where should we stay ?
like steeps and powder, love good restaurants and bars.
feb 2011.
tia 👿
Tahoe rocks, I used to live in San francisco and rent a ski house for the season. If you want the party atmosphere South lake tahoe, near heavenly is probably what you want, but I always preferred the north lake round truckee/tahoe city.
Steeps and power, and some awesome tree runs at Norhtstar and also check out Homewood, one of the lesser known resorts, its one of my favourites.
Not that keen on heavenly, but I am a boarder and it has lots of flat bits, amazign views though, but defo more of a skiers resort.
Squaw valley and sugarbowl also worth a look.
Loads of places to stay in Tahoe, from hotel to motels to hostels, and enough choice of places to eat and drink as well. Tahoe is a good location to be able to go to wherever the conditions are best each day. Its not worth staying in the expensive resorts like Squaw as they are all so close to Tahoe. Homewood is awesome for tree skiing after a good snowfall, and squaw or mount rose are the best for steeps. Huge choice of terrain at Squaw, and some of the best lift served 40 degree pitches at Rose. There is some good touring and off-piste, more towards the SW of the lake.
anyone else got thoughts / recommendations ?
Prolly my favourite area to board. Jealous.
Stayed at an apartment at Squaw (thin it was called Squaw valley lodge) and loved the place as ski in and out plus good atmosphere around the village at night with lots of places to eat and drink.
Our first day there was the day the lifts opened after a snow storm had blown through the day before and dumped 10ft. That was probably the best day I have ever had on skis. People were cliff jumping all over the place and probably about 80 % were riding off piste, plus the resort designed correctly so there is the right number of lifts etc and therefore never had to wait in queues.
Also a good base for some of the other resorts nearby and about 1hour to heavenly and the south lake resorts
probably best to wait until the ice is quite thick. Or wear a life jacket.
Tahoe rocks, I used to live in San francisco and rent a ski house for the season. If you want the party atmosphere South lake tahoe, near heavenly is probably what you want, but I always preferred the north lake round truckee/tahoe city.Steeps and power, and some awesome tree runs at Norhtstar and also check out Homewood, one of the lesser known resorts, its one of my favourites.
Not that keen on heavenly, but I am a boarder and it has lots of flat bits, amazign views though, but defo more of a skiers resort.
Squaw valley and sugarbowl also worth a look.
+1
Pretty much sums it up.
Skiing in Tahoe was fantastic. The snow was awesome - cold and dry powder. 8) 😆
Get a book of flexi-tickets which allow you to ski different resorts or you will get handsomely tucked up. Ticket prices on the kisk on the day are much higher than you pay in advance.
You can buy a flexi-pass in the UK and you'll get sent a voucher. When you arrive in Tahoe, this is presented at the main ticket office for a book of tickets. You present the book each morning at whichever resort and they tear off one ticket, you sign it and then you get your day pass.
We did some good tree skiing in Heavenly too, again with people with intimate knowledge of the resort.
Sugarbowl in the North was memorable. Some good steep skiing there.
Kirkwood provided the best tree skiing experience I had that holiday, but we had a local mountain ranger guide us to places nobody usually goes. Mind you, Kirkwood was quiet that day as most skiers come in for the weekends in the Tahoe region.
Americans don't seem to take the 1-2 weeks that we Europeans do. I guess they don't get so much time off and there are enough people within driving distance to sustain these resorts with weekend skiing. Expect higher prices for accommodation at weekends as a result.
South Lake Tahoe has a lot of casinos on the Nevadan side, which get packed with weekend trippers. Personally, I thought this detracted from the ski holiday and some of the people in there were shall we say, erm, not skiing types!
The casino's are an important part of the local economy, but there are better places on the Californian side of the state line (which divides South Lake Tahoe).
One of the most memorable experiences we had was being guided off the top of Heavenly, the mountain overlooking Sth Tahoe/the lake and skiing back down to the town through the trees. It's completely wild skiing, steep and with lots of fallen trees to negotiate. I'm not expert off piste in trees, but the whole group found this tough, even the locals we were with who ski there every week throughout the season.
Set aside two days to see San Francisco. The sites are awesome and a night in "The Saloon" - San Fran's oldest bar - has live blues every night - awesome! Be warned it's a bit dirty in there, especially the toilets which you descend into down a convoluted and precarious flight of steps.
I want to go back to Tahoe and do more of the resorts in the north. I reckon you need two weeks skiing to do it all; 1 week based in the north, then 1 in the south, topping off with a couple of days in San Francisco before you fly home.
That place is seriously good and i'm not envious! 😉
nice one fella's .
sounds like Northstar and Squaw are better than South Tahoe.
we like decent bars and restaurants and would like a hotel that offers rooms with a wee kitchenette.
any recommendations in the North then ?
We stopped in the Squaw valley lodge, which was reasonably prces and the rooms/ apartments were massive and had kichette etc. Plus right on the bottom of the slope.
Squaw itself was very much in the style of a European resort town - and seemed a little bit isolated. The Cali side of South Lake Tahoe was nice, but not really that lively on a night. All the ski resorts had something to recommend them, Kirkwood was probably my favorite though. I have to agree with pretty much everything that's been said above (multi resort ticket, san francisco etc.)
Note - you can get good deals on flights from San Fran up to Reno if there's only a couple of you.
just me and mrs tlr and another couple at the moment.
looks like we'll be in heavenly with the multi-centre ticket[s]....
embassy suites anyone ?
What spongebob said.
We stayed in a motel, which although not the height of luxury, served our needs.
Hiring a car/van is a must. Everyday we planned the next days trip, got up early and just skied away. Although the Americans do like to close their lifts early.
Yes the multi ticket thing is good.
We took a trip on the Lake too, on one of those oldfashioned steamers. Also saw loads of wildlife.
Recommmend the trip to San Francisco, we did all the touristy type things.
Have fun.
Bike trails around Tahoe arent to shabby either.
Kirkwood is the place to go but as it’s el nina this year I’d give it a miss head to jackson hole or canada. If canada then hit fernie, kicking horse and the rest on the powder highway, in el nina canada usually gets hit pretty hard so if it’s pow then heard there. 🙂
lockro - we've skied canada inside out.
tahoe this year.