Tours4Fun

We were in the tour "1 x 4-Day Yosemite, Las Vegas, Hoover Dam & Grand Canyon Tour from San Francisco" with a friends of me 5-8 November 2018.
The tour sounded interesting, but in fact we spent 4 days with uncommunicative Asian people in the bus and from sightseeings that we wanted to see - we were in Grand Canyon for 1 hour and also 1 hour in Yosemite+2 evenings in Las Vegas.
The 1st day - most of the day we spent on the drive from San Francisco to the Yosemite National park and to the Fresno city. Firstly, we spent 2 hours picking up people from different locations to the bus. We had a 15-minutes stop at the nice café "85 °", where was really great coffee and torts. Of course it was a long line at the cashier and only some people from the group were able to buy coffee and torts (we were among that lucky people), after it the guide came and shouted that we should go back to the bus. The first stop was in the Mariposa city for the lunch. We had around 45 minutes for the lunch and stop. The most interesting that the Burger King, where the guide planned to stop for a lunch, was closed. We had 2 options - to find quickly a shop or to wait in the other café our order (it was written inside that each order takes 20-30 minutes to cook). We've chosen café and ordered burgers - they were really great, but we ate them in the bus (takeaway boxes saved us), because when our order was ready we were out of limit for the stop. We arrived to Yosemite around 15:00, but as it was November, it's started darken very quickly in the mountains. We had few stops for 15-minutes for taking photos and 1 hour stop to spent in Yosemite park and souvenir shop. Well, 1 hour is not enough at all for such big park as Yosemite - you just can walk a bit among big trees and take few photos. It was our firs disappointment. After it we had few hours ride by winding roads under cover of darkness to our hotel in Fresno. The hotel "Piccadilly Inn" was good (https://www.piccadillyinn.com/rooms-and-suite/) and the only minus of it was the absence of elevator (it's good if you have strong arms for moving your luggage bags). Before the hotel we had a stop at the big grocery store, so we could buy some food for the dinner and some of the people went to the fast-food chains near. And before we could go to the hotel our guide reminded that we should pay obligatory tips - 8$ minimum per day and he stayed and calculated all the notes of currency from each person.
The 2d day - Quite weird start of the day - new guide Jack, who said that our first stop will be in 2 hours only and we will not have any breakfast (as promised yesterday's guide Hao: he said yesterday we will go to McDonald before ride for the breakfast). When I asked a guide - how to understand it? He just made a big Chinese smile and answered nothing. So, the first stop, after 2 hours ride, was for 20 minutes (!) at the Murray Family Farms - a place, where you could buy fruits, water, nuts, bad coffee and good pastry. You should be really quick to run into the shop, wait in the line for buying bad coffee, drink it, visited wc and tried to catch the non-existent wifi. After the next few hours of ride we had a stop for 1 hour (!) at the outlet, where you can do unnecessary shopping with some discounts. It was total disappointment - no time to eat, but 1 hour in the shops. After it we had 45 minutes (only) for the lunch at Barstow bus station, where we ate at Panda Express and it was good meal. In the evening (around 19:00) we were in Las Vegas. The guide offered to buy the 3-hours excursion, but we happily refused it and went exploring the city by ourselves. The hotel "Excalibur" was comfortable and had interesting design.
The 3d day - we chosen the South Rim, so it took 4 hours (in one side) to ride there from Las Vegas. Hoover Dam we haven't seen as Tour Guide said that we don't have time and possibility to stay there - we are in hurry to South Rim. The Grand Canyon was really amazing place to visit, but as usual we had only 1 hour to spent there and took photos. Also we had 1 hour to eat the lunch in a small visitor centre of National Geographic. That day we also stayed in Las Vegas. I would like to draw your attention to the fact that there is no hot tea in Las Vegas and our guide Jack said that we could buy hot water (!) for 1$ in Starbucks.
The 4th day - the meeting with guide and departure from hotel was at 6:30 a.m.(!), so check out you would need to do earlier. We felt like soldiers in the Chinese army with our luggage at 6:30 a.m. because other people were also all ready, waiting near the bus with luggage. We were moving by a small bus to Los Angeles (4 hours ride) with a friend of me and all our Asian group decided to come back to San Francisco (12 hours ride by bus). I don't know why should we check out so early if we could have some rest and move to LA without stressful awakening in the early morning. Our guide Jack was deaf for any hard-hitting question and just gave us a big smile instead of answer. We were happy to arrive to LA Train station and escape from those incomprehensible Asian tourcompany and people.