilko]

Visit a few vineyards in Napa?

Most are open without bookings, and do some cracking offers. For a non-wine buff i was very impressed. Our tour went from SF and took a whole day visiting 4 different vineyards (including Mario Andretti's and Chandon - which is technically sparkling wine and champaign but you can't beat starting the morning out with shampoo and fresh fruit!).

Spent far too much whilst we were there.

Lovely place also. Want to move.

[furtive]

The Madonna Inn (nothing to do with the ageing popstar)

http://www.madonnainn.com/

It's completely and utterty bonkers and tasteless to the extreme. Try and get a rock room if you can