At some point, I signed up for their email list, and you can imagine my excitement when I got an email from them about how all of their rooms and restaurant were 50% off in December, and there was no minimum-stay requirement! Holy moly, are you kidding me? Plus, I hadn't been to Yosemite since I was a kid, so I was eager to come back to the national park. We booked the Lavender Room at the Chateau and also made a dinner reservation for the first Saturday of December. We were planning to drive in Saturday morning and leave Sunday afternoon. I was worried it would be snowing, but as December approached, it was apparent that we would have fairly mild weather for this time of year. SWEET!
We headed out on Saturday morning around 9, and got to the north entrance of Yosemite National Park sometime around 12. We drove straight to The Ahwahnee for lunch, though we stopped once on the way to take some pictures.
The Ahwahnee is known for being the park's AAA Four-Diamond hotel, and was designed to highlight its natural surroudings with its "magnificent façade and architecture." I have to say, I was expecting a lot more than what we got, and it wasn't even that I was cranky from our long drive. The place felt old and tired, like it was in need of a facelift. Their dining room is supposed to have a spectacular view, and I can't say that we were impressed. The food was also meh, though we were already expecting that. All I can say is, I'm glad we came here first, before we went to Chateau du Sureau, since I was already so unimpressed with The Ahwahnee before even laying eyes on the awesome place where we stayed.
After lunch, we headed out to see some of Yosemite's beautiful sights. The sides of the road were filled with snow, which had fallen sometime in the weeks before, but the roads were clean and clear and we didn't need chains. It was cold, but not so frigid that we were freezing. In fact, several times when we stopped to take photos, we didn't even bother donning our jackets. We could not have asked for better weather. Because of all the snow and the time of year, we couldn't do any hiking, but that was okay with us, since we don't even own any hiking shoes anyway! Mainly we just came to see the major sights from the road and to take pictures of the breathtaking scenery.
We drove along until we exited the park at the southern end, and then we headed to Chateau du Sureau. By the time we arrived, it was dusk, but we managed to find the place easily. When we pulled up at the gated entrance, we had to press the intercom button to let them know who we were. Once giving them our name, they opened the gate and we drove along the short road to the front of the chateau, where two workers were waiting for us. They greeted us by name, unloaded our bags, and parked our car for us. Our chambermaid took us on a short indoor tour. We visited the communal living room, which had a beautiful towering Christmas tree and roaring fire, and the dining room, where we would be served breakfast the next morning. That was when we realized this place was actually a bed-and-breakfast, and that breakfast was actually included. Woo hoo! Our chambermaid finally took us up to our room, which was warm and inviting, had soothing music playing within, and already had our suitcase waiting for us by the armoire. She then asked us whether we wanted our chicken salad sandwiches now or later, and whether we still wanted to keep our dinner reservation for 6:30 that evening. We were really pleased with all of the personal touches and amazing service, and completely thrown off by the chicken salad sandwich question. We decided to just split one between the two of us, since dinner would be in less than an hour.
While our chambermaid went to prepare our sandwich, we looked around at our beautifully appointed room. I knew this place was supposed to be gorgeous, but it was even better than I expected. We had a king-sized bed, wood-burning fireplace, and large bathroom with vanity, separate room with toilet, and soaking tub. We also had a small balcony, which we figured overlooked the grounds, but it was so dark outside by then we couldn't really tell. Another nice and unexpected perk was that we had free wi-fi throughout the property. Wow!
A few minutes later, our chambermaid returned with our sandwich. I'm not sure what we were expecting, but certainly nothing this pretty...
Afterward, we relaxed for just a little bit, before heading down to dinner at Erna's Elderberry House. We had a nice meal, which I'll talk about in a separate post, but I'm glad we followed our instincts and never drove out here just to eat at the restaurant. It was good and well worth it at 50% off, but not a place I would go out of my way to visit again.
After dinner, we headed to the living room to enjoy the Christmas tree, and our chambermaid found us and offered us coffee, which we decided to have up in our room. Another nice thing about this place was that someone from the housekeeping staff was on duty at all times, so if we wanted, say, a cup of tea at 3 in the morning, all we had to do was wander down to the kitchen to find someone to make it for us!
When we returned to our room, the staff had turned down our bed and placed chocolates on our pillows, which is pretty standard for a nice place. However, they had gone the extra mile by putting terrycloth slippers on either side of the bed, and the following hand-illustrated picture on the bed:
The next morning, we enjoyed breakfast of eggs, smoked salmon, and avocados, prepared to order, as well as an assortment of fruit, cheeses, and cold cuts. We spent the rest of the morning wandering around the grounds of the chateau, which included an outdoor enclosed yoga area, swimming pool, gazebo, and walking path. Our favorites were the giant chess set and wooden swings, though.
When we checked out at noon that day, they had our car ready and waiting for us right by the door, with a little care package on the driver's seat, of two bottled waters, pistachios, and a hand-written note wishing us a safe journey. We've never experienced such amazing service before, and can easily see why the chateau gets such rave reviews. And the best part of it all was that we got it for such a steal. I hope they do this deal sometime again in the next few years!
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