Truckee Travel Guide

This is where the locals go to catch up after a hard day living in paradise.
It's a sports bar & they have a ton of TVs with all the big games showing.
Frequent theme partys include "Mardi Gras" "Australia Day" "Waitangi Day" & Locals Night on Wednesdays with DJs spinning 9:30 - early hours.
Happy Hour Daily 3-6pm.
Live music & DJs on weekends & a "shot ski" to celebrate anything you like!

Dress Code: I don't think there is a dress code but if you show up in a tux people WILL stare.

Winter is very harsh up here, as the Donner Party found out. Better to visit during the summer. If you must go in winter, have snow chains for your tires.

In or opinion, the whole area of Truckee/Tahoe is now crowded, polluted and overdeveloped. The most amusing thing is to see a "Keep Tahoe Blue" bumpersticker on the back of a Hummer as it pulls into a mini-mansion crammed into a hill above Lake Tahoe.

We are locals and sadly, have watch incompetent planning based on "increasing the tax base" at all costs ruin yet another beautiful place. If you go the Tahoe area, just think of it as any other metropolitan area. Everyone drives fast there, you WILL get tailgated if you dare to slow down to look at the scenery (and probably by a $55,000 lurury car because apparently the beautiful people like to be stacked up on top of one another like rats), the parking is terrible and on this note, we were shocked by our recent experience in Old Town Truckee. Begrudingly, we agreed to meet some old friends from Reno for lunch in Old Town Truckee. Within ten minutes we had a $38 parking ticket. Be warned, you now have to pay to park in Old Town Truckee and it is not clear at all when you pull in that this is required. There are no meters, only parking machines. It it not posted it is required. The machines may be many stalls away from where you parked and they will nail you within minutes, even while you may be paying for your parking. This is what happened to us. First, we got out of our car and started to walk down the sidewalk. We were met by an angry person who was waving an orange envelope in his hand cussing. He had just gotten a parking ticket and was infuriated. Thanks to this guy, we learned we had to pay for parking. We then sought out a machine. We did not have quarters (it only takes quarters of course) so then we had to get change...you see the scam here? By the time we got back to our car, we had a $38 ticket. My friend was so infuriated, he demanded we leave but we had our friends to meet. Come to find out while we were there, the city is even charging ITS OWN MERCHANTS for parking to the tune of $155/ticket!! I'm sorry but this is hostile behavior for the sake of raking anyone and everyone over the coals for money. To charge even your own merchants?

Unique Suggestions: Our advice is to temper your expectations to realize, like everywhere else nice in America where developers rule, Truckee is overrated and you may want to avoid the Old Town area or take lots of quarters and know exactly where their new parking machines are located. It may be a race with the parking cops the second you pull in the spot. In our opinion, it isn't worth it. Go somewhere else.

Fun Alternatives: Check out the areas of Truckee that are not yet Tourist Traps. There are restaurants and shops in other areas of the town and (gasp) no charge for parking.

If you are a skier, then you have probably done the research on the Tahoe resorts to know what areas are of interest to you.

But if you have never gone skiing/snowboarding, or if you simply want to go sledding, then I recommend Northstar. It is just outside of Truckee, so it is the easiest to get to. It is also predominately an intermediate skill level mountain, so you can find a greater number of easy slopes that will not intimidate a beginner.

In the summer, the hills are also open to a range of mountain biking and hiking.

Other local resorts like Squaw, Alpine, Sugar Bowl, etc. cater more to advanced and expert skiers.

Equipment: All equipment is available for rent, but to save some money, bring it if you have it, or try renting from a more economical shop in town.