Room service: Wawona hotel, Yosemite

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The complete guide: Yosemite

As you sign the registration form at the Wawona Hotel, the receptionist draws your attention to the extra signature required. It's a Bear Aware notice. By the nine-hole golf course is a sign warning you of rattlesnakes. At night the frogs threaten to pierce your eardrums. There are a lot of critters in Yosemite.

The Wawona was established in 1856 as a stagecoach stop on the way to Yosemite Valley and is the second oldest hotel in California.(The oldest is the Coronado in San Diego.) Originally called Big Tree Station, after the nearby sequoias, the name was changed to the Native American "Wawona" (meaning big tree) in 1874 after it was bought by the Washburn brothers.

The Washburns added an outdoor "swimming tank" as the pool is called, beauty parlour and club house with dance floor. The golf course, opened in 1918 to lure more mobile visitors after the invention of the motor car, was the first in the Sierra Nevada.

Today, the hotel still comprises a cluster of eight white Victorian-style cottages with dark green shutters overlooking incense cedar and ponderosa pine forests, and sprawling lawns scattered with white Adirondack chairs. In the huge old-fashioned dining room waitresses wear full-length black skirts, while cocktails are served on the verandah from 5.30-9.30pm. In the evenings the vintage Yosemite songs in the lobby are courtesy of local pianist Tom Bopp.

Location, location, location

Just inside the south entrance to the park, 30 miles from Yosemite Valley along Highway 41. Book through the Yosemite Concession Services Corporation (001 559 252 4848, www.yosemitepark.com).

Time to international airport: It's about four hours to San Francisco and six to Los Angeles.

Are you lying comfortably?

There are 104 guest rooms; we were in Number 5, Washburn Cottage. Only 50 have private bathrooms; those that haven't provide robes for that late night sprint down the corridor. The rooms open on to wraparound verandahs. Ours was rustic but pretty without being twee; Victorian wallpaper and white painted furniture.

Freebies: just basic soap and shampoo.

Keeping in touch: refreshingly, there are no TVs or telephones in the rooms. There's a pay phone on the verandah and chess board in the sitting room.

The bottom line

Rooms with bath cost $161 (£105), rooms without cost $101 (£66).

I'm not paying that: a canvas tent cabin in Curry Village costs $54 (£35).