Winter Wonderland in California, Lake Tahoe

Pristine! That’s the only word that comes to my mind when I think of my visit to Lake Tahoe last Winter. White Snowy Christmas is all I’d ever imagine growing up, so spending our Christmas up North, was definitely a dream come true. Although, we only spent a couple of nights here, it set the perfect mood for the holidays to begin. So if you’re planning your holiday vacation and New York tickets are way too expensive, Tahoe is the way to go.

I was definitely not the the only one wishing for it since snowfall only happens in a very few places here in California. Tahoe has one of the most accessible Ski resorts and hence gets very crowded during the holiday season.

Even though we made last minute reservations, we were lucky to find a comfortable stay at the Alpenrose Inn. We spent a total of 2 nights and 2.5 days in and around Lake Tahoe. Apart from the well known tourist sites we even explored a resort that was closed for the season yet accessible, so we parked our cars, headed to the lake and sat there for hours.

One of the biggest tip if you’re planning to visit here during Christmas holiday is to plan ahead where you will be having your meal. A lot of restaurants are either closed or have very long wait times. We had our dinner on Day 1 at Azul Latin Kitchen, which had good food and undiluted margaritas (which is a plus). On Day 2, we grabbed late lunch at Beacon Bar & Grill while returning from Emerald Bay. A great spot for your afternoon caffeine kick is to so grab some Turkish coffee at the Artemis Lakefront Cafe.

A big shoutout to California Burger for letting us sit by the fireplace outside and allowing us to use their blankets even though we did not have a meal there. After a while we felt like we should probably order something out of courtesy for them being so generous, so we ordered a coffee, and guess what, they gave that to us on the house.

Here are some of the places and pictures for the Tahoe Must Do List:

Sunrise at Nevada Beach