Giants & Gems: Muir Woods & Sausalito Half-Day Escape

Epic time! You should book this and plan on a leisurely delicious dinner in Saulsalito. Was a perfect b-day celebration!!!

Well I understand that the park is closed. But the tour should offer more paths, it was easy. Also the tour guide needs to talk more about history while he is driving.

Due to the government shutdown, we were informed that instead of visiting Muir Woods, we would go to another park, Armstrong Redwoods State Natural Reserve. It turned out to be an amazing alternative! The park is home to towering redwoods and beautiful forest trails that look like something out of a fairy tale. It’s truly a wonderful place. The drive to get there is a bit long, but the route passes through vineyards, rolling hills, and lush green scenery, absolutely beautiful. Overall, the experience exceeded my expectations!

After waiting at the allocated pick up point for 20 minutes, and sending a message to the operator to ask if I was in the right place, I was eventually told that they wouldn’t be coming to my pick up point on that day. To their credit, they had apparently tried to call me to notify me of this but I’m an international visitor and my phone isn’t working here. I do feel they could have tried the various other methods for communication - eg my email address or through Viator platform, and/or not letting me book that pick up point in the first place. I was issued a refund, so am grateful for that, but it did mean that I wasn’t able to see Muir Woods on my visit to SF. Would recommend not using this company unless you have a fully functioning phone in the US!

We knew from other travelers that were on a tour with Gray Line that they substituted Armstrong Redwwod Preserve for Muir Woods when it was closed during govt shutdown. We were thrilled even though it is much further. Other tours just cancelled and if we were going to be in area once in our life we wanted to see the trees

I have used Viator for many adventures and have always been satisfied. However this one left me a bit unhappy. First off I received an email a few days before letting us know that due to a festival in town we needed to switch our pick up location. I was fine with that because I was told in advance. Next, when we got on the bus the driver told us that due to the government shutdown Muir Woods is closed and we would be going to Armstrong woods which is about an hour and half away. I would have appreciated knowing this in advance and then been given a choice to cancel. We spent more time on the bus than at the woods. We were also supposed to have an hour and a half at Muir Woods, but due to the change we were only given one hour. I appreciate that the tour company found an alternative to Muir Woods, however it was not the experience I originally paid for therefore I probably would have requested a refund if given the option.

Thanks to the government shutdown Muir Woods was closed. We traveled from Tennessee and were looking forward to seeing the redwoods. Thank you for substituting Armstrong Redwoods! The park was beautiful and we had a great time. The only issue was the a/c was not working on the bus which made the ride uncomfortable. Sausalito was fun and we loved the ferry ride back to Fisherman’s Wharf!

Such a wonderful experience!! Don was an excellent guide with all sorts of details about the histories and the trees. Absolutely loved it.

Due to government shutdown we were not able to do Muir woods. Quite disappointed. We were taken to Armstrong Redwoods State Natural Reserve. A longer drive. Our guide and driver George was excellent. Kept a very interesting commentary all the way. Stated historical facts and data about everything we passed and more. He’s very good at this. Once at the park we were left on our own to walk the very easy trails. We loved it. The weather was perfect. The trees awesome. On the return ,we’re taken to Sausalito where we could chose to return by bus or by ferry. A great day.

The Redwoods were beautiful BUT we had to go further to see them in a state park not Muir Woods. We arrived at Sausilto around 4pm, very hungry. There was no air on the bus. We didn’t have to pay to get into the state park so other than gas, I’m not sure what our fee was used for.