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Lake Tahoe Area Guide

About Lake Tahoe

Lake Tahoe is one of the world’s deepest and most beautiful lakes. Clear blue water, amazing year round recreation, and some of world’s best skiing and snowboard, make the area around Lake Tahoe a special place to spend your vacation. Throughout every season, Lake Tahoe, or just Tahoe as locals call it, is more than just the lake, it’s an entire area with its own culture, geography, and weather. Visitors come from all over the world for to see emerald waters, deep snow, and magical sugar pine trees of Lake Tahoe.

Getting to Lake Tahoe - Airports and Transportation

Although Reno, Nevada, has the closest international airport (RNO) to Lake Tahoe, most visitors drive from San Francisco or Sacramento. Without traffic, Lake Tahoe is about a four drive from San Francisco, two hours from Sacramento, and half an hour from Reno. During the winter, you need four wheel drive or chains to drive over the high passes. 

Lake Tahoe Skiing | The Sierra Crest

Lake Tahoe has one of the highest concentrations of ski resorts in the world. Each ski resort has its own feel and diverse terrain. From the steep bowls of Kirkwood, to the famous bump runs of Heavenly, to the cliff bands and deep powder Squaw Valley.

The Sierra Crest, the vast ridge that demarcates the Sierra Divide, creates the famous ski resorts on Lake Tahoe’s West Shore. Squaw Valley, Alpine Meadows, Homewood, Northstar and Sugar Bowl are all known for record setting snowfall, steep terrain, and spectacular views of Lake Tahoe and the Sierra Nevada. Potent Pacific Storms hit the Sierra Crest and dump snow. Lake Tahoe’s ski resorts average over 400 inches every year.

Lake Tahoe Facts

Lake Tahoe is 1,645 feet deep and with a surface elevation of 6,225 feet above sea level. This remarkable depth makes Lake Tahoe the second deepest in the United States after Crater Lake in Oregon. At 122,160,280 acre·feet, Lake Tahoe is the sixth largest lake by volume in the United States. Only the Great Lakes are larger.

Discover Spectacular Lake Tahoe Accommodations!