oregonmom

Hi all,

We may go to S. Lake Tahoe for 4 days on our spring break. (starting March 23, 2007) We would be driving from Oregon and arriving on Saturday. My girls are 13 and 5 and I am wondering about skiing for them. (and us although we haven't skiied in 10+ years.) I have never been to Lake Tahoe before except for a drive by 25 years ago. Is there a relatively inexpensive place we could try skiing? We would be staying in the town. Should I even bother trying to take the 5 year old? We will have Grandma with us as well. Need suggestions about family places to eat, evening activities and also how far is it to Yosemite if we drove? Thanks for all your help in advance.

Suzie

"We would be staying in the town."



What town are you staying in?

oregonmom

South Lake Tahoe. It is a Holiday Inn Express. I meant to mention that in my original post. Also, I have read many posts here but just wanted to ask about a few specific things.

Thanks

Suzie

Duh Now I see you said S Lake Tahoe. Sometimes I miss the most obvious stuff!

Easily accesible to SLT is of course Heavenly. It has great views and it's really convenient.

Close by (45 minutes?) Kirkwood is rated by USA Today as in the top 10 places to learn to ski. Kids ski free on non-holidays with a paid adult.

Closer than Kirkwood is Sierra At Tahoe which is another good place to learn to ski for families. Also Guests can ski or ride for as little as $43 per day when they purchase the resort's three-pack of adult lift tickets for $129. A season pass good daily except Saturday costs $199.

I think the family oriented places are more in the north though. Donner, Soda Springs, Homewood are all smaller and it's less intimidating for the beginner or returning skier. However Tahoe is a pretty friendly place. Here's a link to the Sacramento paper that had a great travel section on the Tahoe resorts just this sunday. Take a look at it before it is archived:
http://www.sacbee.com/643/story/85546.html

curmudgeon

Skiing tends to be expensive around Lake Tahoe. There are often some discount tickets/packages available through grocery stores (but usually excluding the stores right in Tahoe). The less expensive resorts aren't on the south side of Tahoe, but with longer days and usually nice weather, making the drive to the north side for a day might be reasonable. Donner Ski Ranch is cheaper, and likely to still be open, but it is a ways. Homewood is down near lake level, and might be marginal conditions at that time. I would probably just pay the bucks to do one of the south Tahoe resorts (Heavenly, Kirkwood, Sierra-at-Tahoe) for a day. A 5yr-old will often have a great time in the kids program if they are active and outdoors oriented.

Yosemite is too far for a day trip. Virginia City (quasi ghost town) and Carson City (great museum in the old mint) makes a good day trip.

janisj

I agree w/ everything posted above. More of the north end ski areas are "family friendly" and more economical. But you will be practically right at Heavenly so that will be much more convenient. Sierra at Tahoe is a great place for low key skiing.

As for Yosemite - pretty much a non-starter in March. Tioga Pass road in from the east (which you would use if traveling from Tahoe) is closed for the season and will not re-open until May at the earliest. W/o using Tioga Pass you would have to drive down almost all the way to Sacramento and the through the central Valley to get to the west entrances to YNP. There are other routes (hwy 49 etc - but they would take a very long time.

oregonmom

I looked at a few of the ski resort web sites and it looks fairly expensive. We could just play in the snow without skiing. What other things are there to do? We like moderate hiking, swimming for the kids, no pressure places to eat, museums, zoo, etc. I will look for a guidebook at the library after work. If any of you go there regularly, tell me what you love.

Suzie

Did you look at all the resorts on the sacbee site? There are some fairly inexpensive places like Soda Springs and Donner. They would require that you drive but if it's nice weather it would be ok. Hiking in teh winter is not advisable due to changing conditions.

You can go ice skating outdoors behind the Marriott Grand.

South Lake Tahoe has alot of the chain restaurants that you's expect, Dennys, Applebees, Chevys. What kinds of food does your family like?

J_Correa

Since you will be driving, you will have the opportunity to pick up discount lift tickets at a grocery store along the way. For that drive, you will probably stop in a grocery store to get snacks and things anyway, so there you go. I think Safeway and Albertsons generally have them, same with Raleys and BelAir. You can check their websites to be sure.

oregonmom

I will look at those websites. I didn't look at every one. What will the weather likely be like in late March? Here in Oregon it will be raining as it does every spring break. Would the paddle wheel boat be running on the lake? Will roads be clear of snow, generally? (I understand that there could be a storm at any time.) I think we would enjoy driving all around the lake. And I liked the sound of Genoa if we could get there. We like to have good pizza and beer, italian food, hamburgers, etc. We usually picnic our lunches so that we can be free to move around. We will be coming from Sacramento on Highway 50. Anything to see along that route?

crefloors

I used to ski at Tahoe-Donner, up off Donner Pass Rd. in Truckee. It's been awhile but especially toward the end of the season they were the cheapest place around, very family oriented, and there was a run I really liked. It was called Mile Run and went around the back side of the mountain. I was never beyond intermediate and loved this run because it was long, it was not steep, but you could really get "cookin" if you wanted to. So, if the weather's good, you might check it out. Also, Truckee is a fun town to spend a little time in.

Michael

Unless you are committed to the housing on the south shore, you might want to consider staying in Truckee and driving to the various resorts. Homewood, Boreal, Donner Ski Ranch, Alpine Meadows are less expensive than Northstar and Squaw. You might want to consider getting a Snowbomb discount card (http://www.snowbomb.com), although you must keep in mind that for most resorts the Snowbomb voucher must be printed at least one day ahead of time, requiring access to a computer and printer.

Michael

I forgot to mention that the Snowbomb discount card allows the owner to purchase up to 3 or 4 guest tickets per day at the discount price.

curmudgeon

Weather is usually pretty nice in late March (but definitely a chance of storms with much snow and chains required or rain). Higher mountain hiking trails are typically still snowbound, but snow may be gone at lake level. I'm pretty sure at least one of the excursion boats on the lake runs year round. Main roads are normally clear (most probably take a day after a storm).

There should be some gold-rush era sites near hwy 50 on the way up from Sacramento (Coloma?). Sacramento has a great railroad museum and an interesting "Old Town" section as well.

oregonmom

Ok, thanks for the info. If we were to drive from S. Lake Tahoe city to Donner to ski, how long would that take? I looked at the websites for Donner and Soda Springs and they are both in our price range. One of them has a learner package for our 13 year old for $55 total with lesson and equipment and lift so that sounds great. The boat trip sounds fun if the weather cooperates and I believe the Tahoe Queen or whatever it's called runs all year if I read the website properly.

Suzie

The trip from South Lake Tahoe to Donner or Soda Springs on a nice day with no adverse weather should take about 1.5 hours. You have to drive to Tahoe City and then take 89 to Truckee and then head west on 80 or you can drive to Kings Beach take North Shore Road past Northstar to Truckee and then west on 80 to Norden.

Make sure you figure in the expensive cost of gas. You may be able to swing a closer resort if you consider all costs.