I was born and raised just outside the Rocky Mountains of Canada so my standards for natural beauty are pretty high. I was super excited to take a family road trip to Lake Tahoe this summer particularly since I spent most of my childhood summers by the lake but I wasn’t sure how impressed I would be with this renown mountain lake community. After spending six days at an AirBnb right in South Lake Tahoe a few weeks ago I can confidently report that this stunning, deep cerulean blue lake and everything around it deserves ALL the hype!
We got the idea of taking this trip when my cousin mentioned it to my husband at a family gathering early in the summer so I invited us along! We stayed in our own AirBnb but spent time with the group for boat rides, beach days and dinners. My pal blogger Tillie (@tillieadelson) lives in the Bay area so she popped over for a few days as its only a three hour drive from her home. The two of us spent one day circling the lake and searching for photo opportunities as bloggers do while my boys went hiking/fishing.
Sand Harbor, arguably the most beautiful beach in Tahoe, came highly recommended to me but on both days that I drove to the north shore the parking lot was at max capacity. On our way back to South Lake Tahoe around 3:00 in the afternoon Tillie and I noticed the parking lot had opened so we didn’t hesitate to take a quick detour in. I immediately texted my husband to come join us and it was without question the most glorious time we spent in Lake Tahoe. Aside from having a full bar right by the beach the landscape, scattered boulders in the water and the crystal clear water itself were everything one could want from a summer beach day.
The seven plus hour drive from LA excluded, Id say the biggest challenge vacationing in Tahoe would be beach accessibility. There aren’t many public beaches and a lot of the lake is surrounded by steep hills, woods and private homes. After driving around for a very long time we lucked out and grabbed a parking spot at Kings Beach on the north end of the lake. It was very crowded which during covid is extremely disconcerting. We did our best to steer clear of people and set up camp away from others.
Our AirBnb had that mountain cabin vibe (jacuzzi included) and was perfectly located in town where we could walk to get coffee and if we weren’t in the middle of a pandemic we could have also walked to the Nevada border to hit the casinos. We don’t often have a fourth person with us when travelling so it’s not easy getting family photos, I made sure to take advantage of having Tillie with us to get some snaps. I’m not usually one to want to match with others but I had this brilliant idea to get a family photo of all of us wearing the tie dye shirts we’ve been living in all summer, it will forever be a reminder to us of the summer of Covid.
My first time in Tahoe was definitely a wonderful experience but I learned a lot about how I will do things differently next time. We will definitely get a house right on the water to avoid dealing with wasting time parking and hauling beach gear around and we’ll most certainly spend more time sipping tropical drinks in Sand Harbor… late in the day of course which just happens to be my favorite time at the beach.
Hope you enjoyed reading about our little summer getaway, we miss traveling so much and it was so good for our souls!
xo ~Zia
Mid Century Modern Summer Getaway.
Balboa Bay: Newport Beach, CA.
Croatia Travel Guide
Such a fun trip — that day at Sand Harbor will always be my fav but the whole thing was perfect. Next year: we can do bigger and better!
Yes! Sand Harbor all day next time! xo ~Zia