• Lake Tahoe Reno Insiders' Guide
  • Insiders' Guide

Insiders’ Guide to Reno and Lake Tahoe, Fifth Edition

by Jeanne Lauf Walpole. The Globe Pequot Press, 2007; $18.95 

What makes this guide credible is that Walpole lived in the Reno/Lake Tahoe area for many years, so she provides not only a wealth of information on both summer and winter vacation activities for the region, but also a number of resources and detailed information at the residential level. You can find tips on where to ski as well as where to send your children to school, which festivals to hit when, and places to which you might consider relocating or even retiring.

You’ll get the skinny on where to go and stay to ensure you have fun with the kids in Tahoe, in both winter and summer months. There’s also information on the bustling city of Reno, Nev., just a short distance from the lake, where gambling is legal (as are some other things). Affectionately known as “The Biggest Little City in the World,” Reno is more than simply miles of slot machines. In addition, Walpole tells readers about another great Nevada city, Sparks.

Pros

This guide is easy to navigate and provides just enough information, but not too much to overwhelm you. Each of its sections touch on Reno, Sparks and the Lake Tahoe areas, so whether you’re looking for town history or parks, casino nightlife or shopping, you can find information on all three locales in each chapter. If you are looking for activities for the kids, flip to Kidstuff, where you can read about the Circus Circus Hotel and Casino in Reno, which offers a circus and carnival, “complete with clowns, trapeze artists and tightrope walkers.” Tahoe’s hotels and resorts also have a great reputation for being kid-friendly. A few even offer day camps for kids 3 years old (and toilet-trained) and up. Older kids can partake in parasailing over Lake Tahoe.

I also like the section on Casino Nightlife, where Walpole gives a brief lesson on the rules of several table games before showing you all the various places to lose, I mean, bet, your money.

There is an entire chapter devoted to winter sports with a nice call-out on winter safety that got me excited to play in the snow one last time before it all melts. Did you know that besides skiing (downhill or cross-country), snowboarding, ice skating and snowmobiling in Tahoe, you also can take a moonlit ride in a dogsled for $100 an hour? Mush!

Ever wanted to fulfill your city slicker dream of becoming a cowboy or cowgirl? Just head over to the Reno Rodeo Cattle Drive, where guests can spend five days driving a herd of 300 steers across 100 miles of Nevada desert to the Reno Livestock Events Center.

Up for something a bit quirkier? The International Camel Races sound intriguing if not entirely hilarious. Stemming from the introduction of camels into the West by the U.S. Army in 1856, this race is usually run on the weekend after Labor Day. It’s the most popular event in Virginia City, Nev.—and since 1962 it also includes ostrich races!

Cons

In some sections I was hoping for a few more details, rather than lists of phone numbers to call for more information, or a note to write to a specific place for more details—I thought that’s why I was reading the guide. On the flip side, I don’t really need to know where the Christian bookstores are in Sparks, Nev. And I think it would have been interesting to read more first-hand experiences from Walpole—why is one place recommended over another, or personal anecdotes—to give it a more personal feel, rather than just a listing of things to do and see.

Worth Buying?

Yes, but be aware that there is equally as much information on Nevada as there is on Tahoe. So if you’re looking for a book dedicated to one or the other, this guide may come up a little short. It’s a good guide to take with you, nonetheless, as it lists major hospitals as well as nanny and babysitting information for those evenings away from the kids. Overall, the guide is a thorough interpretation of what there is to do in the Reno/Lake Tahoe area.