No time is ever enough to take on all that the Reno Tahoe area has to offer, but how’s a three-day weekend for starters? Whether you’re looking for a snowy, high-adventure escape, or a relaxing getaway with friends, we have 7 reasons you should use this 3-day weekend to visit Reno Tahoe USA:

1. Downtown Reno Wine Walk

Every third Saturday of the month (including Jan 19!) from 2pm – 5pm, Riverwalk merchants host the popular Wine Walk along the Truckee River and neighboring streets in downtown Reno. Wine-tasting fee of $20 allows you to sample wine at any participating locations.

2. Ski and Board a new resort in Tahoe

There are 18 ski resorts within 90 minutes of downtown Reno. Chances are you haven’t hit all of them. So find some slopes you haven’t shredded! It just might become your new go-to.

3. Get cozy in Midtown

Grab a local brew, split a bottle of specialty wine, or sip a latte to quench your thirst between shopping sprees and games of pool. It’s all walking distance in the new hip Midtown District!

4. Fish in the middle Downtown Reno

Yes they’ll bite! Wilderness flows right through the downtown area, bringing all sorts of cuddly critters, and hungry fish under our city lights.

5. Rink on the River

Delight in an afternoon at Rink on the River, located along the Truckee River in downtown Reno.

6. Relax!

Sit back, relax, and enjoy the scenery. Donner Lake is a must-see hidden gem in the Sierra.

7. Cheers to the three-day weekend

Grab a brew and play a game of shuffleboard at one of the hip bars along the Riverwalk, like Ole Bridge Pub.

While The Big Game is in New Orleans, the real party is in Reno Tahoe USA!  Big screens, beer, buffets and the Budweiser Girls. What more could you ask for?

Peppermill Resort Spa Casino

For an experience packed with hard hitting action on massive screens, stadium food and Budweiser Girls, the Peppermill’s Super Stadium Bash XLVII is the place to be. Tickets are $60 per person in advance, and $65 at the door. Admission to the party includes:

• Complimentary Bud & Bud Light at every table
• Three drink tickets per person
• Meet and greet with the Budweiser Girls
• All-you-can-eat stadium food buffet
• Door prizes every quarter
• Complimentary gift

The party kicks off at 2:30 pm.

Eldorado Hotel Casino

Enjoy the game while lounging in Eldorado’s award winning showroom. With stadium style seating, you’ll have the best seat in the house – no matter where you sit. Tickets for a reserved seat are $25 and include a special souvenir hat, beverage and your choice of a hot dog, nachos or sandwich. You’ll also party with former NFL stars, such as, Frank Hawkins of the Oakland Raiders and Glenn Carano of the Dallas Cowboys. Doors open at 2:30 pm.

Silver Legacy Resort Casino

Join the Big Game Party hosted by Silver Legacy at the Downtown Reno Ballroom where you won’t miss a single snap, hit, touchdown or hilarious commercial while watching the game on multiple giant screens. In between plays and high-fiving your buddies, enjoy the all-you-can-eat buffet, along with a complimentary drink and commemorative hat. The party starts at 2 pm.

Atlantis Casino Resort Spa

Catch all the exciting Big Bowl Bash drawings at the Atlantis Race & Sports Book, including a chance to win $100,000 if the opening or second half kickoff is returned for a touchdown. Receive one drawing entry for every $25 sports or race wager made from noon through the end of the game. For great food and drink specials, head over to the Sports Bar & Lounge where you’ll also have a shot at Bud Light giveaways throughout the game.

With the Atlantis Big Bowl Bash Getaway Packages, NFL Championship excitement and Four Diamond luxury go hand-in-hand like Colin Kaepernick and record rushing yards. Choose from the following packages and enjoy Luxury Tower accommodations for two, along with two tickets to the Big Bowl Bash.

• 1 night package – February 3.  $240
• 2 night package – February 2 & 3. $390
• 3 night package – February 1, 2 & 3. $540

Circus Circus Reno

To celebrate the biggest football game of the year, Circus Circus Reno is transforming into Super Sunday Central with the grand opening of the newly remodeled Race and Sports Book where you’ll party with the Corona Girls while enjoying Batch 19, 1554 and Big Eddie Stout beer tastings. At Dos Geckos Cantina, the Tequila Girls will kick the party up a notch with tequila tastings, while $2 domestic draft beers flow at every bar across the property. And most importantly, there isn’t a spot in Dos Geckos, the Race and Sports Book or on the casino floor where you won’t be able to see the game with TV screen galore!

Grand Sierra Resort Casino

Earn big bucks while cheering on your favorite team during the Big Game Watch and Win, where 12 lucky winners will pick from suitcases containing $250 – $2,500 cash.

For more information visit our events calendar.

Exhibit opens January 14 with the opening reception scheduled for Friday, January 18, and a special movie premier at the Nevada Museum of Art Saturday, February 2

The Holland Project Gallery will host Built to Weather, a group photography exhibit celebrating eras, pivotal moments and stellar landscapes related to snowboarding. It’s the first time a show of this context and caliber has been exhibited in Reno.

The exhibit opens January 14 and runs through February 8 at the Holland Project Gallery located at 140 Vesta St. between Wells Avenue and Virginia Street in Reno.  The opening reception for Built to Weather will take place Friday, January 18 from 6 p.m. – 8 p.m. at the Holland Project.

Built to Weather will feature eight renowned photographers including: Bud Fawcett, Ian Ruhter, Mike Basich, Jim Zellers with Richard Leversee, Mike Yoshida, Paul Laca, Chris Carnel and Tim Peare.

The exhibit curator Chris Carnel has tracked down prominent works from these diverse globetrotting photographers to form a unique crew of individuals intrinsically involved with snowboarding. This diverse selection of photographs features pinnacle, historical moments involving iconic individuals that have lived and breathed the life of the sport.

In conjunction with the exhibit, the Nevada Museum of Art will be screening Basich’s film Open Space at 1 p.m. on Saturday, February 2. Admission is $5.  The film will be followed by a question and answer session with Chris Carnel and Ian Ruhter. They will speak about their involvement in documenting the sport; Ruhter from both sides of the camera. Ruhter will also elaborate on his cutting edge style of shooting involving a truck and wet plates as well his work in Built to Weather and being an ex-pro in the sport.

Of the group, Bud Fawcett has photographed some of the inaugural moments in snowboarding history. Fawcett moved to Tahoe in the early 1980’s. He came from the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina with a background in photojournalism to document the earliest inklings of what freestyle snowboarding would become. Fawcett also became the photo editor for the legendary International Snowboard Magazine in the late 80’s. His subjects like Terry Kidwell, Shaun Palmer and Keith Kimmel were way ahead of the curve and heavily influenced by iconic vert skaters like Hosoi and Caballero.

Representing a more current end of the spectrum, Richard Leversee photographs of Jim Zellers in the exhibition depict a noteworthy moment in snowboarding history. Zellers, early mountaineer in the world of snowboarding, was documented by Leversee as the first and only person to snowboard the 45 degree cable-route side of Yosemite’s Half-Dome. In 2001, after five years of winter attempts, Zellers and Leversee hiked through the night to arrive in perfect conditions to climb and freeride down Half-Dome unassisted.

Curating these images by Fawcett and Leversee as well as photographs by Ruhter, Basich, Yoshida, Laca and Peare, Chris Carnel is drawing from his own experience within the sport. Having grown up in Reno, Carnel started shooting photography in the mid-80’s. By the end of the 90’s, he had worked with International Snowboard Magazine ISM (ISM), Snowboarder Magazine, Thrasher, Trans-World Snowboarding, Bikini and Heckler. In 2001 he helped publish A Declaration of Independents. Through his early and continued involvement in snowboarding, Carnel brings an authentic knowledge of the sport to the work he has selected for the exhibition.

For more information on Built to Weather, please visit www.hollandreno.org.

It’s that time of year to set New Year’s Resolutions. Make your list, and make it happen!

1. Get Active:

Ski, surf and golf in the same day.

Scale the world’s largest climbing wall in downtown Reno.

Shop the world’s largest sporting good’s store in Sparks (It’s so big, it’s definitely a workout to tour it all.)

Sail, hike, paddleboard, snowshoe, kayak, the list goes on…

2. Learn Something New:

Learn to ski at one of the top ski resorts in the country.

Learn to camel jockey at the International Camel Races.

Learn to play the tables –expert dealers will help you learn the game while cocktail waitresses serve you free drinks!

Again, the list can go on…

3. Save Money:

Reno Tahoe USA boasts the top hotels, spas, ski resorts, and attractions in the world, and we’ll let you enjoy them without emptying your wallet. That’s our small town lifestyle shining through.

4. Help Others:

Most of our events benefit amazing organizations. Whether you’ve joined thousands in the Santa Pub Crawl, raising money for Washoe County Schools, or attended the Reno-Tahoe Open, generating money for their foundation, it pays to come to our events!

5. Enjoy Life:

All seasons ~ 1,000 reasons. Find your passion in Reno Tahoe USA.

Cheers!

A monthly roundup of museum events, exhibits and deals you won’t want to pass by!

Nevada Museum of Art

The Light Circus: Art of Nevada Neon

Through February 10

Celebrate a bygone era during this exhilarating presentation of vintage neon signs that once graced some of Nevada’s most iconic restaurants, casinos, hotels, and business establishments. From flashing incandescent bulbs to candy-colored neon tubes, the nostalgic pieces featured in this exhibition have not been seen publicly since they illuminated street side locales decades ago.

SPECIAL EVENTS

ART BITE — Meet the Artist: Jean-Pierre Bonfort

Friday, January 11 / noon

French photographer Jean-Pierre Bonfort will talk about using a cell phone camera to create the journey documented in his photographs. He will be joined by Denis Bisson, the Cultural Attaché to the French Consulate in San Francisco.

Free for Museum members and with paid admission

Reno’s Mad Men: Celebrating the Oral Histories of Old Reno in Sound, Light, and Image

Thursday, January 17 / 6 – 8 pm

Reno’s “mad men” era was a time of intense interest in Reno as a place, a destination city of gaming, glitz, and glamour, and it kindled a strong advertising sector around the old casinos. Listen to the voices of old Reno’s “mad men” through newly digitized oral histories, and join the conversation to share stories of your experiences of Reno’s past. Colin Robertson, Curator of Education, and Alicia Barber, Director of the University of Nevada, Reno Oral History Program, will facilitate an informal roundtable discussion. Following the program, enjoy a classic cocktail in the gallery, surrounded by the signs in The Light Circus: Art of Nevada Neon.

$10 / $8 Museum members

Film: Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry, a film by Alison Klayman

Saturday, January 19 / 1 pm

Ai Weiwei is China’s most famous international artist, and its most outspoken domestic critic. Against a backdrop of strict censorship and an unresponsive legal system, Ai Weiwei expresses himself and organizes people through art and social media. In response, Chinese authorities have shut down his blog, beat him up, bulldozed his newly built studio, and held him in secret detention.AI WEIWEI: NEVER SORRY is the inside story of a dissident for the digital age who inspires global audiences and blurs the boundaries of art and politics.

$10 / $8 Museum members

The Discovery

The Discovery recently added several new exhibits focused on early motion picture techniques in its Da Vinci’s Corner gallery. The additions include a tabletop praxinoscope and zoetrope and a large, free-standing zoetrope that measures more than six feet in diameter. A humorous animated introduction to the inventors of these animation devices is also featured as part of these new exhibits.

Marvelous Marbling

January 5, 12, 19, 26

Create your own marbled stationary while you learn about the principles of density that make this unique art project possible.

Enjoy 16 Games of Great Basketball Action During the NBA D-League Showcase (January 7-10, 2013)!

For the second year in a row, Reno will roll out the red carpet for NBA D-League teams and NBA team GMs and scouts. Held at the Reno Events Center in downtown Reno, all sixteen NBA D-League teams will compete to impress NBA coaches and scouts in search of NBA prospects.  Four days of talented basketball action with 4 games per day.  General admission tickets are just $10/day and are valid for all 4 games played that day.  For the first time ever for the NBA D-League, three of the games will be nationally televised on the CBS Sports Network.  For Reno Bighorns fans, they will play the evening game on January 7 and 9.  There’s an extra treat on January 9 when specially selected NBA prospects will compete in a 3-point shootout and a slam dunk contest prior to the game.

If you buy your tickets now through January 9 through the Reno Bighorns office, you’ll automatically be entered into a contest to win 4 tickets to see the LA Lakers vs the Chicago Bulls (March 10, 12:30pm at Staples Center in LA)*.  For each Showcase ticket purchased, you’ll earn one entry into the contest!  The winner will selected during the 7:00pm Showcase game on January 9^th but you need not be present to win. To purchase tickets and be entered into the contest, call the Bighorns front office at (775) 284-2NBA. For more information about the Showcase, go to http://www.visitrenotahoe.com/reno-tahoe/what-to-do/events/01-07-2013/nba-d-league-showcase

*winner is responsible for all travel, lodging and food/beverage

Celebrate the holidays this year with a trip down memory lane in The Light Circus: Art of Nevada Neon Signs.  From flashing incandescent bulbs to candy-colored neon tubes, these vintage signs evoke a bygone era when the Mapes Hotel Casino, Harold’s Club and Nevada Club were packed with revelers and The Rat Pack crooned. On view through February 10, 2013, the exhibition includes signs from Parker’s Western Wear, the Holiday Hotel and Buffalo Bar – all from the collection of Renoite Will Durham.

For the past year, Durham and the Nevada Museum of Art spent countless hours restoring this collection of signs amassed over the last decade. For Durham, who acquired his first sign in 1996, collecting the pieces has been a labor of love. In many cases, he has gone to great lengths to save signs that would have otherwise been discarded, but Durham recognized that saving them was crucial to preserving Nevada’s history.

“When you consider how each sign developed —from concept through to the illustrators, metal workers, painters and neon artists—you realize how each sign is completely unique,” said Durham. “They not only represent an outpouring of creative content, but they also serve as a legacy to the industries of our region.”

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.

SPONSORSHIP OF THE EXHIBITION

Lead sponsorship provided by The Bretzlaff Foundation. Major sponsorship provided by Earl and Wanda Casazza, IGT, E. L. Cord Foundation and George and Irene Drews. Supporting sponsorship provided by E. L. Wiegand Foundation. Additional support provided by City of Reno Arts and Culture Commission, Charlotte and Dick McConnell and the Nevada Arts Council, a state agency, and the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency.

With all due respect, Mayan calendar creators… it just can’t end Friday! Between Mother Nature DUMPING snow in Tahoe all week – and it’s predicted the best is yet to come on Saturday, and legendary parties – that we all know just get started at midnight… there are too many reasons the world needs to keep turning. Nonetheless, Reno Tahoe USA will still be partying like there is no tomorrow!

End of the World Party at EDGE

If the world ends on 12/21, we’re going out with a bang! Join EDGE for Last Call. They’ll have Ciroc drink and bottle specials all night, and models serving tastings of complimentary champagne.

End of the World Party at Grand Sierra

Will the world end on 12/21/12? Will it be Zombies? Aliens? Asteroids? A terrible storm? If so, wouldn’t you want to go out in style? Come see Anthony Cools, win Apple products, and enjoy great drink specials before the world ends. This will be the party to end all parties!

End of the World Party at Tahoe Biltmore

Party like there is no tomorrow. The Tahoe Biltmore is throwing an “End of the World Party,” complete with “Last Supper” dinner deals, and a “Survive the Apocalypse” Bilty Breakfast. Bass Heavy will be providing tunes through the night.

Ugly Sweater Party at BuBinga

The Mayans said the world would end on December 21…The Mayans didn’t know BuBinga was having an Ugly Sweater Party! The Ugliest Sweater wins $500 cash and the great sounds for the night will be provided by DJ Loczi, Romance and DJ Dragon.

Bet on being at Peppermill after Friday with 40% off select room rates!

Peppermill is betting they’ll still be here on December 22, so they’re celebrating a new beginning with an offer for 2013.  Book your stay before midnight on Friday, December 21, and save 40% on select room rates! Book Now

SNOW!!

There is no way the world could end right as Mother Nature DUMPS snow in Tahoe!! M.N. has too much pull…See you on the slopes 12-22!

The 2013 season commences with an exhilarating production that features gorgeous costumes, stunning sets and one of the most talented professional acting companies in the West!

Warm up your winter with our Earlybird Discount.
Order tickets by Dec. 31st and SAVE $5 OFF our RESERVED SEATING.

Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream is sure to enchant the entire family.
An exhilarating night of midsummer madness, this magical comedy brims with mistaken identity, mismatched lovers and mischief-making fairies. Boldly inspired by the marvelously mod influences of a rock ‘n’ roll infused 1960s London, the Festival’s production of Shakespeare’s comic masterpiece ensnares two pairs of lovers and a rustic troupe of would-be actors in a magical-mystery tour de force. A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a joyful celebration of love lost, transformed and restored that casts a powerfully pleasing spell on audiences of all ages.

No handling fees!
The Festival will continue its popular handling fee-free ticketing in 2013. Once again the published price is the real price. No additional handling fees will be added to any ticket purchase.

Ticket details…
Tickets are on sale NOW. Regular ticket prices for A Midsummer Night’s Dream range from $15 to $85. Our Earlybird Discounts have already been applied to the pricing that appears on our website. No promotional code information is necessary. (Please Note: During our Earlybird Discount period, tickets may be purchased online only. Full priced tickets may be purchased by phone at 1-800-74-SHOWS beginning in spring 2013.)

CLICK HERE TO FIND YOUR TICKETS ONLINE BY DEC. 31st & SAVE BIG!

The Terry Lee Wells Nevada Discovery Museum (The Discovery) recently added several new exhibits focused on early motion picture techniques in its Da Vinci’s Corner gallery. The additions include a tabletop praxinoscope and zoetrope and a large, free-standing zoetrope that measures more than six feet in diameter. A humorous animated introduction to the inventors of these animation devices is also featured as part of these new exhibits.

“The Discovery’s Da Vinci’s Corner gallery focuses on the intersection of art and science,” said Will Durham, exhibits manager. “One of Da Vinci’s early works was the projector, or “magic lantern,” so these early movie making devices feel right at home amongst the other exhibits in this hands-on gallery.”

All of the new exhibits in this unveiling were designed and built on-site in the museum’s workshop by museum staff and volunteers. Exhibits designed and built in-house are just one of the ways The Discovery keeps each visit to the museum engaging and new.

For more information about Da Vinci’s Corner and other galleries at the Terry Lee Wells Nevada Discovery Museum, visit www.nvdm.org.