We love Yosemite and go almost every year. We are never tired if it. You have to stay in the Valley. It is too hard to get in and out everyday. So that makes housing options very limited. Pictures from last May.
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Beautiful!
How far in advance would I need to secure a room?
Several have mentioned Williamsburg already, but highly recommend as well. Did with our then-9 yr olds twin boys (plus two other littles) last year and had a great time at Colonial Williamsburg, Jamestown, Busch Gardens, and Water Country USA. Loved the mix of history and fun. Wish we could’ve squeezed in a day trip to the beach as well, but didn’t have the time.
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Majestic Lodge (Ahwahnee) and Yosemite Valley Lodge are the only 2 hotels in the Valley and they are rather small. I think they take reservations 366 days ahead. Summers and holidays are tough and the traffic getting in and out of the Valley is bad.
Last year, we had an over abundance of rain. This season has been rather dry. If you want to see full waterfalls and Mirror Lake and not Mirror Meadow, come during a wet season after end of March and preferably before July 4. If it is a wet year, there may still be snow on the trails come April 1st and some trails may still be closed.
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Yosemite ia beautiful, but it gets a lot of traffic, and it’s not very big. It reminds me a little of Great Smoky Mountains that way- tons of people go but for only for a day, or maybe two. You’d perhaps want to make it part of a loop through the Northwest, and catch Redwood NP, Mt. Ranier, Crater Lake (which has thermal features like a mini-Yellowstone) and maybe Olympic National Park as well.
Another “destination” National Park is Grand Canyon. That one is worth a trip all by itself!
Do they still make an announcement when the kids earn the badge? That was so cute. My kids loved this program, too. It really kept them engaged.
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We try to get to Disney about every 5 years, but our last trip before Jan 2020 was 2010 because there are just so many places to see! Currently DD18, DS15, and twins DS10s.
What grade are your girls in? All 4th graders can take their families to national parks for FREE! They’re all national parks for good reasons.
We love to eat well, adventure (hike/tent camp), learn stuff, and did I mention eat?
I am a big fan of TripAdvisor for travel research. Just realize most reviewers with 1 Review histories are either fake or were incentivized or begged to leave one.
Here are the places we’ve taken them at least once, roughly working backwards. They are all worth a visit.
Northern Minnesota/Lake of the Woods/Voyageurs/Lake Itasca/etc (family there so we go every Christmas and every 2-3 summers, but it is definitely worth doing once)
Washington DC - twins were 9 and we prepped them enough that they were highly engaged but I don’t think they would have been if much younger
UK (mainly London and Scotland)
Costa Rica
Greece
Grand Canyon
Yellowstone/Grand Teton
Arkansas-different areas a couple of times
Mount Rushmore
Colorado NP (Rocky Mountain/Mesa Verde/Great Sand Dunes)
Destin FL (our “we just took 9 month old twins to Disney!” 3 day recovery stop in 2010)
Alaska (mostly Kenai Peninsula)
Smoky Mts NP
Big Bend
We’re just outside of Houston so have done San Antonio a lot and it’s super tourist friendly. (Houston has a LOT to offer but isn’t tourist friendly so you really need a local to show you the ropes.)
We also pass through New Orleans every few years with the kids while en route other places and it’s a good diversion.
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Yosemite is probably the most beautiful place I’ve ever been in my life. Sadly, I haven’t been since I was in middle school. We did try to plan a trip a few years ago that would take us across the country, and included Yosemite…but the cost to do so ended up being astronomical. But I’d love to go back some day.
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I was disappointed with Grand Canyon. Especially when my little sister got lost, and we had to smuggle hot dogs in our flashlights to feed some of the natives we ran into. Err…wait. 
Seriously, though, Grand Canyon, for me, while inspiring, was not nearly as beautiful as Yosemite, the Smoky Mountains, or even Mammoth Cave.
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I went to the Grand Canyon as part of a 2 week trip aroubd the country in '88 that included Yellowstone, Vegas, Hoover Dam, and Mt. Rushmore. Seeing as we didnt get to go down in it, I was disappointed in the Grand Canyon too. My wife asked about possibly going there and I told her unless we went down in it, we get there, see it, and then we are going to have to leave. Thats it.
Yellowstone was much more enjoyable, because it was more interactive. More hiking, etc.
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Wait, I can go on vacations that aren’t Disney?
But really - lots of great ideas! We’ve only been on vacations to Disney World since DD4 has been born (3 of them) so we need to branch out a little… I like “doing things” on vacation and not just relaxing/taking in sights so we struggle to come up with good ideas.
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With a 4 and 6 yo we are planning (hopefully this cursed virus doesn’t make us cancel) to do Niagara Falls which has a surprising amount of other activities and were also doing the Finger Lakes which is beautiful. You could throw in Toronto as well.
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The first time I saw the Grand Canyon, I thought it was fake, painted! While awesome, I have never felt the need to return again.
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Well, it is a hoax, didn’t you know? The government has spent years convincing the public that the United States is home to one of the seven wonders of the world and commissioned a huge mural…
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Hope to get there next summer/fall.
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I felt the same way when we went to the GC. However, I think I may have felt differently if I had hiked to the bottom - there something about looking up at the surroundings that makes it more inspiring than looking down. Hence cathedral architecture…
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Thats true. That makes it more interactive. If you just show up, look at it, and leave, then its very easy to recognize the beauty, but how long are you going to just sit there and stare at it? With it being interactive, it would take more time, justifying the cost of going there.
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That’s so lovely that they used to make an announcement! We haven’t had that experience with the six badges he’s earned. They do have a very lovely public swearing in ceremony. It’s very sweet. 
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I didn’t go down. You either walk or go by mule. Some of the footpaths are very, very narrow. And I’m afraid 
of heights! Either way, what goes down must come back up. I’m confident I would remember that trek for the rest of my life in ways other than awesome!
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I can’t remember what it is but there’s a minimum age for the mules! My son turns 8 on our trip and he won’t be old enough to ride them.
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There’s no Fentons but we do have Big Dipper ice cream, which is almost as good.
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