Sequoia Lodge

Good basic hotel as a base for exploring Sequoia N

Pros: Hotel was clean and safe. 24-hour check-in. Hotel had been renovated in the last five years (which you don't always get for a hotel in this price category). AC worked well (which was important; it was pretty hot!) Pleasant staff. Hotel is conveniently across the street from a Starbucks, sub sandwich shop, and many other convenient stores and pharmacies. Hotel is about 45 min from the Foothills entrance to Sequoia National Park. It's about 1.5-2 hours from the General Grant Tree, Lodgepole Base, Big Tree Museum, etc., since these are in the interior of the park. Overall, this hotel was only $65, and it was clean and safe, so you could do a lot worse!!

Cons: Included breakfast was not too good. Unhealthy, starchy options; coffee was really poor. Also, this hotel is evidently really trying to save money -- there were lots of signs all over warning you of extra fees if you get the towels too dirty, or remove them from the room during the day (say, to go swimming in the many nearby swimming holes). They tried to save so much money that they unplugged every lamp and even the fridge during the day. This was frustrating when we came back to the room with sandwiches one night. We wanted to put them in the fridge to bring them hiking the next day, but the fridge had been unplugged and was warm inside, and would take many hours to get cool again. So we had to throw our sandwiches away. :-( Same thing with putting breakfast items in your room -- it's tricky, because fridge will be unplugged during the day.