Ultimate inspirational destination: North Lake Tahoe
Written by guest blogger: Aimee Claire
Situated on the beautiful California-Nevada border, Lake Tahoe is spoken of with bated breath by vacationers, and is a stunning testimonial to the United States’ classic Big Country. It’s a diverse location, with four main shores each with a different character; all with azure waters, lovely beaches and snow-capped mountains in the background.
Where is North Lake Tahoe?
The North Lake Tahoe coast on the Nevada side is a relatively quiet, upmarket affair. It is part of the Nevada State Park, and it is very well looked after. The area can be identified via the southwards meandering of Highway 28 until it reaches Spooner Lake and US Route 50. Highway 28 takes the traveler through heavily wooded pine forests with blue skies overhead, and with plenty of wildlife to be seen.
Obviously, this type of backdrop lends itself to outdoors pursuits of all kinds, and the choice of holiday amusement is dependent on the places where travelers stay. The choices are many, even in the relatively unsullied North Lake Tahoe area, and there is something for every desire, guaranteed.
The best places to be
Three of the best places to visit for first time travelers to the area are Incline Village, Crystal Bay, and Sand Harbor; all three are great activity bases and there are differing types of accommodations available.
Incline Village
For a relaxing game of golf in the summer months, hiking, mountain biking, or horse riding, Incline Village (named for the Great Incline Tramway, built by loggers back in 1878) is the place to stay. During the winter, and early spring, diehard skiers and snowboarders can plunge through the annual average 10 feet of snow to their hearts’ content, although the less sporting visitor can still enjoy it with the yearly North Lake Tahoe SnowFest, involving parades, competitions, parties and theater.
The Hyatt High Sierra Lodge condos can be rented on a nightly basis, or savvy regulars can buy timeshares in that location, making it a good value, comfort-driven stay. For travelers who prefer hotel set ups, the Hyatt Regency Lake Tahoe Resort Spa and Casino provides 4.5* accommodation with all the trappings, but if a cheap hotel with bed and breakfast is required, the Parkside Inn offers lovely big rooms and a continental breakfast; it is recommended to book with them direct, rather than through an affiliate travel site.
Crystal Bay
For those that prefer to play in the casinos of Nevada, Crystal Bay offers four of these buzzing establishments, which include hotels and restaurants, allowing game play, water sports, live entertainment and excellent food for the duration of any stay. The Cal-Neva Casino Resort has a swimming pool that crosses the state line, and the staff service there is impeccable.
Sand Harbor
Sand Harbor is the real North Lake Tahoe home of water sports, with Jet Ski rentals that allow visitors to explore the entire coastline of the area if they wish. There’s also scuba diving and kayaking for a couple of quieter ways to investigate the beautiful clear crystal waters. The beach at Sand Harbor is renowned for the cleanest standards and even in the summer months is unlikely to be overcrowded.
Sand Harbor itself has no accommodations, so the nearest places to stay are based at Incline Village, and slightly further away at Crystal Bay.
When a travel app is valuable even to locals, it’s worth downloading, and the official Reno Tahoe app certainly makes the cut. With all the entertainment constantly coming through town, the app will keep you up-to-date, in addition to offering daily snow reports, lift statuses, and even golf course green fees. When you’re walking around town, use the onboard map to locate restaurants that fit your palate. There may even be a corresponding coupon you can use in the app to save a few bucks on your bill.
As simple as it sounds, this free app for Android and iOS specializes in last minute hotels. Each day at noon in the time zone for a particular market, that day’s deals are announced, based on availability at partner hotels. If a place is completely under-booked, they’ll often mark the prices down to 70 percent off. At most any city in the U.S. and throughout Europe, you can count on at least 20 percent off, just by waiting to commit until the day of your stay.
Billed as a “living, breathing travel guide”, Triposo is working hard to corner the market on up-to-date travel info by outcompeting paper books that may quickly contain outdated information. Their database already includes 200 countries and 8,000 destinations, so chances are that your next stop will be covered. Perhaps best of all, the guides update themselves while you’re connected, but you don’t need internet or wireless coverage to access the guides and maps from your Android or iOS phones and devices, so you’re good-to-go even when you’re off-the-grid (provided you keep that battery charged).
Although plenty of apps exist to find great places to eat, Foodspotting might just be the most fun (which is also why OpenTable recently scooped it up for $10 million). Let’s say you’re in Memphis, but you’re not in the mood for BBQ. Foodspotting pulls up a map of the area, but instead of the names of restaurants, you get photographs posted by other users, pinned to the location of where you can get it. An hour later, you’re sitting at The Elegant Farmer, enjoying their Vegetable Plate, instead of at the chain spot next to your hotel.
Just in case you had any doubts about the small world we live in today, VerbalizeIt is here to connect you anywhere you go. This app doesn’t work like a traditional phone or internet translator, which often provide awkward translations and can be tedious to use. Instead, this iOS and Android app hires human translators who are available 24/7 to translate between English and Spanish, Hindi, Mandarin, French, German and Portuguese. The founder was inspired by an emergency trip to a hospital in rural China where nobody understood him. With the app used on a phone with the speaker setting, a live translator instantly helps two people communicate their exact words. Usage is sold in time increments per language, and the only downside may be that cell service or Wifi is necessary to access the translators.
Flight search engines may be a dime-a-dozen, but for constant travelers, Milewise is worth knowing about. With airlines constantly consolidating and combining their rewards programs in new and confusing ways with their partners, it can be tough to keep track of which flights are eligible for reward travel. With MileWise, all of your accounts are kept in one place, and any flight you search for where you can utilize your miles will be highlighted (as well as those that will help get you to the next benchmark in your miles accumulation). They’ll also give you a heads up to avoid letting miles expire and will estimate the actual value of your rewards, helping you get the most out of your hard-earned miles. Finally, you can set price alerts just like most other search engines so you get the best possible deal.
FUN TRAIN Departure Dates & Themes:
“It seems that the rest of the country is finally figuring out what those of us who are fortunate enough to live here – or visit regularly – already know: Reno Tahoe is one of America’s best ‘undiscovered’ four season resort destinations,” said Christopher Baum, President and CEO of Reno Tahoe USA. Added Baum, “The beauty – and mild climate – of our high desert setting in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains is a distinct advantage over better-known desert resorts of the lower Southwest, especially in the summertime when our 80 to 90-degree daytime temperatures make our long list of world class sports and special events a ‘must do’ for savvy travelers who appreciate enjoying the great outdoors.”
For the past year, Durham and the 
Join the Museum on Thursday, January 17 from 6 to 8 pm for Reno’s Mad Men: Celebrating the Oral Histories of Old Reno in Sound, Light, and Image. Listen to the voices of old Reno’s “mad men”, share your own stories, and enjoy a classic cocktail in the gallery, surrounded by the signs in The Light Circus: Art of Nevada Neon. $10 / $8 Museum members.