Why the Truckee Area Is Better

(… Than Tahoe City for Ski Cabins)

For years I used to rent in Tahoe City but it's really foolish to rent there. Granted, Tahoe City is definitely where the action is (if you can call it action) but it's better to live in the Truckee area (Tahoe-Donner, Sierra Meadows, etc.) and party in Tahoe City than to live and party in Tahoe City-- even for single guys. You save a lot more time by staying in the Truckee Area and driving to Tahoe City when you want to party. Let's look at a typical weekend to see why...

1) On Friday night Tahoe City is pretty dead. VERY FEW Bay Area girls party in Tahoe City on Friday nights. It's usually just a bunch of weekend-warrior-phobic local girls so usually you don't want to party in Tahoe City on Friday night. But if you live there, you still have to drive an extra 22 minutes past Truckee to get to your cabin in Tahoe City. If the weather is bad it can take an extra hour. No lie.

2) On Saturday and Sunday mornings when you drive to Squaw or Alpine Meadows on 2-lane 89N from Tahoe City, the traffic is terrible because you have to make a left turn into Alpine Meadows or Squaw Valley, and the road gets all backed up at both places.  However, from the Truckee area there is never a traffic jam so it's basically 20 minutes to get to Squaw no matter what time you leave.

3) On Saturday after skiing (at Squaw or Alpine) the traffic is stop 'n' crawl on 89S to Tahoe City for several hours after the last chair. It's difficult to drink long enough at the ski resort to wait-out that traffic, but if you do, you'll have had too many beers to actually go out and party that night in Tahoe City anyway. (I'm not joking. It's absolutely true. Terry and I can personally attest.) The traffic is particularly bad from Squaw because you have to wait for the Alpine Meadows traffic too.  On a crowded weekend it takes about 45-60 minutes to get into Tahoe City from Squaw but it only takes about 20 minutes to get back to the Truckee area from Squaw or Alpine.

4) On Sunday you can't drop your stuff off at your cabin in Tahoe City, so you always end up hauling it back and forth to The Bay Area. Consequently you waste a lot of time on Sunday morning trying to pack up all of your street clothes into the car along with your ski gear.  When you leave the ski resort parking lot on Sunday, you again waste time stuffing all of your wet ski gear into the vehicle with your dry street clothes, etc. And when you leave from The Bay Area the next weekend, it takes longer to pack up the carpool with the street clothes, skis, poles, and street gear. I know that may sound trivial but I noticed a BIG difference the first year that I rented in The Truckee area. Altogether, I'll bet it's at least 30 extra minutes of packing if you carpool and stay in Tahoe City. Besides, if you drop-off your gear in the Truckee area, you won't accidentally leave your gloves, goggles, or boots behind in The Bay Area for some weekend as Terry always used to do.

5) On Sunday since you can't really stop at your cabin in Tahoe City, you end up driving back to The Bay Area during the post-ski rush hour. In addition to endangering your life, it probably costs you another 30-45 minutes on the road.

6) At night when you go from the Truckee area to Tahoe City to party, it only takes about 22 minutes because there's no traffic at night.

So if you add up all the time differences above, you'll find that even in the best case (for Tahoe City living) the Truckee area saves you time...

If you party on Friday AND Saturday night in Tahoe City, living in the Truckee area will probably save you save about 45-60 minutes of road time.

If you only party on Saturday night in Tahoe City, living in the Truckee area will probably save you about 1.5 hours of road time.

And if you don't go out on either night (because you drank to much at Squaw's Plaza Bar after skiing), living in the Truckee area will probably save you about 2 hours of road time.

Now that we stay in the Truckee area, I don't think that we party any less in Tahoe City than we used to when we stayed in Tahoe City. But overall we save a lot of time and hassle by staying in The Truckee area.

There is one caveat... If you and your friends regularly go out at night and drink so much that nobody can legally drive home, then you should get a place in Tahoe City.

 

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