South Lake Tahoe Travel Forum

We have airline tickets we MUST use before mid-March. We are from FL and want to see mountains and snow! This will be our first snow experience. We are looking to rent a cabin for 2. We also would like to have access to snow activities (skiing, snow-tubing). I heard Lake Tahoe is beautiful. What do you suggest? What month is best? Jan? Feb? March? What area is best? Is a week too long? Please post the good and bad.
THX!

A week is not too long for Tahoe and the area which could include side trips to Carson City (45 minutes), Virginia City (60-90 minutes), Reno (60 minutes).

You might consider spending the 1st half in South Lake Tahoe and the 2nd half at North Lake Tahoe (it's about 30-35 miles between South Lake Tahoe and Incline Village or Tahoe City and depending on weather/traffic it could be a 90 minute drive)--especially since you will be flying out of Reno more than likely.
You can consider Heavenly Valley at South Lake and at North Lake consider Ski Incline, Squaw Valley, Northstar, Mt. Rose/Slide Mtn. etc.

As for time....it all depends on snow levels and they are currently in a drought but generally late January and February you will see your best snow and snowstorms but try to avoid the holiday weekends....it gets packed with people but midweeks are great.

Be careful driving on the snow and reserve a 4WD vehicle early if you plan to drive.

I completely agree with what Ann said...
except for Ski Incline... its now officially "Diamond Peak"

If you go to Tahoe, another worthwhile side trip is to Virginia City, which is a living ghost town.

From SLT, go to the southwest corner of the lake you should and see Emerald Bay.
From the north side, go spend a day in Truckee

Thanks Dave......momentary lapse about Diamond Peak and Truckee.

I had pangs of snow last week at Beech Mountain (elevation 5,500 ft) in western North Carolina. I missed the snow by 2 days! :-(

I was granted permission to return to USA for Thanksgiving... so among other stops, I will be going to Tahoe in about 10 days time. Its a quick stop, but hope to see some snow too!

Welcome back then!

tahoe is great. there are lots of condos you can rent around there. i'd go the start of february.

for cabin rentals try www.vrbo.com - there are other sites but this is a great place to start

I did some comparison shopping on taking a trip to Tahoe about 4 months ago and the thing that surprised me the most was that the accommodation prices for Thurs , Fri, and Sat nights were more than double the rates for Sun - Wed. If you can go mid week it will be A LOT less expensive.