I had only been to Tahoe when I was a little kid (too early to remember) and we would go there a few times when we lived in the Bay Area. It's one we'd like to hit at some point because we can drive there within a reasonable amount of time. May be a bit before we can get there, though. Anything good in Reno?
Reno has a nice river walk downtown, that is really nice in the evening. Good restaurants along the way with patio dining and such.
Depending on when you go there are a lot of fun activities and events going on. Hot August Nights is a huge car show, they run a parade downtown, lots of activities at different venues. Live music, food vendors, and the cars are mostly classics. It is a lot of fun if you like that kind of thing and can go that time of year.
Every August, the streets of Virginia City, Reno/Sparks fill with classic cars. Check our event schedule for nightly cruises and much more!
hotaugustnights.net
Another one is the rib cookoff held by the Nugget casino. This involves a bunch of national rib and barbecue joints coming together as a competition, placed like Famous Dave's and Sweet Baby Rays, along with smaller groups and full-time traveling bbq competition teams. They all set up their food trucks and are open to the public to buy ribs and such. They have an area where you can purchase a "table" in like an octoberfest-style tent, which allows you and several guests to get a wrist band, and a reserved table of course, and be allowed to get ribs from all the vendors and alcohol and other drinks, a fun way to enjoy the venue and the event. Usually our work would purchase several tables for us to give to people to attend, in raffles and such. They used to have an amateur division and one year my friend and I came in 2nd in the amateur division. That was crazy, but fun.
Otherwise Reno is just a nice laid back town. The "strip" is nice to visit as it has a lot of the big casino action without the crushing crowds of Vegas. It has a bunch of nice museums, like the automobile museum, and a natural history museum. They are smaller, but with nice displays and a casual and relaxing atmosphere.
Also, lots of great sushi places. As far as I know Reno is one of the originations of AYCE sushi, as we had it there almost everywhere and when we went to other cities hardly saw AYCE at all in the early days. And they did it really well with a good dozen places offering very similar menus and great quality sushi. In fact I noticed after we moved back to Utah that many of the newer places in Utah were copying Reno menus and I know at least a couple of places were direct transplants of Reno restaurants. Have you ever been to a place with a "mountain" roll of some kind, or "upside-down shrimp", or a "Wayne's" or "Jason" hand-roll? Those were common in the Reno area a long time ago and we only slowly saw those kinds of menu items trickling into other cities, particularly the SLC area, after we moved. Sushi Ya in south salt lake (by the 215 I think), is directly a copy of one of our favorite placed in Reno called Aloha Sushi, I talked to the owner when we first went there and found out his dad had opened Aloha Sushi in Reno years before. That was kind of fun. Most of the Sushi Ya or Sushi Yah places in the area were opened by members of the family, and were all a little different, like there is one in Layton, where we usually go when visiting family in the Ogden/Layton area. Unfortunately Sushi Ya's quality has really dipped in recent years as I think ownership has changed, but the one in Orem, I think, is still the same group and good quality. Anyway I could go on and on about that.
I recommend a stop in Reno especially during the events they have going on, or just to spend a day hanging out if you are going to Tahoe.
