A WELL-KNOWN HOTEL DEAL... has a way of making headlines, either for the astoundingly low price or an unusual element. But the yearly Curry Village happening called Temp-RATE-ture captures the public imagination on two fronts: It can cost as low as zero dollars, or even lower, getting paid to stay. Paid to stay, yessirree; that isn't a promise that's made by hotel companies every day, or, really, any day. But DNC Parks & Resorts, the company behind the tent- and cabin-filled Yosemite National Park property, understands that staying in an unheated tent cabins in Yosemite in the wintertime -- or even a tent that happens to be heated -- can challenge even the most adventurous and rugged of outdoorsy souls. The aforementioned Temp-RATE-ture deal opens in early October each year, and runs over several weeks, and it basically goes like this: If the temperature, as determined by National Park Service data, was 19 degrees Fahrenheit the night before, that's the price you'll pay to stay in your unheated tent. For sure, you have to put a deposit down to hold the reservation -- that's thirty nine bucks -- and that's also "the maximum cost" of staying. And if the temp dips below zero? That's when DNC pays you to stay.
BUT WAIT! There's more, as in another offbeat seasonal deal associated with the tent cabins at Curry Village. Turns out that some of the tents are heated, and there's a special dealie for them as well: the All U Can Heat deal. How this one works is a cinch: You'll pay the previous night's temperature, as with the Temp-RATE-ture deal, plus twenty five bucks on top of that. It requires that you put a bit more down to reserve your spot -- sixty four dollars -- but this hooks you up with a heated tent cabin, as in heated, as in heat, as in heat in the winter. It'll still be brisk, no doubt, but there is a bit of a comfort gulf between heated and unheated tent cabins (a gulf that hearty types don't mind crossing now and then). There are some extra info bits, like the nights you can stay -- sometimes Sunday through Thursday, sometimes Friday and Saturday -- depending upon when you book. Dare you do this over Valentine's Day in 2016? Might you have a honey you can cuddle up with, close, the better to score a sweet price on your Curry Village sleepover? Bundle up and start here.
