Lake Tahoe
 

I'm going to Lake Tahoe. What's the best airport to fly into?

I don't know exactly how far it is from Lake Tahoe (can't be too far, I wouldn't think), but I will say that I just flew out of Sacramento's airport on a recent trip back from Grass Valley/Nevada City and found it very easy to find, well-marked, convenient, etc. Since it's the state capital it has pretty good service by many airlines.

What kind of plane? There's a small plane airport in South Lake Tahoe, and a private airplane airport right outside of Truckee. For bigger planes, there's an airport in Reno (depending on what side of the lake you are going to that's an hour, give or take) or the aforementioned Sacramento airport, which is about 2 1/2 hours away. The closest big, big airport is San Francisco, about 4 1/2 hours.

The closest major airport is Reno. If you choose not to rent a car there is shuttle bus service which will drop you off at the major hotels. I can't remember the cost, but I believe it is fairly reasonable.

Sacramento is at least a three-hour drive to Tahoe. Reno is less than an hour, and Southwest Airlines has a lot of flights there.

Flying into Reno is the only choice that makes any sense. Sacramento is too far away and SFO is even further. Most of the airlines fly inot Reno. The cheapest is Sothwest and Reno Air ( owned by AA ) if you can use them. The Lake tahoe airport is too small so your options are very limited.