9 Best Hotels in The Sierra Nevada, California

Across from the Village at Mammoth, this family-run hotel (with rooms and a couple of cabins) offers basic comforts and a few niceties such as attractive pine furniture. All rooms have fresh color schemes, contemporary bedding, ski racks, refrigerators, coffeemakers, and flat-screen TVs, and some rooms have fireplaces and kitchens. The pool is a nice touch in summer. Best of all, you can walk to shops and restaurants, including the on-site Petra's. In business for over 50 years, the owners also run the downstairs Clocktower Cellar pub. The Village Gondola is across the street, a major plus for skiers.

With a location near Highway 41 (the main route to Yosemite), Fresno State, and a big mall, this well-run hotel is popular with families, businesspeople, and parents with offspring at the university. The rooms, done in bright oranges and yellows, have perky-patterned rugs and curtains, flat-screen TVs, free Wi-Fi, and good-size bathrooms. An outdoor pool, a hot tub, and a modest fitness center are among the amenities.

Perched on 11 hillside acres, Oakhurst's best motel has carefully tended landscaping and rooms with stylish contemporary furnishings and hand-painted murals of Yosemite.

Built to cater to the film industry, this lodging in the center of town consists of a 1923 hotel—where John Wayne, Gene Autry, and other Western-movie greats stayed—and a late-1950s motel, where rooms (many of them updated in 2023) are more spacious. Both buildings have access to a pool and are within walking distance of just about everything in town. 

This former antiques store and car garage landed in the right hands with the Rose family, who transformed it into a boutique hotel for those on a hostel budget. Designed with community in mind, there are plenty of common spaces, including a kitchen; picnic area; and lounge with games, books, and a fireplace for winter nights. Rooms are spotless and modern, including the bunk rooms for hikers seeking refuge from the Pacific Crest Trail. Among the lodging options are seven private rooms, five family rooms, four bunk rooms, and one apartment suite. In summer, an airstream is set up, offering pastries to go with your free coffee served daily from 6 to 10 am.

This two-story property has 7½ attractively landscaped acres and a big swimming pool. The sizeable rooms have king- and queen-size beds, robes, baths with granite countertops, mini-refrigerators, and free Wi-Fi; some have fireplaces.

Rooms at this family-owned property have balconies with views of the surrounding woods and mountains. For maximum atmosphere, book a room overlooking the brook (runs in spring and early summer); for some serenity, choose a lower-level room on the edge of the forest. All accommodations are comfortably furnished with old-fashioned accents. The restaurant, decorated with moose, bison, and other mounted heads, specializes in steaks and American fare. It's open from late April until late October.

Off Highway 41 just 10 miles south of the Yosemite National Park, this 19th-century cattle ranch near a hidden grove of giant sequoia trees provides a restful, rustic retreat. Although the upscale furnishings and amenities are contemporary, the ranch's historic character has been preserved. Most rooms have French doors that open out onto airy porches that are ideal for unwinding on a summer evening, and guests stay connected to the modern world with cable TV and free Wi-Fi access. There's a steak house on-site, and the swimming pool is open in summer. Heating and air-conditioning in all rooms make the ranch a four-season getaway.

Two miles outside Yosemite's Arch Rock entrance, this modern property is the most convenient place to spend the night if you are unable to secure lodgings in the valley. All rooms have good views, but the ones with balconies that overlook the Merced River are the best. You have your choice of four pools here, one of which is indoors. The restaurant cooks up an impressive breakfast buffet, and there's also a pizza joint on-site (open only from April through October). Many of the rooms, however, come with kitchenettes.