South Lake Tahoe

Hey guys

After Christmas just passed my family has decided to do a Xmas abroad next year! My Sister and her husband will be in Sacramento for Xmas with his family, and are meeting up with us after so we have decide to stay in South Lake Tahoe for a week so its close for them to meet us. There are about 10 of us going, with 3 boarders and 1 skier, and 2 going to be learning boarding there also, the rest are non-snow peeps so are looking to just chill out and relax.

Just wondering if anyone is familiar with the area and can give me some info on the best areas to stay and any tips/advice on things to go or anything we should know!

Obviously Heavenly is where we will be going mostly to board, but are trips to Northstar and Kirkwood worth it, or even up to Squaw or something or is that too far??

Looking at getting a big house for us all just not sure about location in SLT…

Anything you can throw my way will be helpful cause I feel the pressure booking a trip for myself and 9 other people so I don’t want to let them down!

Hey mate,

South Lake is awesome, I really really like the joint.  With that said I would probably be quite happy anywhere around the lake, perhaps even on the western side.  Looking for stuff to do outside of boarding though South Lake is your best bet.  If you wanted to be closer to Northstar or Squaw you’d be better off up the north side or for somewhere cheap, Truckee.

Last I stayed there I was on Kingsbury grade up near the bottom of the Heavenly ski lifts Stagecoach and Boulder.  Awesome pad but it’s on the more expensive side but there’s a lot of stuff available in South Lake.  Kingsbury is about walking distance to lifts in Heavenly if you’re keen.  Not a bad drive to Sierra and Kirkwood, bit more of a hike to Northstar (around 50mins) and Squaw as there on the exact opposite side of the lake.  Diamond Peak is a small resort on the same side as Kingsbury but on the the north end of the lake.

First time I was in Tahoe I stayed in Stateline, a quick walk to all the casinos and associated bits and pieces of South Lake.  There’s lots of cheap accom in that area and it’s walking distance to everything in South lake but to be honest I much preferred where I was the last time near Heavenly.  You can get the gondola up from South lake to heavenly but of all the resorts I’ve been to in that area Northstar is my favourite followed by Sierra, then Heavenly with Kirkwood bringing up the rear.  Kirkwood would be an insane place to be on a powder day and might jump into the top spot in that instance.

if we go back I’m keen to try Squaw (also has a great rep for powder days and I understand the parks are good too), Homewood and get Kirkwood on a powder day!  With that said cause of the epic pass I’ll mostly stick to Heavenly and Northstar cause it’s free but the lift tickets at the smaller resorts are usually pretty cheap, at least when the AUD is over 80c USD.

Kirkwood and Sierra to a lesser extent could be an intimidating drive or just flat out impossible to get to in a dump, they are sealed but pretty mountainous single lane roads.  Anything google tells you in terms of time taken to get to different places you could double if it’s snowing or has been snowing overnight, with that in mind stay closer to where you plan to board.

Seeing as your going with a crew and could make your own fun I would grab a house a short drive from a town, any town on the lake taking into consideration the above points..  Work out where you wanna board the most or if you want to be tied to South Lake cause of the proximity to non snow related stuff.  With regards to Accom, AirBNB, VRBO and FlipKey are your best bets outside of the main hotel booking sites.  Be careful with US rates though as by the time you get to actual booking the rate can almost have doubled due to taxes and cleaning fees etc.  Massive PITA and I don’t understand why they can’t just show you the full rate up front.

One other thing to think about if you don’t have an epic pass is the Vail resorts are expensive, $100+USD a day for a pass and the discounts don’t seem to be that “epic” that i found.  Liftopia is a good site to try to prebook tickets with a discount but it locks you into doing days at the resort rather than waking up and deciding based on road/snow conditions where you wanna go or on the flip side forces you to go snowboarding when you’r f##ken wrecked from a few massive days riding!

Any questions mate send em out and I’ll try answer them for you!

Thanks man great info. I didn’t even consider that side of Heavenly (kingsbury) I didn’t realise the lifts go down there too.. will take a look there also. Its still close to town right?

Yeah we are going all out and getting a big house so we are willing to spend a fair bit. there is 10 of us so we need 5 bedrooms so we are looking at dropping about 10-15k AUD for the 7 nights

Will be boarding mostly Heavenly cause its so close. i’d say probably 3/4 days there, then maybe 1/2 days at other locations. As we have family and stuff there we might not board every single day, we’ll just have to wing it cause we will want to spend time with them too.
Maybe some half days in Heavenly will be good too.

Do yourself a favour mate and make sure you get a hot tub.  This was our accom in Kingsbury, killer views and a hot tub outdoors in the snow, such rad way to spend an arvo!

Couple of other pics from Tahoe

Northstar

View from the Tahoe Hot Tub

North of the Lake near the Diamond Peak turn off

Same Spot

Looking back to South Lake on the way to Sierra

Sierra

Sierra looking back to the Lake

Heavenly

Heavenly

Hopefully that helps you get your froth on!  I have a video of our trip on here somewhere as well but it has Utah and southern cali in there as well.

That’s awesome!! yeah Hot tub is a def must for us. the mums of the group have insisted also haha.

Do you happen to remember the name or have a link of the place you stayed? You’d recommend it yeah?

Yeah I would def recommend it however it’s only a two bed joint so not going to be suitable for your group.  I do remember seeing some cracking large homes on the western shore that would be awesome for a group your size but might be a bit too far away!

This one is in a similar spot

https://www.airbnb.com.au/rooms/228526?checkin=23-12-2016&checkout=06-01-2017&guests=10&s=07zCbSuU

cheers! all the really boss places are like 20-30k for 7 nights which is a little tough on the budget. That’s like $300 per person per night! hoping the folks splurge and pay for it for us haha

So we ended up locking in this sick 6 bedroom place right near Boulder Lodge at Kingsbury. The road its on is called Bonnie Court. Has a games room with pool table and a big hot tub and stuff. Can’t wait!
I’m thinking we will likely board Heavenly most days with it being so close. We are all basic but intermediate type boarders (and 1 skier) so we don’t need crazy parks or anything, just good snow and some nice long runs will keep us more than happy! Maybe spend a day or 2 at Kirkwood or Sierra for something different.

Thanks for the tips dude!