My wife and I are trying to plan a long-needed, low-maintenance vacation and were considering taking the train to Lake Tahoe (from the Bay Area) the week after Christmas. Since I’ve neither taken the train on the West Coast nor visited Lake Tahoe since I was a little kid, I don’t know if there’s anything in particular I should know to expect or plan for. The Amtrak rates seem pretty reasonable; is there anything else I should consider in making this trip?
Can’t add much, but I’m curious about the actual timetable. I get the impression it’s fairly slow; probably twice as long as it would be to drive.
And does the train actually go to Tahoe? I imagine it would let you off in Truckee, or thereabouts.
But you don’t have to worry about driving in the snow – just sit back and enjoy the scenery. Sounds quite pleasant.
No trains go to Tahoe, so you better be ready to rent a car. Being stuck in Truckee (which isn’t Tahoe!) would be like getting a ball-peen hammer haircut.
Tahoe is a zoo during this holiday break. Every snot-nosed, bad atitude snowboarder punk is loitering around the ashtrays outside every doorway you would want to go into. Cover charges high/booze content low. Ski resorts will be crowded, but this is weather depedant also.
For peace and quiet, Incline area on the north shore is probably the best bet, but worst value. I wouldn’t even want to guess what a room up there would go for. Stay away from the Crystal Bay Club, too.
Good luck, have fun. Leave lots of money.
The Hyatt Resort hotel in Incline Village NV has rooms from about $250 to $400 per night, less perhaps if you can negotiate some sort of deal.
We stay there two weeks every year, one in the winter and one in the summer. But of course, we own a timeshare there.
It’s by far the nicest, most relaxing place on the lake, IMO. Relaxing if you want it, though the casino has a little bit of excitement on Friday and Saturday nights. The spa services are fantastic, and so is the Lone Eagle Lodge and Grill, across Lakeshore Drive, right on the water.
If you want inexpensive relaxation, I’d recommend Ceasar’s Tahoe on the Nevada side of the South Shore. It’s a bit dated, but the rooms are nice and it’s more affordable - about $100 per night. The round tiled tubs are big, 6’ diameter, and perfect for soaking and, er… getting frisky.
The rest of the lodging on the lake is almost exclusively devoted to skiiers, who need little more than a bed, a shower, and a place to park their skis when they’re not on the slopes. There may be some nice bed and breakfastses on the west side of the lake, which is kinda quiet, so some web research would be in order if that’s your thing.
South Lake Tahoe has a train station (according to Amtrak); I don’ t know what relation it has to the city as a whole, but it’s certainly preferable than driving all the way.
We’re not skiiers, and to be honest I don’t really know what there is to do in Tahoe, but it was Mrs. AG’s idea, so that’s what I’m following. If anyone can think of a preferable train destination at that time of year in our neck of the woods, that would be great, too.
Thanks! 
Caesar’s Tahoe has changed hands; it’s now the Montbleu
I love Lake Tahoe. It’s so damn purty. Sigh.
No trains to Tahoe! Sorry dude.
Take a train to Reno, get a special deal online before hand and have a ball.
If you take the train, bring your own food. You can and should take a cooler. Amtrak is great but the food is inedible. PBJ, canned meat, cheese, yohgurt. You will be the envy of your fellow passengers.
One thing you have to be careful about with Amtrak service and reading their schedules–some of their “stops” are served via motorcoach. That’s a bus to you and me.
That said, I took two longer train trips this year and absolutely loved it (riding the Zephyr, which is the train you seem to be looking at). We didn’t get to see the mountainous routes (never went further west than Denver) but that’s a future goal. I didn’t find the food inedible–granted their mashed potatoes were dreadful, and the steaks tough, but the roasted chicken was excellent. The snack car had a lot of variety if you didn’t want to use the dining car, although the food tends towards the convenience-store variety. Food can be expensive if you don’t go first-class (if you go first class it’s included in the price). I see that if you take the Zephyr to Reno you’d be getting the lunch menu both times, and probably not doing a sleeper car (although for privacy and peace you still might prefer to).
I’d stay away from Tahoe during the holidays. Sky-high prices for everything. And everyone who’se been saying it is right - Tahoe has no train stations. Sorry.
Reno, however, just put in some new train tracks and trenches. The prices there will be slightly cheaper than Tahoe, but not as pretty. If you WANT, there’s service from Reno to Tahoe (cabs, busses, limos, etc.) or you can catch the RTC INTERCITY bus from Reno to Carson City and get a cheap hotel here - Carson City is about a 20 minute drive to Tahoe. There’s places here that’ll drive you up there, too. We’ve even got a public transit system now.
Truckee tends to be kind of expensive during the holiday season, too, so I, personally, would stay away. Even the crummy, cheap, pay-by-the-hour type motels are going to be like $60, $70 a night during the holiday season.
~Tasha
Thanks everyone for the feedback (I’m assuming the “station” on Amtrak’s website is a coach connection). We’ll probably give it a try during the off-season, when we can drive and not compete with skiiers/holiday tourists/etc.
Anyway, it looks like we may have the opportunity to decorate a Rose Parade float this year, so our travels may be taking us a little farther south. We’ll see…
A few weeks ago, we took Amtrak’s Cardinal run from Indianapolis to Washington, D.C. and back in a roomette. We’d do it again. We took along a cooler fulla beer, water, bourbon, and mixers. We had a little boombox and a stack of CDs. We had some bagged snackfood. The ticket includes meals, and they weren’t bad; certainly better than anything I ever had on a plane. In the roomette, the seats make up into a bed, and the other bed slides down from the ceiling on tracks. I’m 6’4" and I could stretch out completely. There’s overhead storage for a couple of bags.
I could stand up and stretch anytime I wanted, and the toilet and sink was right there in the room. (A little strange, but roomier than on an airplane, and there’s never a line.) There’s full curtains on both sides of the room. The foldout table between the facing seats, when fully folded out, is surfaced in a checkerboard (bring your own chess pieces.) We got a NY Times to read each way.
Compared to flying? No security hassles, much roomier, somewhat better food. Compared to driving? Much more relaxed, roomier, no stops to pee or eat. No need for a motel stay halfway, either; you’re riding in your room. Sleepy? Just go to bed, and keep going.
One caution, though. Don’t expect the train to be on time. We left Indy 1 1/2 hour late, and we got to DC 2 1/2 hours late. On the way back, we started on time, and got to Indy about an hour late. The dining car cook/waiter/bartender told us of one lady who took the train to see her daughter in a Broadway play. She missed the whole show. You have to allow for that.
The stereotype says the train is grubby and smells of urine. It’s not true. Everything is clean, and it smells clean.
I love taking the train, having done a Houston–>New Orleans trip pre-Katrina as well as a NY–>DC–>Philadelphia run pre-9/11. I just haven’t done it in ages in CA, though I imagine, if not Tahoe, we’ll be doing something locally in the near future (hopefully).
If you don’t do Tahoe, why not come south to LA or San diego. Or even Santa Barbara. The Amtrak Coast Starlight stops in Oakland, and then comes south (from Seattle, I believe.) to LA. You can get many connections to San Diego via Amtrak or Metrorail. If you stop in Santa Barbara, well, I haven’t been there for a few years, but it’s a lovely romantic city. LA is, well “LA”. We live near Long Beach, and I haven’t been in downtown LA for years, but I’ve read that the revival has taken and it’s a great museum, arty type place. And San Diego I have always loved. They have great public transit and great just about everything else. Much better than those snowboarders at Tahoe, I think.